NBC universal to test pull between corporate, content.

Now that NBC and Universal Entertainment have arrived at the big dance, the question is who gets to lead.

There has always been a creative tension between New York's business focus and L.A.'s concentration on content, but in acquiring Vivendi Universal's film, television and theme park assets, NBC has added a line with a decidedly West Coast tilt.

Even as the newly christened NBC Universal has finished rearranging its management puzzle parts, there is still the expectation that it will take time for the operational dynamics to take shape.

In looking to the past, though, some said the pull exerted by each side would result in both moving toward the center.

Despite their headquarters' proximity to Wall Street, said Barbara Rubin, an entertainment attorney who once worked for USA Networks and deals with NBC, "the media companies are influenced by the creative types. They have to court the creative talent. They're looking for the guy who's going to come up with the next 'ER' or 'Friends.' That means they've got to be a little bit loosey goosey."

Still, the financial types behind $137 billion parent company General Electric Co. are going to be swayed only so much by star power, and the steps taken in the ran-up to last week's closing seem to show how serious they are about the bottom line.

There are four entities within the new NBC Universal structure: the broadcast network, the various cable networks--including Bravo, CNBC, MSNBC, Sci-Fi, Telemundo and USA--Universal Pictures and Universal Studio Theme Parks.

Earlier this month, NBC promoted Jeff Zucker to head "all television programming for the new company--a position that will bring him back to New York, where he had broken in as executive producer of its top-rated "Today" program.

Zucker, installed as the head of NBC Entertainment in Burbank in 2000, has shown a keen sense for programming with wide commercial appeal. When he moved to Burbank, ABC's "Who Wants to Be A Millionaire" was topping the ratings, while NBC, having a solid primetime lineup, lagged in the reality genre.

Since then, Zucker has brought sister network Bravo's "Queer Eye for the Straight Guy" to NBC and added "Fear Factor." NBC Entertainment also had consistently high ratings and posted its most profitable years--an appeal to cost-conscious GE types.

"The truth is you don't get to be a network executive if you're not sensitive to corporate imperatives," said a former senior executive at NBC in Burbank.

Kevin Reilly, who joined NBC last year from the FX cable channel to take Zucker's place, could also have his hands full.

Last week, NBC Universal Chief Executive Bob Wright said he was looking for $500 million in cost savings in the new entity, which would result in approximately 500 layoffs from its combined 16,000 employees. There was no discussion of where the layoffs would occur.

Differing styles

NBC is no stranger to culture shock.

When GE acquired the network in 1985, the broadcasting executives had to deal with its parent's close attention to costs and operations that forced a penny-pinching attitude into the network.

In the years following the acquisition, GE slowly installed its team to run NBC. Among them was Wright, who once headed General Electric Financial Services Inc.

It was not an easy marriage. The Wall Street Journal reported as late as 1997 that then-GE Chairman and Chief Executive Jack Welch told a meeting of NBC executives that the network was rooted in the past and that if they resisted change they would be sent home.

"With the rest of General Electric, you can seemingly plug in the right people and be successful," said Tony Boase, an analyst with A.G. Edwards & Sons Inc. "GE certainly made changes to NBC. In the news division, they shut down bureaus. In sports they didn't pay an exorbitant amount for football."

GE has had noteworthy success with NBC, including a decade-long run in which shows like "Seinfeld," "Friends" and "Fraiser" routinely topped the ratings. How the new regime approaches programming now that those three shows are off the air will bring the differing approaches of its East and West coast operations into sharper focus.

Calls to several producers developing shows for the network were not returned, and others said it was too early to say what life would be like under the combined NBC Universal.

"We know no matter what you expect, the outcome is something you don't expect," said Steve Wyman, co-executive producer for the "Days of Our Lives" soap opera. "So we're expecting the unexpected."

"Days," which has run for almost 40 years, is produced by Corday Productions Inc. and filmed at NBC studios in Burbank.

"From our standpoint, we're mostly interested in making sure NBC promotes our show well so that we retain the value of what's been created," said Wyman. "Jeff Zucker was on board with that idea and I would expect his successor to be as well."

Despite the inherent differences between the operations on the East and West coasts, NBC Universal executives were insistent that there wouldn't be any culture clashes.

Hillary Smith, a network spokeswoman, pointed to a survey NBC commissioned to gauge the differences between the two organizations. "We got back results that showed how similar we are," she said.

Universal officials, too, were quick to point out the similarities, including a desire to control costs. "Frankly, there's a lot of goodwill between us," said Sue Fleishman, a spokeswoman for Universal. "There is a very good feeling right now."

Even so, before the merger closed, Universal insiders said there was a feeling of being tired and territorial about their turf.

"There's going to be a lot of streamlining that never happened before," said Arnold Peter, an entertainment attorney with Lord Bissell & Brook LLP in LA. Peter noted that in its earlier incarnation as a unit of French water company Vivendi, Universal executives pretty much ran themselves.