Immelt: “Content is king”
May 24th, 2007 by Allen Voivod
Two things I don’t normally do: Run two miles in the morning, and watch CNBC’s Squawk Box. And yet I did both this past Monday morning, and got rewarded with an interview with Jeff Immelt, Chairman and CEO of General Electric, the largest corporation in the world.
I guess he’s made some comments recently that made people think he might sell NBC Universal, a subsidiary of GE. And he put those concerns to rest with an insight I just had to share. (This is a rough transcript from multiple playbacks.)
I think NBC Universal is still well-positioned strategically…the challenge we’ve had the last couple of years wasn’t our strategy, it’s that our shows weren’t good enough, and our movies weren’t good enough.
We’re well on track to turning that around. Our cable properties are great, we’ve got a great film lineup for the rest of this year. We’ve got a very strong content positioning…our digital revenues will go from four or five hundred last year to 700 (presumably million) this year.
I’ve invested in this business, and I think we’re turning the corner. Our operating profit will be up about 20% in the 2nd quarter if you discount the impact of the station sale last year. I think NBC Universal’s got a lot of tailwind right now.
We’re still going to transfer assets online, I think digital is still one of the growth prospects of the future. But the one thing I’m completely convinced about in the digital age is that content is king. Content is everything. That’s only moving more to our strengths as time goes on.
We’ve got the goods that can take us in any direction we want to go in NBC Universal, so I feel great about the operations. And the other thing I would tell you is, [NBC Universal] gets more valuable every day. Because of everything going on, being a big content guy just makes us more valuable every day.
Now, whether it’s blogging, articles, press releases, special reports, teleclasses, podcasts, or any of a hundred other content vehicles, here’s the point. If the CEO of the biggest company in the world says content is king - a guy who earns $500,000 every minute - that’s a piece of advice you can take to the bank.
And as the “Content Lovers,” this makes us very, very happy indeed.
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[...] And a few months ago, I referenced Jeff Immelt (CEO of NBC’s parent company, GE) claiming “Content is king.” Apparently, Studio 60 wasn’t great content. Don’t tell that to Lani, though, for whom Studio 60 was some of the best content on television in her generational memory. [...]
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