Steve Burke’s arrival atop NBC Universal – announced Sunday, as if it were ever really in doubt – likely became a fait accompli back in January, when he and Comcast CEO Brian Roberts took their first tour of the company’s West Coast operations.
Their guide: Jeff Zucker. The context: News of the Jay Leno/Conan O’Brien meltdown had just broken.
Not only did the incident overshadow the visit, but the whole affair — the leaks, the media sniping, the lack of candor, the inability to solve the crisis — starkly revealed for Burke the vast gulf between the two corporations’ cultures, top confidantes of Comcast have told TheWrap.
At the risk of breaching securities regulations by interfering, Burke could only gingerly offer advice and shake his head as the trainwreck worsened.
When the debacle finally ended with a $30 million payment to Conan and his release from NBC, the Comcast executive was relieved. And puzzled.
Why hadn’t NBC tried – or even explored – an offer for O’Brien to move to one of NBC’s cable siblings, 
which include USA and Bravo? As it is now, Conan will debut on rival Time Warner’s TBS.
Paying O’Brien millions to walk away from an uncomfortable situation just doesn’t square with the pragmatic, straight-shooting ethos by which Burke has come to be known. And that Hollywood desperately hopes he'll bring to NBC Universal.
“For the same reasons I was delighted to have him join Berkshire [Hathaway’s] board (last December), NBC Universal ought to be delighted to have Steve oversee that operation,” said Warren Buffett, a longtime Burke friend, in an exclusive interview earlier this year. “He’s got everything you want in an executive. He’s high-grade. He’s smart. His judgment is good.”
And as shocking as it may be in the bottled-scorpion world of media, Burke won’t suffer sycophants among the chief lieutenants whom he will tap in the coming weeks, say his business associates inside and outside of Comcast. Nor will loose lips, lack of candor, back-stabbing or sugar-coating of problems be tolerated.
Straightforward business practices, accountability with fairness, mutual respect and prudent risk-taking will be the order of the day, these people insist.
In short, at a time of wrenching transformation in media, the success of the Comcast-NBCU marriage will depend all the more on Burke’s ability to exorcise a troubling corporate culture at NBC Universal.
Exemplified by the “Late Night” gambit, the “managing for margins” philosophy took root as GE tightened the financial reins throughout its far-flung businesses. Pressure to deliver rising quarterly financial results through willy-nilly and deepening cost cuts took a toll, as did years of failed efforts to lift its namesake NBC broadcast network out of fourth place.
In place of short-term financial myopia and corporate jockeying, Burke must introduce a culture that’s familiar to anyone who’s ever worked at Comcast — straightforward practices and strategic focus.
