Earnings: NBC Ends Its Relationship With GE On A Positive Note

NBC Universal

With the merger between Comcast (NSDQ: CMCSA) and NBC Universal (NYSE: GE) scheduled to close next Friday, now the the FCC approvals have been agreed upon, the network is ending its relationship with the appliance conglomerate with some of the best numbers its had in quite some time.

As the advertising recovery continued to its momentum, NBCU’s Q4 revenue grew 12 percent to $4.8 billion, while profits were $830 million for a 38 percent gain. However, for the year, NBCU still didn’t have much to cheer about as profits were essentially flat at $2.26 billion, largely due to costs related to the Winter Olympics. At the same time, though, full-year revenues were up a healthy 9 percent to $16.9 billion.

Aside from the mostly strong performance at NBCU — mostly from cable, as usual, but even broadcast was much stronger — GE also realized some unexpected tax benefits in Q4 as a result of the delay of the FCC’s approval of the Comcast deal.

Breaking out the revenue within NBCU, cable revenues were up 15 percent revenue, while broadcast grew 11 percent, said Keith Sherin, GE’s CFO.

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