Days after NBCUniversal successfully won U.S. television rights to the Olympics until 2020, top company executives are holed up in Santa Barbara for the first strategy-planning retreat under the new Comcast ownership, according to sources.
At the three-day sojourn are more than a dozen senior executives, including CEO Steve Burke, CFO Lynn Calpeter, NBC Broadcasting chairman Ted Harbert, Universal Studios COO Ron Meyer, international chairman Jeff Shell, NBC entertainment chairman Robert Greenblatt, cable entertainment/cable studios chairman Bonnie Hammer, entertainment, digital and integrated media chairman Lauren Zalaznick, distribution executive vp Matt Bond, NBC News president Steve Capus, CNBC president Mark Hoffman, executive vp Patricia Fili-Krushel, general counsel Richard Cotton, NBC Sports president Mark Lazarus and corporate affairs executive vp Adam Miller.
Sources say that topics of discussion include the successful cross-promotion of Universal Pictures animation-live-action hybrid Hop and NBC’s The Voice, as well as the recent acquisition of the rest of Universal theme parks from Blackstone.
And of course, the company’s $4.38 billion four-Olympic package is cause for many high fives.
Since Comcast acquired a majority interest in NBCU in January, several top executives—including Jeff Zucker, Jeff Gaspin, sports head Dick Ebersol and digital leader J.B. Perrette—have left the company. But NBCU also has brought in several new execs, including Greeblatt from Showtime.
NBC declined to comment on the retreat but an insider describes the mood as “very upbeat,” adding that “the feeling is we are off to a good start.”
Georg Szalai contributed to this report.
Email: Marisa.Guthrie@thr.com
