Comcast vice chairman and chief financial officer Michael Angelakis said retransmission consent revenue at its NBC broadcast stations is expected to rise five-fold this year, with exponential growth in the segment anticipated for the foreseeable future.
Angelakis, speaking at the Bank of America Merrill Lynch Global Telecom & Media conference in London this morning, said NBC retrans revenue was just under $40 million in 2012. He said that should leap to more than $200 million this year. And with 75% of its retransmission consent deals coming up in the next four years, Angelakis said there is an opportunity to continue to grow that segment “exponentially.”
Angelakis also was optimistic about affiliate fee growth at its cable channels, adding that carriage renewals for the cable networks usually coincide with retrans negotiations.
While Angelakis was high on NBC’s broadcast potential, he admittedly ducked a question on his outlook for services like Aereo, which distributes over the air broadcast channels to subscribers over the Internet. NBC is among the content companies that have sued Aereo, claiming the technology violates their copyrights.
Angelakis declined to comment on Aereo, but said Comcast believes it is “on the right side” of the litigation. Other broadcasters have said they would move their broadcast networks to cable if Aereo prevails. Angelakis again sidestepped the question because of ongoing litigation, but said in general, “great content gets monetized well.”
