Comcast’s NBC broadcasting unit saw retransmission consent revenue climb 63.5% in the second quarter, but that haul could get even larger as new deals come up on the horizon, NBCUniversal CEO Steve Burke told analysts Wednesday.
According to Comcast, NBC increased its retransmission consent revenue – a combination of both retrans and reverse compensation from affiliates – in the second quarter by 63.5%. Burke, on a conference call to discuss parent Comcast’s Q2 results, said despite some significant growth over the past five years, NBC still lags the other major broadcasters on retrans fees. But that may not last long.
“We still have some major contracts where retrans is going to take significant step-ups and we’re still hundreds of millions of dollars less than some of the other comparable peers,” Burke said. “We think we deserve the same amount for retransmission consent – we have the Olympics, we have the NFL, we have the No. 1 network in the demo. I think over time that will be a number that continues to grow nicely.”
For the full story go to Multichannel.com.
