NBC exec: LV key to demographic research

Thursday, Oct. 30, 2003 | 11:12 a.m.

NBC Chief Executive Bob Wright deadpanned that his television network isn't contemplating a move to Las Vegas, regardless of the attractive recruitment sales pitch he got from the Nevada Development Authority.

But he was quite serious when he said Las Vegas plays a key role in what entertainment the viewing public sees on the network, since Las Vegas -- actually, the tourists it attracts -- has taken over as the community that most closely mirrors the American demographic.

Wright, the keynote speaker for Wednesday's annual luncheon of the NDA, noted that the MRCGroup Research Institute, a Las Vegas-based polling company, has set up a preview studio at the Grand Canal Shoppes at The Venetian hotel-casino that gauges audience reaction to TV shows.

NBC has contracted with MRCGroup to provide viewer survey information on television programming. The data compiled by MRCGroup is relayed to NBC's New York and Burbank, Calif., offices in real time, dramatically decreasing traditional reporting time using telephone surveys and focus groups.

Thanks to the diverse audience of tourists the city attracts, Wright said Las Vegas has unseated Columbus, Ohio, as the most typical American city and Jim Medick, chief executive of MRCGroup, said it's no surprise why that is: tourists represent a true cross-section of America.

"Columbus was always the prototype of the perfect test site, but since the economic slowdown, Las Vegas provides data that more closely identifies how people are thinking," Medick said.

He said between 200 and 250 people a day are recruited to watch television pilots and movie trailers and react by answering prompts on a touch-screen computer monitor. The compiled reaction helps NBC and affiliate networks CNBC, MSNBC and Bravo make programming decisions, he said.

Medick said NBC was the pilot tenant in the Canal Shoppes center, but other companies have learned that polls show Las Vegas tourists typify the American attitude.

In addition to the mall-based studio, MRCGroup conducts other polling, including monitoring political campaigns and community issues.

Wright said MRCGroup has turned into a diversification success story, with the company growing from three employees in 1996 to 300 today.

NBC is not the only broadcast company that has found Las Vegas and its tourists to be the heart of pop culture research.

CBS opened "Television City" at the MGM Grand hotel-casino in 2001 and used similar technology to conduct research for the development of advertising campaigns for CBS and other networks operated by its parent company, Viacom, including MTV, VH1, Nickelodeon, UPN, King World, Paramount Television, Showtime, TNN and CMT.

Wright, chairman and chief executive of NBC and vice chairman and executive officer of NBC parent General Electric Co., also offered views ranging from his business success formula to his enthusiasm for the new network drama, "Las Vegas."

He summarized his success formula this way:

Always know your company's strategic priorities.

Be patient, but be flexible enough to make a move when an opportunity presents itself.

Get in business with people who have a track record of success.

Don't pursue deals that aren't fair to both sides of the deal.

Signing an agreement is just a starting point. The real work begins after the deal is done.

Wright's business philosophy and NBC have been in the media spotlight in recent weeks because GE and Paris-based Vivendi Universal announced plans to merge NBC and Vivendi Universal Entertainment to create one of the world's largest media companies, with an estimated value of $43 billion.

Wright praised the NDA's efforts to recruit new business and industry. The private organization's mission is to help diversify the area's economy by recruiting companies to Southern Nevada and to assist companies in their efforts to expand.

According to the NDA's annual report, issued at the lunch meeting, the organization assisted in relocating 53 companies and in 10 company expansions in the 2002-03 fiscal year.

The NDA estimated that the one-year economic impact of those 63 moves and expansions was $326.9 million and that 3,273 new jobs were generated as a result.

Of the 53 companies that moved to Southern Nevada, 19 came from California, the report said.