美国国家广播公司麻烦缠身

    影片《超级战舰》（Battleship ）遭遇票房滑铁卢，很大程度上映射了康卡斯特（Comcast）旗下美国国家广播环球公司（NBC Universal，简称NBC环球）所面临的困境。当然，NBC环球这艘媒体超级战舰目前并不会沉没。但它确实腹背受敌，四面楚歌。

    《超级战舰》这部基于愚蠢假设的电影并非NBC环球近年来唯一的败笔。《五年之约》（The Five-Year Engagement）的票房也乏善可陈。不过，《超级战舰》却带来了巨额亏损——据电影资讯网站Box Office Mojo称，该影片的全球票房仅为2.99亿美元，在美国国内票房仅为6,312万美元，但其制作成本却高达2.09亿美元。（电影制作方大约能获得一半的票房收入。）

    当然，NBC环球也有一些好消息：《老雷斯的故事》（Dr. Seuss' The Lorax）表现出色，《藏身之所》（Safe House）也有不俗的成绩。六月初，康卡斯特首席执行官布莱恩•罗伯茨表示，他非常看好将于几周后上映的《白雪公主与猎人》（Snow White and the Huntsman）一片。罗伯茨的期望没有落空；《白雪公主与猎人》果然不负众望。

    但罗伯茨发表上述言论时，他正在告诉与会投资者，他预计NBC环球今年上半年的业绩将会下滑。该公司的新闻部门以及USA Network都麻烦缠身——NBC娱乐也是如此，罗伯茨称后者将“需要数年”才会出现起色。

    NBC环球的新闻部门仍然处于领先地位，但与竞争对手的差距正在缩小。《会见新闻界》（Meet the Press）以及《晚间新闻》（Nightly News）的收视率正在下降。最糟糕的是，《今日秀》（Today）的收视率16年来首次输给了《早安美国》（Good Morning America）。《纽约时报》（New York Times）的电视记者布赖恩•斯泰尔特公开表示，新闻部门“似乎正随波逐流”，而且“比过去几年都更脆弱”。前NBC新闻主管比尔•惠特利曾向斯泰尔特称：“电视新闻网境况不佳。”

    当然，这些痛苦都是相对的。NBC新闻仍是电视网的领头羊，即使《今日秀》的情况显得有些混乱，而且显然其节目主播安•克莉即将被撤职。（NBC新闻笨拙的公关于事无补。）NBC新闻声称，在25岁至54岁的人群中，该节目的收视率依然坚挺，而且仍然在大肆吸金——据报道，该节目每年收入约2亿美元——足够补贴新闻部门的其他节目。

    同时，USA Network的收视率在第二季度下跌了10％，因为其重播节目以及美国职业摔角赛（此外还有一些原创系列节目）都输给了NBA总决赛。这种情况每年都会发生，但今年的情况比往年更糟糕。尽管如此，该电视网已经连续6年蝉联基本频道黄金时段收视冠军，而且其节目也不是会突然被大批观众抛弃的那种。

    NBC环球在战略上受阻是因为该公司将大笔资金都用来收购通用电气（General Electric）所持有的NBC环球40%的股份。这一过程将在五年左右的时间内完成，在此之前，NBC环球将不会进行任何大型收购。同时，根据与通用电气达成的协议，康卡斯特公司可保留自最初销售时起资产价值升值总额部分的50％，所以该公司很有动力继续投资于自身拥有的资产。不过，没人想到这些投资会被拿来拍摄一部根据上世纪70年代棋盘游戏改编的电影。

    译者：项航

    There are almost too many ways to cast the box-office bomb Battleship as a metaphor for the plight of Comcast-controlled NBC Universal (CMCSA). Nobody's about to sink the media giant, of course. But it is taking heavy fire -- port, starboard, fore and aft.

    The movie with the silly premise isn't the only recent failure at the movie studio. The Five-Year Engagement also showed feeble box office. Battleship, though, is a huge loser -- taking in just $299 million worldwide and a paltry $63.12 million domestically, according toBox Office Mojo. It cost some $209 million to make. (About half of ticket receipts go to studios.)

    There has been some good news at Universal Studios: Dr. Seuss' The Lorax did well, as did Safe House. At the beginning of June, Comcast CEO Brian Roberts said he was hopeful about the prospects for Snow White and the Huntsman, which opened a couple of weeks later. His hope was well-placed; the movie has also performed.

    But he was saying so while telling investors at a conference that he expects a down first halffor NBCU. There is trouble in the news division and at USA Network -- as well as at NBC Entertainment, which Roberts said will "take years" to turn around.

    The news division is still on top of the game, but the distance between it and its rivals is narrowing. Ratings are down for Meet the Press, Nightly News, and, worst of all, the Today show, which recently lost to Good Morning America for the first time in 16 years. The division "appears adrift" and is "more vulnerable than it has been in years," declared Brian Stelter, the New York Times TV reporter. Former NBC News chief Bill Wheatley told Stelter that "the network is in bad shape."

    Of course, these travails are relative. NBC News is still the network leader even though things appear chaotic at Today with the apparently imminent ouster of host Ann Curry. (NBC News' PR bungling hasn't helped.) The network asserts that ratings are solid with the 25-to-54 demographic, and the show still brings in so much money -- reportedly about $200 million a year in earnings -- that it effectively subsidizes the rest of the division.

    Meanwhile, USA Network saw its ratings decline by 10% in the second quarter as its schedule of reruns and WWE wrestling (along with some original series) lost out to the NBA finals. That happens every year, but it was worse this year than usual. Still, the network has been No. 1 in primetime basic cable for six years, and its programming isn't the kind that viewers suddenly turn away from en masse.

    NBCU is strategically stymied in that most of the money it throws off is going to pay off General Electric (GE) for the 40% of the company still held by that company. That process will be complete in five years or so, but until then, NBCU won't be making any big acquisitions. At the same time, the deal with GE allows Comcast to keep 50% of all appreciation in asset values from the time of the initial sale, so the company has a big incentive to keep investing in the assets it has. Just don't look for any of those investments to include making a movie out of a board game from the '70s.