NBC WORKERS GET THE AX NETWORK CUTS NEARLY 50 ENTERTAINMENT JOBS.

Byline: Jesse Hiestand Staff Writer

BURBANK - Carrying out previously announced cost-cutting, NBC laid off nearly 50 people in its entertainment divisions Thursday but said no further reductions in its work force are anticipated.

The network Thursday also cut 19 jobs at is financial cable channel CNBC and an additional 26 jobs at online partner, CNBC.com.

While the entertainment division cuts represented about 8 percent of the 600 people that worked in the network's entertainment, studio and syndication units, most of those affected worked on the West Coast, mainly in Burbank, officials said.

An undisclosed number of unfilled jobs were also eliminated.

Few of the reductions involved production staff at NBC Studios, which makes such shows as ``Will & Grace,'' or employees that develop and schedule the programs at NBC Entertainment, said National Broadcasting Company Inc. spokeswoman Rebecca Marks.

``The viewer will not see any difference on the air,'' Marks said. ``They're never going to make a decision that is going to impact the quality of the shows.''

Most of those affected worked in on-air promotion, marketing, publicity and finance at NBC Entertainment, reflecting the network's plan to trim 5 percent to 10 percent of its work force to off set declining advertising revenue brought on by a weaker economy. Plans for these reductions were announced in mid-January.

``If they're cutting promotional staff part of what that might mean is they're going to slow down on the number of in-house promotions for their own shows,'' said television industry analyst Derek Baine of Paul Kagen & Associates in Carmel, Calif.

That would save costs internally and let the network try to squeeze additional revenue out of the freed-up air time, he said.

At the same time, NBC cannot afford to cut too deeply into its production business.

``They've got to maintain their hit shows so they can stop losing viewers to cable,'' which would further erode advertising dollars, Baine said.

A few of the layoffs were at NBC Studios, which produces shows and movies of the week for the network, owned by General Electric Co.

Some jobs were also trimmed at NBC Enterprises, the syndication arm of the network.

Other divisions of NBC have already been hit, including the news division of its owned-and-operated station in Los Angeles, KNBC (Channel 4).

In the past two weeks, two reporters, an anchor and a helicopter pilot-reporter have been either let go or told their contract will not be renewed. Several editing and other staff jobs have also been cut at the station.