NBC Digital Sales to Surge 40% to $1 Bil

By Daisy Whitney

NBC is on track to generate about $1 billion in topline digital revenue this year, up 40% from last year, said George Kliavkoff, NBC Universal’s chief digital officer, during a keynote presentation at the Ad:Tech conference in San Francisco this morning.

“The rate of growth is accelerating year over year,” he said. “And the better news is the operating profit is accelerating this year at 50%.”

That money primarily comes from ads on various online sites, as well as some revenue from theme parks and ticket sales, he said.

Mr. Kliavkoff also said NBC’s Internet ad sales are pacing ahead of the industry.

He cited efforts made by Hulu, the NBC-Fox online video joint venture, to test new ad strategies. For instance, Hulu often will let users choose to watch either five 15-second commercials throughout a show on Hulu or to watch one movie trailer before the show. He added that Hulu is investing in targeting ad technology.

He declined to discuss any ongoing conversations NBC is having with Apple’s iTunes to get its TV shows back on the iTunes service, but did say NBC talks to Apple because NBCU has a film distribution deal with iTunes.

“We’d love to be on iTunes. It’s a great customer experience. We’d love to figure out a way to get [our TV shows] on iTunes,” he said

NBC pulled its content from iTunes earlier this year in a pricing dispute.

Mr. Kliavkoff also said the amount of pirated content on YouTube has significantly declined in the last several months.

(Editor: Baumann)