NBC may cut hours of TV programming

Amid gloomy forecasts for continued deterioration of the advertising markets, NBC Universal Chief Executive Jeff Zucker said Monday that the network was looking at scaling back the number of hours of television that it provided.

“Can we continue to program 22 hours of prime-time? Three of our competitors don’t. Can we afford to program seven nights a week?” Zucker said at a media conference in New York sponsored by investment banking firm UBS.

“All of these questions have to be on the table,” Zucker said. “We are actively looking at all of those questions.”

NBC, CBS, ABC and the Spanish-language Univision network each provide 22 hours a week of programming in prime-time. Fox Broadcasting and CW program 15 hours a week in prime-time, and Fox’s secondary service, My Network TV, offers 12 hours.

Zucker’s comments came as NBC Universal continued the shake-up of its creative ranks in Los Angeles, part of a companywide plan to cut $500 million from its 2009 budget. Several veteran program executives were laid off Monday.

As expected, NBC announced that it was combining its two programming groups -- one at the network and the other at its television production studio -- into a single unit. The network also confirmed that it was bringing back Angela Bromstad to serve as president of programming. For the last year, the former NBC television studio president has managed a production unit for the company in London.

“We are trying to right-size and realign our organization,” NBC Entertainment Co-Chairman Marc Graboff told reporters in a conference call. “We are eliminating layers of bureaucracy.”

Asked to reflect on NBC’s 14% ratings slide this fall, NBC Entertainment Co-Chairman Ben Silverman said: “Obviously, it’s not the results that we’re satisfied with. But I would also add is that we need to be patient.”

Silverman declined to discuss negotiations to renew his contract, saying only: “I’m so focused on my job. I’m clearly doing my job every single day.”

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meg.james@latimes.com