In a memo on the two-year anniversary of Comcast acquiring a controlling stake of NBC Universal, NBCU president Steve Burke highlights a milestone year for the 10 NBC-owned stations.
Burke’s memo identifies four areas of the company that had particularly “noteworthy achievements” over the last year: primetime, sports, the owned stations and Universal Parks. Of the owned stations, Burke writes:
This is another business that some said should be left to decline. Instead, we invested in our stations and under the leadership of Valari Staab and her team, our stations group has undergone a significant turnaround in ratings and financial performance.
Advertisement… These businesses deserve to be called out because they all had great years. Interestingly, not many people would have picked NBC Prime, NBC Sports, Owned Stations and Parks as big near-term growth opportunities. The important lesson is that we have the ability to transform even mature businesses if we invest and manage them intelligently.
TVNewser has Burke’s full memo.