Report: NBC Broadcast Will Take Years to Turn Around

Comcast Corp., the U.S. cable company that took control of NBC Universal in January, will likely have to spend “a number of years” turning around the unit’s broadcast business, said Comcast Executive Vice President Stephen Burke.

According to a story by Alex Sherman at bloomberg.com, Comcast will try to boost ratings and revenue for NBC, which has lost ground against rivals such as CBS Corp. and News Corp. Fox. Comcast said yesterday that broadcast television revenue fell to $1.35 billion in the first quarter from $2.08 billion a year earlier, when results included the Olympics.

“We are under-performing relative to the other three of the big four dramatically, hundreds of millions of dollars worse that the other three,” said Burke, who is also chief executive officer of NBC Universal, in a conference call Thursday.

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