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National Broadcasting Company (NBC) | |
---|---|
Type | Former broadcast radio network; Broadcast television network |
Country | United States |
Availablity | Availability |
Founded by | David Sarnoff |
Slogan | More Colorful |
Owner | NBC Universal |
Key People | Jeff Zucker, CEO; Steve Capus, President, NBC News Dick Ebersol, Chairman, NBC Sports |
Launch Date (Television) | July 1, 1941 |
Former names | NBC Red Network |
Picture format | 480i (SD), 720p/1080i (HD) |
The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices in Burbank, California. It is sometimes referred to as the Peacock Network due to its stylized peacock logo, created originally for color broadcasts.
Formed in 1926 by the Radio Corporation of America (RCA), NBC was the first major broadcast network in the United States. In 1986, control of NBC passed to General Electric (GE), with GE's $6.4 billion purchase of RCA. GE had previously owned RCA and NBC until 1930, when it had been forced to sell the company as a result of antitrust charges. After the acquisition, the chief executive of NBC was Bob Wright, until he retired, giving his job to Jeff Zucker. The network is currently part of the media company NBC Universal, a unit of General Electric, which, on 1 December 2009, purchased the remaining 20% stake of NBC Universal which it did not already own from Vivendi. On 3 December 2009, Comcast announced it will purchase a 51% stake of NBC Universal.
NBC is available in an estimated 112 million households, 98.6% of those with televisions. NBC has 10 owned-and-operated stations and nearly 200 affiliates in the United States and its territories.
Broadcasting Medium
Ratings and Reception
Medium premiered January 3th, 2005 and received 16.13 million viewers and a 6.3 rating in the 18-49 demo against CSI: Miami's 18.17 million and 6.6 rating. Medium was a consistent performer throughout its first season and landed in the Nielsen Top 20 with an average of 13.9 million viewers. The series remained in its original time slot for the second season when the network announced its Fall 2005 schedule. Throughout the season, the series experienced a decline in viewership, pulling an average of 11 million viewers. Medium was renewed for a third season in April 2006, but was missing from NBC's Fall 2006 schedule. The series was slated to return in early 2007; however, in October it was announced that production would resume immediately for a third season start-up on November 15, 2006, replacing the time slot vacated by Kidnapped. Its move to the Wednesday time slot opposite CBS' CSI: NY and ABC's Lost lead to some ratings erosion, in comparison to the ratings success of the first two seasons, with year-end ratings for the third season dipping into single-digit millions of viewers. Despite the ratings decline on Wednesdays, the series was seen by the network as a reliable self-starter, building on its then lead-in Crossing Jordan. The ratings decline put the series on the bubble for renewal, but the series showed signs of life when NBC requested six additional scripts in April 2007.
Renewal for a fourth season of Medium was announced on May 7, 2007, with an undetermined premiere date and number of episodes. It was the seventh series to be renewed by the network, behind solid performers Heroes and Law & Order: SVU. One week later, the network announced that Medium would move to the Sunday 9 p.m. time slot upon its return in January 2008. News on the series' return did not come until December 2007 when NBC announced that the fourth season would begin in January in its original Monday 10 p.m. time slot, despite the WGA Strike of 2007, which forced the show to cease production, allowing for only nine segments/episodes to be filmed. Scheduling returning mid-season shows in timeslots where they were previously successful was a pattern for NBC during the strike: Law & Order returned to Wednesdays at 10 and The Apprentice was back on Thursdays at 9:00 p.m.
With the ratings improvement Medium demonstrated in its fourth season after returning to Mondays, it was one of the first series to be renewed in an early announcement in April 2008 from NBC regarding its 2008-09 season. Similar to the previous season, Medium was initially scheduled to move to the Sunday night line-up; however, a December 2008 press release revealed that the fifth season would air in the series' original Monday night 10 p.m. time slot.
After some ratings erosion during its fifth season, NBC renewed Medium for an abridged sixth season in early May 2009. However, within a week negotiations stalled over episode count and subsequently NBC decided not to renew the series despite the fact that it outperforms some of the network's renewed shows. Within 24 hours of NBC's cancellation, CBS, whose production arm produces the series, renewed the show for a full, 22-episode, sixth season, placing it in the Friday at 9:00 p.m. slot between fellow CBS in-house productions Ghost Whisperer and Numb3rs. CBS first aired this series with a rerun episode on July 21, 2009. The sixth season premiered on Friday, September 25, 2009 at 9pm.
External Links
- NBC @ Wikipedia.org
- Medium @ Wikipedia.org
- Official NBC Website for Medium - via web-archive.org