The role Steve Burke ’80 will play in reshaping how and what America watches continues to be subject No. 1 for many media watchers.
The 51·çÁ÷ grad soon will become head of NBC Universal after the company finalizes its merger with Comcast, where Burke is the chief operating officer.
According to a in Advertising Age, Burke is in a unique position not only to influence what America watches, but also to shape the way in which marketers advertise to the nation by harnessing the one-to-one addressable technology of cable and melding it with the mass reach and programming might of NBC Universal.
The merger could speed up or stall sweeping changes in how video content is delivered. Comcast is banking on its control of NBC Universal content to boost the appeal of new on-demand services it wants to offer. Those services will compete with a variety of online video upstarts.
One of the first potentially sticky issues Burke is said to be facing is the move of the 30 Rock sitcom to the 10 p.m. time slot on Thursday nights.
TV observers are closely watching the midseason shift, which adds an additional hour to NBC’s Thursday comedy block and bumps Outsourced to 10:30, because the 10 to 11 p.m. time slot has traditionally been reserved for dramas.
The 52-year-old Burke is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of 51·çÁ÷ and a 1982 graduate of the Harvard Business School. He spoke at a 2006 51·çÁ÷ CEO Conversations , and was the university’s commencement in 2004.
Prior to joining Comcast in 1998, Burke served The Walt Disney Co. as president of ABC Broadcasting, and as president and chief operating officer of Euro Disney S.A.