NBCUniversal Shakeup Shuffles NBC and Peacock Leadership

In January, NBCUniversal shuffled its leadership as it began working on its upcoming streaming service, which has now been named Peacock. Today, the company is shaking things up again with changes to the execs overseeing its TV studios, NBC and Peacock. NBCUniversal said it is consolidating its TV studios, Universal Television and Universal Content Productions. Bonnie Hammer will oversee them as chairwoman of NBCUniversal Content Studios, a new position that has her reporting directly to NBCUniversal CEO Steve Burke. Given that Hammer had earlier been tapped to run Peacock, those duties will now go to Comcast’s Matt Strauss, who has named chairman of Peacock. He will also oversee the Digital Enterprises group. As part of these exec moves, George Cheeks, who has been co-chairman of NBC Entertainment alongside George Telegdy, will shift to vice chairman of NBCUniversal Content Studios, reporting to Hammer. That leaves Telegdy as the sole chairman of NBC Entertainment, though Cheeks will continue to oversee NBC’s late-night programming in his new role. “Bonnie’s great taste, deep Hollywood relationships, and strong track record of generating popular and award-winning programming make her ideally suited to oversee this new division,” said Burke in statement. "With our studios being a main pipeline for Peacock’s original content, she will continue to be integral to the future success of our streaming business." Burke said of Strauss, “I worked with Matt for many years at Comcast Cable, and know firsthand that he is one of the most talented leaders in our company. He has great experience with video, digital technology and streaming and is the right person for the role at this juncture.” In January, Hammer had been promoted to chairman, direct-to-consumer and digital enterprises for NBCUniversal, as the company officially announced its OTT offering. Hammer had previously been chairman of NBCUniversal Cable Entertainment and Cable Studios; those duties were assumed by then-NBC Broadcasting and Sports chairman Mark Lazarus, who was named chairman, NBCUniversal Broadcast, Cable, Sports and News. Lazarus will continue in that same role with today’s reorganization. Strauss had served as executive vice president of Xfinity Services for Comcast Cable, heading up the company’s video, internet, home and voice businesses. One year ago, Telegdy and Cheeks were tapped to succeed Robert Greenblatt as NBC Entertainment chairmen. The duo had elected not to divvy up the workload, with Cheeks telling Adweek, “Our view is that the headwinds in this business, and the fact that we’re also managing the growth of the studio while we’re trying to manage the NBC Entertainment platform, is a lot. And so having two brains against it made a lot of sense to our bosses, and to us as well.” Telegdy and Cheeks led NBC to a third consecutive season win in the 18-49 demo. With Cheeks leaving for NBCUniversal Content Studios, NBC will once again have one person overseeing its Entertainment division.