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Jeff Zucker said he's getting close to deciding on whether NBC Universal (GE) will continue its upfront show this year, put together to dazzle their advertising partners and affliates.

Talking to Reuters, Zucker said, "When people say the upfront, there are two things: One is the dog-and-pony show at Radio City and the second is the way we sell the inventory.
 
"The way that we sell the inventory in an upfront selling period is not going to change. Whether we still need to do the dog-and-pony show is completely under review here and you can look for an announcement on that from us very soon."

The bottom line of what that means is rather than introducing their new shows and schedule to everyone at once, they'll get down to one-on-one negotiations with marketers.

Contrary to some reports, NBC Universal has done very well so far this year, with their network garnering a ratings increase for every night of the first 10 nights of 2008. The so-called Writers Strike effect hasn't had any impact on them.

"NBC's prime-time performance has been far better than it was - we've run out of some of the lowly rated scripted programming and we've replaced it with much more highly rated unscripted programming," Zucker said.

All the networks have taken up similar strategies, as they're offering up more live sporting events, reality TV, game shows and specials. Writers Strike or not, this would have been the direction the networks had to take, as it fits to their specific strengths in the changing market. It's also helpful because they're far less expensive to produce.

Under Zucker's leadership, NBC Universal has improved, as they've ended the last year with an operating profit of $3.5 billion, an increase of 6 percent. For the last quarter the company posted a 10 percent increase in operating profit, on an eight percent increase in revenue. Most of that was related to their fairly strong cable performance, something Zucker says people forget about as a strength with the company. He reminded us that the cable division accounts for over 50 percent of the company.

Going ahead, Zucker said he wants another 10 percent increase in operating profit for the company in 2008. When considering they're hosting the Olympics and the added political advertising revenue, that could be quite attainable, and a feather in Zucker's cap. Of course it also puts pressure on him to perform, having such a big arsenal to work with.

The one uncertainty remains the economy, which no one really knows which way it will go yet. Zucker say so far he hasn't seen any advertising slowdown yet, although they're watching it closely.

Not having heard too many General Electric shareholders pressing to divest of NBC Universal lately, it seems they're playing a wait and see game until the Olympics are over. Once that happens, we'll see if the clamor begins again, or they are content with NBC Universal's performance.