NBC ENTERTAINMENT FOR SALE GE WILL SPIN OFF PRIME-TIME UNIT, NEW YORKER SAYS

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, March 9, 1993                   TAG: 9303090052
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: B5   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: NEW YORK                                LENGTH: Short
NBC ENTERTAINMENT FOR SALE GE WILL SPIN OFF PRIME-TIME UNIT, NEW YORKER SAYS
General Electric, the parent company of NBC, wants to spin off the network's entertainment unit, a magazine reported Monday.
General Electric would sell the Los Angeles-based division for $500 million to $1 billion, the New Yorker reports in its March 8 issue.
"The buyer would get the network's biggest profit-producer - control of the 22 weekly hours of prime-time programming - without inheriting the overhead of a full-service network that also provides news, sports and daytime soap operas," said the article by Ken Auletta, whose book "Three Blind Mice" chronicled the TV networks' decline in the 1980s.
Several would-be investors have talked with GE Chairman John Welch and NBC President Robert C. Wright, Auletta reported.
There was no immediate comment from NBC; corporate spokeswomen did not return telephone calls from reporters.
According to the article, GE was persuaded to sell the division by NBC's fall to third place in the prime-time ratings.
GE has tried to sell all of NBC - including its network owned and operated stations - for about $4 billion. Bill Cosby and former Fox Chairman Barry Diller have been reported as suitors.

by Archana Subramaniam by CNB