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NBC News Looking to Buy Stake in EuroNews


rkolsen

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This kind of slid by us given all the election hoopla. But NBC has confirmed that they are in talks for a strategic partnership with EuroNews. But it is expected that they will buy a minority share of what was built to be the "Europes CNN" anywhere between 15-30%. This will continue their growth into the European market.

 

EuroNews is a rolling news channel that has has a single channel offering 13 audio tracks in different languages.

 

http://variety.com/2016/tv/global/nbc-news-euronews-talks-strategic-partnership-1201915855/

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I'm a big fan of Euronews. It would be cool to see it more readily distributed in the US. NBC/Comcast certainly has those resources, but how much appetite is there for Euronews in the US? I suppose it's not out of the question.

 

I'm guessing this is mostly about expanding coverage for each network in the other's territory — NBC would mean Euronews could cover the US with more than just tape from Reuters, and Euronews would give NBC a vast amount of international video to use on NBC and MSNBC. Maybe NBC also sees an opportunity to make Euronews feel a little less wooden and academic. NBC, for lack of a better word, knows how to make news more telegenic and suitable for in-vision anchors and reporters. That expertise could be of use to Euronews.

 

Also, yes, Euronews is #1 if you add up viewership in each language. But separately in each market, Euronews is not highly watched.

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I'm a big fan of Euronews. It would be cool to see it more readily distributed in the US. NBC/Comcast certainly has those resources, but how much appetite is there for Euronews in the US? I suppose it's not out of the question.

 

NBCU also has a lot of networks they would love to kill (and have said as such) but would love throw something else onto; Oxygen and Cloo would seem to be golden targets for this to take over. Anything better than CNBC World (very low carriage overall), which went from OK in the digital cable age to an albatross now when you can get financial information anytime, and which only features reality glurge during waking hours (and die-hards can get the actual feed of each network for $30/month, so no loss).

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NBC/Comcast certainly has those resources, but how much appetite is there for Euronews in the US? I suppose it's not out of the question.

 

Unfortunately, I don't think there is much appetite. While I would love to see it - I don't see many operators spring to carry it.

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Unfortunately, I don't think there is much appetite. While I would love to see it - I don't see many operators spring to carry it.

 

I agree. I'd be surprised. If Euronews is so poorly watched in Europe, what would make them think it would do any better here? NBC already has a low-rated cable news channel of its own to worry about.

 

I think this is more about supplementing and expanding resources rather than trying to introduce Euronews into the US.

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NBCU also has a lot of networks they would love to kill (and have said as such) but would love throw something else onto; Oxygen and Cloo would seem to be golden targets for this to take over. Anything better than CNBC World (very low carriage overall), which went from OK in the digital cable age to an albatross now when you can get financial information anytime, and which only features reality glurge during waking hours (and die-hards can get the actual feed of each network for $30/month, so no loss).

 

That deal for Oxygen might well be the worst they ever agreed to. Less than a decade after they plunked down almost a billion dollars for it, they have admitted it's a millstone for them.

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It seems there is a tad bit of confusion. If Euronews decides to complete this and let NBC Universal buy about 15-30% that means corporate (NBC Universal) will give them rights to NBC Universal and be distributed through the Euronews channels as well as rebranding some of its stations and/or creating separate NBC Stations in Europe. In other words, its just an expansion to work with Euronews kind of like NBC Boston and NECN.

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  • 2 months later...
I'm curious as to what this means when she calls it EuroNews NBC. Are they opening O&O's in europe, making all or even some euronews local affiliates NBC, or are they just helping each other out with news content?

 

Chances are EuroNews NBC is just the name of the company like when NBC and Universal came together.

 

No to the O&O, EuroNews local affiliates are seperate companies. And likely NBC did buy a stake in the company to boost their European news coverage.

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  • 3 months later...
"EuronewsNBC" sounds a bit...clunky. "NBC Euronews" rolls off the tongue a bit better, I think.

 

I wonder if "ENBC" will be the shorthand version.

 

I agree. They should have left the name alone yet adopt the peacock as a logo (kinda like what Comcast did)

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Cross posting this from TVForum, since I figured it would be of interest here.

 

Here's an article from the Hollywood Reporter about it. Essentially, the NBC deal has finally closed, paving the way for integration between the two. NBC execs talk in here about how, for instance, Euronews correspondents will appear on MSNBC during breaking news coverage and vice versa.

 

And here's an article from L'Express with more detail in French. To summarize: Euronews is in the midst of the "Next" strategy, which includes the opening of more bureaux and correspondents in European capitals, the creation of morning and late evening newscasts, more in-vision presenters, more talk/debate shows, more emphasis on digital, some staff shakeup, and closure of the Ukrainian service. The article also talks about how part of the holdup on the deal was that NBC had to guarantee EU suits in Brussels that they would not "Americanize" the channel. NBC still does not have final editorial control over Euronews. That remains with Euronews, and headquarters will stay in Lyon. The closure of the deal also means that the European state broadcasters' stake in Euronews has been reduced from 47% to 15%, with Egyptian businessman Naguib Sawiris owning 60%, and NBC the remaining 25%.

 

As for the logo, I can't figure out when or how it will be implemented, but it will probably be on everything by the end of the year.

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The article also talks about how part of the holdup on the deal was that NBC had to guarantee EU suits in Brussels that they would not "Americanize" the channel.

 

...and they call us a bunch of racist.

 

God forbid anything becomes "Americanized" after we saved their asses during WW2...and continue to this day bailing out all of "them".

Double standard.

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...and they call us a bunch of racist.

 

God forbid anything becomes "Americanized" after we saved their asses during WW2...and continue to this day bailing out all of "them".

Double standard.

 

Oh, I wouldn't quite go that far. I think they just wanted some assurances that Euronews' plans to expand "local" (i.e. national) coverage would continue, or at the very least, remain as is. They want it to stay a European network for European viewers, not an American or pan-cosmopolitan-globalist-view-from-nowhere one that broadcasts to Americans in European hotel rooms like CNNI.

 

And it's not really a double standard. The NBC-Vivendi deal had to go through FTC approval too. Even today, if some obscure European, Russian, or Chinese network tried to buy a stake in CNN/Time Warner or started buying up station groups, I think plenty of people would be concerned.

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  • 4 months later...

I haven't paid too much attention to Euronews recently, but two stories they're running today (Harvey Weinstein and the California fires) are the same exact ones that were available for NBC affiliates to use. No reporter standups, but they still include the reporters' "NBC News" tag outs. There's also now a lot of really random European content appearing in NBC's wire service, including anything and everything from an absurd amount of video on the Catalunya referendum to snow in Bulgaria.

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I haven't paid too much attention to Euronews recently, but two stories they're running today (Harvey Weinstein and the California fires) are the same exact ones that were available for NBC affiliates to use. No reporter standups, but they still include the reporters' "NBC News" tag outs. There's also now a lot of really random European content appearing in NBC's wire service, including anything and everything from an absurd amount of video on the Catalunya referendum to snow in Bulgaria.

That's probably just 'Left Field' in action.

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