NBC - NBC'S EARNING DROP 41 PERCENT

NBC'S EARNING DROP 41 PERCENT

Blaming "very slow" upfront sales, GE's chief financial officer told investors that its NBC Universal unit had seen earnings plummet 41 percent to $39 million on an 8 percent drop in revenue to $3.57 billion. CFO Keith Sherin said that the slow upfront sales would require the network to "retain more inventory" than usual to sell in the so-called scatter market, the time closer to actual air dates. Numerous reports have indicated that virtually all the networks were selling little ad inventory -- in some cases virtually none at all -- during the time of year when most of them do the largest share of their business. Shares of GE were down 5.12 percent in afternoon trading.

17/07/2009