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NBC CEO Zucker regrets primetime problems
MUMBAI: NBC Universal CEO Jeff Zucker, who will be leaving the company when Comcast takes control of it, has accepted the responsibility for NBC‘s failures in primetime.
Zucker was speaking at the 38th annual UBS Global Media and Communications Conference last Wednesday in New York.
Averred Zucker, “Obviously it was my responsibility and I didn‘t get that right. I didn‘t find the right people, find the right shows, and that was my responsibility. I never got the team right, until recently.”
However he avoided blaming himself for nixing scripted programming at 8 pm or moving Jay Leno to 10 pm.
The CEO added that about 80 per cent of the people he put together in the executive leadership team at NBCU will continue to run the company. “I got almost all of them right. The one place I didn‘t get it right was NBC Entertainment.”
But Zucker mentioned that from the financial point of view NBC and primetime comprise very small portions of NBC Universal‘s financial statistics.
“NBC primetime is 5 per cent of our bottom line, but it‘s 105 per cent of our perception,” he said. “From a business standpoint, it was a deminimus part of our bottom line but my ability to get it fixed has attracted all the headlines. It‘s probably the biggest regret I have as I move on.”
Zucker said that NBC has moved on from being a domestically focused broadcaster in 1996 to a cable network company. This transformation has happened in the last five years.
Zucker blamed his health issues for his NBC problems and the criticism he received for it. “Personally, I‘ve struggled with health issues,” he said, recollecting his sufferings from colon cancer at the young ages of 31 and 34.
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With 57 per cent single new users, Ashley Madison rebrands as discreet dating platform
Platform says majority of new members now identify as single
INDIA: Ashley Madison is shedding the “married-dating” label that defined it for two decades, repositioning itself as a platform for discreet dating in what it calls the post-social media age.
The rebrand, unveiled in India on 27 February, 2026, marks a structural shift in business model and identity. Once synonymous with married dating, the company now describes itself as the “premier destination for discreet dating” under a new tagline: Where Desire Meets Discretion.
The pivot is data-driven. Internal figures show that 57 per cent of global sign-ups between 1 January and 31 December, 2025 identified as single: a notable departure from the platform’s married core. The company argues that its community has already evolved beyond its original positioning.
“In an age where our lives have been constantly put on public display, privacy has become the new luxury,” said Ashley Madison chief strategy officer Paul Keable. He framed the platform’s offering as “ethical discretion” for singles, separated, divorced and non-monogamous users seeking private connections.
The shift also taps into wider digital fatigue. A global survey conducted by YouGov for Ashley Madison, covering 13,071 adults across Australia, Brazil, Canada, Germany, India, Italy, Mexico, Spain, Switzerland, the UK and the US, found mounting discomfort with hyper-public online lives.
Among dating app users, 30 per cent cited constant swiping and messaging as a source of fatigue, while 24 per cent pointed to pressure to curate public-facing profiles and early personal disclosure. Some 27 per cent said fears of screenshots or information being shared contributed to exhaustion; an equal share cited unwanted attention.
The retreat from oversharing appears broader. According to the survey, 46 per cent of adults actively try to keep most aspects of their life private online. Only 8 per cent feel comfortable sharing most aspects publicly, while 35 per cent say they are becoming more selective about what they disclose.
Ashley Madison is betting that this cultural recalibration towards controlled visibility can be monetised. By doubling down on privacy infrastructure and reframing itself around discretion rather than infidelity, the company is attempting to convert reputational baggage into a premium proposition.
