Jeff Zucker, broadcast television's most infamous prophet of business doom, is turning optimistic about the industry -- just five days before he leaves it.
``I feel better about broadcasting today than I have in a long time,'' Zucker -- who leaves his post as president and chief executive officer of NBC Universal on Friday -- told an audience at the National Association of Television Program Executives convention that kicked off Monday in North Miami.
Zucker, who grew up in Miami Beach during the 1980s before leaving first for Harvard and then a 24-year career at NBC, has warned repeatedly that new digital technology is siphoning off broadcast television's audience and eroding its advertising revenue. He coined the catchphrase ``digital dimes for analog dollars'' to describe the industry's declining revenues, and even predicted a few years ago that declining income would soon force broadcast networks to abandon their affiliate stations and ship their programs to viewers directly via the Internet.
But he said Monday that changes in broadcast TV's business model over the past six years have brought an infusion of healing cash. Read my full story in Tuesday's Miami Herald.
Comments