It’s been a busy week at GE’s NBC Universal. Not only did Hulu.com, the popular video web venture of NBCU and Fox add a major new partner — Walt Disney Company and its ABC network — but Lauren Zalaznick was added to a very select group. The President of NBCU’s Women & Lifestyle Entertainment Networks, which includes Bravo and Oxygen, is on the “Time 100″ list of the world’s most influential people. At No. 29 under Time’s heading of “Builders & Titans” — Lauren is one notch ahead of the powerful U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner. Not too shabby.

The name game: NBCU’s Lauren Zalaznick is in good company on Time magazine’s list with heavy hitters from Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton to Brad Pitt and the guys who created Twitter.

Martha Stewart writes the profile of Lauren in the magazine, saying: “When you’re building a brand, you have to know exactly what that brand stands for… Her programs are filled with creative, talented and real people. Her shows, and those on them, don’t make any apologies for being themselves. Lauren, 46, has transformed that network so that you can now recognize a Bravo show at a distance. To do that kind of work in a very crowded field takes more than a producer — it takes a visionary.”

* Read Martha’s write-up in Time
* Read The New York Times‘ story about the deal with hulu.com, which just became the third most popular video site on the Web.

And, as long as we’re looking at lists, a tip of the hat was given to GE with its ranking on Forbes magazine’s annual list of “America’s Most Reputable Companies.” GE came in at No. 17. That’s behind PepsiCo, Google and Johnson & Johnson but ahead of Apple, Coca-Cola and IBM.

* See the full rankings
* Read the Forbes story
* Learn more about GE’s cable entertainment business

GE’s NBC Universal continues to turn heads for its ability to successfully grow its cable franchises. The Associated Press playfully writes: “These may not be the best of times for the United States, but they’re great for USA.” The story notes that USA Network averaged more than 3.2 million prime-time viewers during the first three months of 2009, “more than any other cable network in history and even more than the fifth broadcast network, the CW, according to Nielsen Media Research. The more important number is $1 billion. Those are the profits USA and its cable sister, SciFi, contributed to NBC Universal’s bottom line last year.” > More

The ability of GE’s NBC Universal to buttress the bottom line — despite the economic downturn — continues to draw attention. In its story about why “television matters to GE,” The New York Times cites a dramatic reversal among some critics, who last year argued the unit should be spun off but now see it as “a key contributor of cash.” As the story notes, NBCU’s profits are outperforming its peers “and in the broader media universe, NBC Universal appears to be in a stronger position to weather the recession than many of its competitors, owing to its growing cable networks, the most durable corner of big media.” > More

Characters welcome. That’s USA Network’s brand slogan and motto. Now the NBC Universal network is showing how brand positioning can reach into communities and drive viewership — while at the same time becoming something more.
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The news teams at GE’s NBC Universal division have another reason to cheer. Its “Nightly News” broadcast has finished first for 20 consecutive weeks and its other news programs are surging, but as Bill Carter writes in The New York Times, “NBC is also winning one more competition – perhaps the biggest one – just as convincingly: Its news division is making a pile of money, while its competitors are making much less, or none at all.” Adds Carter: “The scales are tipped in NBC’s favor, mainly because of assets neither of its rivals possess: moneymaking, information-based channels.”
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