NBC Universal’s earnings performance in Q2 was described as “good” by parent General Electric (NYSE: GE) this morning, as the expected sale to Comcast (NSDQ: CMCSA) inches closer. The broadcaster’s profit’s were up 13 percent, while revenues gained 5 percent, a sign that the recovery in ad spending began to take hold in the first half of the year. Still, the numbers were most likely driven by continued strength on the cable end of the business and a slight improvement on the broadcast side. In any case, what a difference a year makes: in Q209, NBCU’s profits plunged 41 percent as revenues dropped 8 percent. As usual, NBCU was just a footnote in a wider list of holdings for GE, so we’ll have more to come after the earnings call later this morning.
Cable revenue for NBCU $1.2 billion was up 7 percent from Q209, while segment profit was up 10 percent. The main drivers were entertainment channels USA, Bravo and Oxygen, while CNBC had a decent quarter with profit up 9 percent.
Even broadcast was relatively good, noted Keith Sherin, GE’s CFO, during the call. That segment’s revenues were $1.4 billion, a little better than flat from last year as broadcast’s profit was up 6 percent. As predicted, broadcast, after having been depressed for so long, has benefited from the ad recovery. For example, the scatter market was up over 20 percent, while local stations continued their hot streak, gaining 25 percent after Q1’s 15 percent growth.
One of the big highlights for NBCU during Q2 was the upfront. In total, NBCU was up about 18 percent in dollars booked for the fall schedule. About half of that was from higher sellout and about half of that was better pricing, Sherin said. And despite all the negative press around the return of Jay Leno to the 11:35 slot, from which Conan O’Brien was tossed from, The Tonight Show maintained a 23 percent margin over the alternatives in the demo, Sherin said — in other words, things are back to normal, which means that the show is doing decent ratings.
Later on, during the Q&A, GE head Jeff Immelt was asked about the pending sale of NBCU to Comcast. Earlier, Immelt had mentioned that he expected the company to end the year with $25 billion in cash. So did that mean that the process for the sale was on target?
“I’d hate to predict exactly when it

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