The management picture at NBC was further defined last week with the promotion of Randy Falco to NBC Television Network Group president.
While NBC Entertainment President Jeff Zucker drives programming across NBC’s growing number of broadcast and non-news cable platforms, Mr. Falco will drive the sales and distribution in an equally integrated fashion.
Mr. Falco, 49, an unassuming and steady executive who has moved quietly up the ranks since joining NBC in 1975, was named NBC Television Network president in July 1998. He had been expected to assume additional responsibilities after the exit of former NBC President and Chief Operating Officer Andy Lack, who reports to Sony as head of its troubled music division today.
When the departure of Mr. Lack was announced two weeks ago, Mr. Zucker, who already had assumed oversight of programming on newly acquired Bravo, added responsibility for programming on Telemundo, the Spanish-language cable and broadcast empire that had occupied most of Mr. Lack’s attention after it was acquired in April 2002.
“Telemundo has so much upside it’s frightening,” Mr. Falco said after his promotion was announced. With Hispanics now the largest-and still fastest-growing-ethnic population in the country, Mr. Falco expects Telemundo’s audience share to continue to grow. “For us, it’s a great strategy to try to reach an unduplicated audience that has such an incredible growth factor,” Mr. Falco said.
He said that while he still has much to learn about Bravo, “I do know that the brand is very close to the NBC brand, so there is a good fit there.”
He will continue to oversee sales and marketing, broadcast standards, research, network operations and affiliate relations, while adding responsibility for corporate business development, cable distribution and strategy, production operations, information technology and the company’s quality initiative. He will continue to report to NBC Chairman and CEO Bob Wright, who described Mr. Falco as “a top-notch executive with an excellent track record.”
That track record includes having served as COO for NBC’s coverage of the 2002 Winter Olympic Games in Salt Lake City, the 2000 Summer Olympic Games in Sydney, Australia, the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta and the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona. Those broadcasts earned him six Emmy Awards.
He was named president of NBC’s Broadcast and Network Operations division in February 1993, a role that included oversight of the design and creation of the “Today” show’s “Window on the World” studio, MSNBC’s state-of-the-art broadcast facilities in Secaucus, N.J., and the digital conversion of the NBC Television Network.
From June 1986 until September 1991, he served as VP of finance and administration of NBC Sports. Before that, he held several managerial positions in finance, technical operations and corporate strategic planning.