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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.”

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.”

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.

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.”

John Krenicki, the head of GE’s energy infrastructure unit, said at a Reuters roundtable yesterday that the next U.S. energy bill needs to give the federal government the power to build more transmission lines if the country is going to realize the benefits of wind and solar energy. “How are we going to get renewable power from the mountain states to the West coast, or to the center of the country?” John said. “We have to do in the electricity sector what was done in the gas pipeline sector to really realize the potential.” Read Reuter’s story on the transmission challenge.