NBCUniversal Restructuring: Nod To Vertical Integration Past Or Sign Of The Future?

deadline.com:

The television business has a habit of repeating itself. Five years after NBC Entertainment and Universal Television were separated in a realignment that combined all NBCUniversal TV production divisions into Universal Studio Group, the broadcast network and studio are back together — along with the rest of USG — under one creative executive, USG chairman Pearlena Igbokwe, who will now also oversee Peacock scripted.

The restructuring by NBCUniversal Entertainment & Studios chairman Donna Langley, which includes Frances Berwick running Bravo and Peacock unscripted, with Lisa Katz expected to continue overseeing NBC and Peacock scripted under Igbokwe, feels like vertical integration 2.0 in the era of streaming.

It is a throwback to times over the past two and a half decades when ABC and ABC Studios, NBC and Universal TV, CBS and then-Paramount Network TV and Fox and 20th Television were run by the same executive — or pair of executives as was the case of Dana Walden and Gary Newman overseeing Fox and 20th TV.

Observers are generally not surprised by the move. “Vertical integration makes a lot of financial sense, and these are tough financial times,” one industry source said, adding, “I think it’s a way to get rid of expensive bodies and to create a unified vision for a corporation.” The person cautioned that “everybody’s made that mistake where they don’t have a church and state kind of setup, and you end up making decisions that you wouldn’t normally make if you had somebody watching out for the studio bottom line or for the interest of the network.” Another veteran executive agrees. “By having a studio team and a network team, you have two sides trying to come to the best answer in terms of budgets, in terms of how