The ad-supported video network planned by the NBCU-News Corp. JV will launch in September, not this summer, NBCU execs told analysts Thursday. (Via Reuters.) The meeting with analysts was aimed at giving them something to think about beyond prime-time ratings. (That explains the burst of NBC announcements this week.) Beth Comstock, president of NBCU integrated media, also told them NewSite represents $1 billion in new online video inventory.

The presentation slides are collected here (pdf).  The image here includes a mock-up of NewSite. Actually, the picture on the right’s an old mockup of NewSite distro via MSN. MSN’s style has changed already and I should I have said before that I don’t expect what we see now to match the launch.  (And, yes, I’ve already heard from a couple of people associated with the JV arguing that September is summer—by the equinox, yes; by the season, nice try.)

Update: Reuters has more on the meeting. Comstock said the GE unit will meet its digital revenue goal of $1 billion this year and will increase that by 50 percent in 2008, one year ahead of schedule.

Update II: NewSite is important to NBCU’s future but it was only part of the digital picture outlined by various execs. Some highlights:

—NBC Entertainment: NBC.com will contribute more than $20 million in operating profit in 2007. It’s served 41 million video streams, up 250 percent. A fascinating chart shows the difference in old model/new model incremental revenue with new windows: old model—$845 million for a show with network first-run, international and back-end; new model—$940 million, up 11 percent, if you add pre-premiere, cable re-air, EST/DVD; streaming; wireless, sponsorships and more.

—New distribution: NBCU projects revenue from mobile and electronic sell-thru will hit $150 million by 2010. Interactive TV is bringing in $27 million.

—Beijing Olympics: Dick Ebersol promised live streaming of 24 sports—1,200-plus hours in all. NBC will offer “full rewind of key events” and daily highlights of every sport. He said it will be first-ever wireless coverage with streams of highlights—and access to live streaming. (AT&T Wireless—the pre-Cingular version—carried highlights of the 2004 Olympics but only on the Nokia 6620 and very limited.)

—Bravo: 1.1 million streams service in May, up 50 percent over May ‘06. Uniques up 147 percent to 3 million. 28 percent audience participate for Top Chef.

—iVillage: Display revenue up nearly 50 percent; NBCU claims nearly 27 million monthly uniques worldwide. One interesting measure: “over 25 points of integration with 10 NBCU entities and GE.”

—TV stations: Uniques are up 26 percent at station sites.