IS ZUCKER OUT AT NBC?

NBC has denied a New York Post report that NBC Universal President and CEO Jeff Zucker has accepted an exit package from corporate parent General Electric worth $30-40 million. The report also claimed that Zucker has agreed to leave the company “a couple of months” after Comcast takes control of NBC Universal next year. “There is no exit package,” said an NBC Universal spokesperson. “The report is completely false.” On her TheWrap.com blog, entertainment reporter Sharon Waxman pointed out that the Post‘s report doesn’t ring true simply because the amount mentioned is — relatively — so small. (The amount is less than the $45 million that the network paid Conan O’Brien to leave; in 1996, Disney handed its president, Michael Ovitz, a $140 million “golden parachute.”) Waxman also posted details of Zucker’s contract with NBC Universal, obtained from a company bond offering, which gives Zucker at least $30 million over the next three years. In other words, said Waxman, “Zucker will get $30 million if he stays in the job, or if he leaves the job. That’s not an exit package.” Nevertheless, she noted, Zucker will almost certainly be forced to leave the company when Comcast takes over. She quoted one unnamed insider as saying: “He knows he’s out. Everybody knows he’s out. But he is still fighting for it.”