NBC

Robert C. Wright,
President and Chief
Executive Officer,
National Broadcasting Company, Inc.

In entertainment, each day segment experienced double-digit profit increases, led by prime time. NBC captured every prime-time ratings "sweeps" and was the only broadcast network to show ratings growth in 1995. Two first-year series, "The Single Guy" and "Caroline in the City," joined "Friends," "ER" and "Seinfeld" as regular top 10 shows. "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno," an Emmy Award winner, overtook its time-slot competition and ended the year as the late-night talk leader. NBC also expanded program ownership, and we now have an investment position in an increasing percentage of our prime-time schedule.

NBC News had record profits in 1995. "Today" established itself as the most popular morning program, and "Dateline NBC" continued to show ratings growth. NBC and Microsoft announced that they would create two related joint ventures: a 24-hour news and information cable channel and a comprehensive interactive on-line news service. These ventures will form a cornerstone of NBC's aggressive cable and multimedia strategies.

NBC Sports strengthened its already historically unmatched programming lineup. In the 1995-96 television season, NBC Sports will present the World Series, the Super Bowl, the NBA Finals and the Summer Olympic Games in Atlanta. In 1995, we also secured U.S. television rights to five of the next six Olympics. Our $4 billion partnership with the Olympic movement is the largest commitment of broadcast rights ever.

NBC Stations registered record profits and revenues, led by WNBC in New York and impressive performances throughout the division. During 1995, we announced the purchase of Outlet Communications Inc., which owns three stations in the top 50 U.S. markets. In addition, NBC and CBS exchanged the assets of NBC's KCNC in Denver and CBS's WCAU in Philadelphia, as well as towers and station signals in Miami. The deal included the sale to CBS of NBC's KUTV in Salt Lake City.

CNBC reached record ratings and doubled its profits in 1995. Globally, NBC launched CNBC Asia, the first 24-hour business news channel broadcast live from three continents. NBC Asia, a general entertainment channel, will be launched during 1996. In Europe, NBC Super Channel, seen in 69 million homes, will be joined in 1996 by CNBC Europe, a 24-hour business news service.

We continued to move aggressively into interactive media, launching NBC Digital Publishing, which began to publish CD-ROMs and other digital products, and NBC Online Ventures, which established news, sports and entertainment sites on the World Wide Web (http://www.nbc.com) and on the Microsoft Network. They joined NBC's existing multimedia businesses: NBC Data Network and NBC Desktop Video.

NBC's excellent programming and economic success in traditional broadcasting will continue to anchor our strategy as we go forward. Capitalizing on our expertise in the creation, promotion and distribution of entertainment, news and sports programming, we will aggressively expand our ownership in programming and increase our program distribution both globally and across multiple platforms.