Peacock at forefront of NBCUniversal reshuffle under Mark Lazarus

NBCUniversal (NBCU) has revealed a major restructuring affecting swathes of its operations, including the creation of a new TV and streaming division to be headed up by Mark Lazarus.

NBCU TV and streaming will house recently launched SVOD and AVOD service Peacock plus a vast array of networks including NBC, Telemundo, cablenets – such as USA, Syfy, Bravo, Oxygen and E! – and the company’s international channels.

Lazarus, who remains in charge of NBC Sports Group, will also oversee Peacock as part of the combined group, which will see the streamer and NBCU’s channels working in tandem.

NBCU’s news channels have also been rejigged into a single division, to be overseen by Cesar Conde, who has been named chairman of NBCU News Group.

Conde was most recently chairman of NBCU’s Telemundo Enterprises, the Spanish-language operator that he landed at a decade ago and has since powered to success against rival Univision.

His replacement at Telemundo has not yet been revealed but she or he will report into Lazarus.

His new remit will cover channels including NBC News, CNBC and MSNBC, while NBC News Group president Andy Lack, who had been due to leave after the US presidential election later this year, will now depart shortly.

Both Lazarus and Conde report into NBCU’s CEO Jeff Shell, who replaced Steve Burke earlier this year. As part of those changes, Lazarus was upped to oversee cable and news.

Shell said the new structure would “lead NBCUniversal into the future during this transformational time in the industry.” The CEO last week admitted during an earnings call that NBCU was not “right sized” and said it was addressing the issue “pretty aggressively” with “pretty significant adjustments” to be made over the coming weeks.