Beth Comstock heads back to GE while NBC Universal still struggles to get its digital footing

BY SDH Ask many inside NBC Universal to rate Beth Comstock, currently the President of integrated media and they will probably rate her between 1 and 5. Since taking on the roll as head of NBC Universal's digital media offerings Comstock has had some duds, with the iVillage acquisition at the top of the list. Since convincing NBC Universal brass to cut a check for $600 million to take over iVillage.com, NBC Universal still has nothing significant to show for it. Many are still waiting to see how it will serve as the foundation for NBC Universal's digital strategy. Comstock seems to have only one successful project under her belt and that’s the recently launched Hulu.com a joint venture with News Corp's Fox Interactive, but it is a little premature to refer to the project as a success. Now Comstock is being called back to parent company General Electric to take on the same roll she had before going to NBC Universal but with a bigger spin. At GE she will oversee marketing and digital media. Regardless of what Comstock's doubters may think, she is in GE CEO Jeffrey Immelt’s protective custody which means she can do no wrong. Is this Immelt’s way of allowing NBC Universal’s little big man Jeff Zucker to bring in a new chief of digital who actually carry’s the digital media DNA?