Cost-Cutting at NBC: Studio Tours Axed

As part of a new cost-cutting plan, NBC is eliminating tours of its studios in Burbank, which the network has been conducting for much of the past 50 years.

Walk-in tours of the facility already had been suspended last month because of security concerns related to the war with Iraq. Prearranged group tours, which serve tens of thousands of people each year, will be eliminated as of April 1.

The network also announced that it will phase out its page program in Burbank, eliminating the jobs of 24 pages and five supervisors. Pages serve as ushers for programs such as “The Tonight Show” that are taped before a studio audience.

Beginning April 1, the ushering duties will be assumed by a pool of temporary employees.

The layoffs were announced only days after NBC reported a $37-million loss in advertising revenue since the war erupted one month ago. The weak economy, the accompanying decline in tourism in Los Angeles and the costs of covering the war also contributed to the cutbacks, said Betty Hudson, NBC’s senior vice president for corporate communications.

“The page program has operated at a loss historically,” Hudson said, “and in better times it was the kind of loss we could offset and absorb.”

The page program has traditionally been used by young people as an entry into the television business, and Hudson said that the network would look to reinstate it and the studio tour if and when business improves.