Zucker bags Oxygen to save iVillage, Beth Comstock's rep

NBC Universal CEO Jeff Zucker grabbed that channel your wife, mother and closeted brother sits in front of the television to watch every chance they get. The company will reportedly drop over $900 million for Oxygen a cable net geared towards female couch potatoes. This is an attempt to give iVillage.com a friend to play with and hopefully build together. Now the big question mark on Zucker's shiny forehead is at the end of the question, Now What? How will Zucker and company entangle both iVillage and Oxygen. The Zuck shares his vision. NBC envisions Oxygen, along with the Bravo and iVillage properties, delivering a range of options to advertisers to reach the demographic of young women and affluent women, NBC Universal Chief Executive Jeff Zucker said on a conference call. Zucker also said the media company would consider taking a look at further acquisitions of cable networks, which now account for about 50 percent of the NBC Universal's profits. "As we've said all along, cable is the real driver of this company," he said. "It's something we will always take a look at and always be interested in. There is nothing specific at this point, but we're always be opportunistic about other cable networks." Oxygen was founded by Geraldine Laybourne, who will remain CEO through the end of the year, along with talk show host Oprah Winfrey. NBC Universal to buy Oxygen Media [Reuters]

After paying $600 Million for it, might as well make some money from it

NBC Universal will launch a TV show based on it's very expensive iVillage.com women's portal. And why not, they have to make back at least some of the $600 Million they paid for it right. For that amount of cash they could have snapped up myspace. And the Zuck weighs in: "This is a real interactive, online and on-the-air television program that we are not going to judge by its ratings," NBC Universal Television Chief Executive Jeff Zucker told the Credit Suisse media and telecom conference in New York. He did not elaborate on the program's format. NBC Universal says to launch iVillage TV show [Reuters]