Universal Helps NBC Keep Its Balance

摘要

If NBC were to mark the one-year anniversary of the takeover of Vivendi Universal with a TV movie, picking a title capturing the importance of the deal would be easy: Just in Time. NBC completed the $14 billion deal on May 11, 2004. Just four days earlier, the network aired the final episode of its biggest show, Friends. Two days later, NBC wrapped up another long-running anchor of its prime time schedule, Frasier. The loss of those shows helped trigger NBC's dramatic slide this season. Surrendering the command of Thursday night, which it had held for two decades, helped knock NBC from the top spot in adults 18-49, where it had been for four years, all the way to fourth place.