Just as one of his last moves at NBC—moving Jay Leno to prime time—starts to publicly unravel, Ben Silverman has the first deal for his new venture with IAC (NSDQ: IACI), Electus: a strategic partnership with Yahoo (NSDQ: YHOO) to develop and produce exclusive original content. So far, sounds like…

Notional wants to be taken seriously. That might be a little tough ordinarily for a new cross-platform video production company birthed by a website called CollegeHumor but Notional has great genes and, in Barry Diller, a godfather with serious pull. It also has a very real slate with production commitments…

Jordan Hoffner, the head of content partnerships for YouTube, is leaving the company, and joining Ben Silverman’s new content venture at IAC (NSDQ: IACI), we have learned. The move from YouTube was announced internally today. This is the second senior digital exec to join Silverman’s venture, after we first reported…

Drew Buckley has left Terry Semel’s Windsor Media to work as a senior executive with Ben Silverman, paidContent has learned and confirmed with IAC (NSDQ: IACI). An IAC spokeswoman said details would be forthcoming. Silverman is still putting together the “dream team” for his latest plan with Barry Diller to…

An era ended for NBC when Jeff Gaspin became chairman of NBC Universal (NYSE: GE) Television Entertainment Monday. The broadcast network no longer stands alone from the NBC cable nets that brought in 60 percent of the GE unit’s earnings in 2008. Gaspin already runs the entertainment cable nets, NBCU’s…

Add Ben Silverman to the growing list of entertainment execs who think they can change the programming world by knocking down the barriers between programming, advertising and marketing. Silverman, the outgoing co-chairman of NBC (NYSE: GE) Entertainment and Universal Media Studios, spoke with paidContent soon after he shook up what…

Jeff Gaspin just took another big leap at NBC Universal (NYSE: GE) with his promotion—effective immediately—as the new chairman of NBCU Television Entertainment. Gaspin already heads the company’s cable networks and its distribution. This adds NBC Entertainment and Universal Media Studios to his portfolio. The announcement came at the same…

Updated; Barry Diller just solved Jeff Zucker’s Ben Silverman problem. In an unexpected turn of events announced this morning, Silverman will join Diller at IAC (NSDQ: IACI) to start an as-yet-unnamed multi-platform production company; he plans to stay at NBC Universal (NYSE: GE) through the launch of the fall season.…

With the near-daily flow of media industry layoffs, two big execs may get to keep their jobs, at least for a while longer. Although NBC’s broadcast ratings have been in the tank for some time, NBC Universal (NYSE: GE) CEO Jeff Zucker is inclined to extend Ben Silverman’s contract as…

Ben Silverman was on Charlie Rose show last night, and talked about, in big part, shows like SNL and 30 Rock, and NBCU’s and TV networks’ digital future. On digital, he has some polite words about YouTube, vis-a-vis Hulu, but ultimately disses it when asked about its advertising potential: “Because…

It has been a year since Ben Silverman officially joined NBC Universal (NYSE: GE) as the co-chairman of NBC Entertainment and NBC Universal Television Studio, teaming up with his counterpart Marc Graboff. Now a year down the line, TVWeek did an interview with him at the TCA summer press tour,…

Considering Reveille’s digital creds with its shows, important to mention: Ben Silverman’s TV production company Reveille is close to being bought by UK’s independent production company Shine, for about $200 million, reports Variety. Shine was founded by Elisabeth Murdoch, Rupert Murdoch’s daughter, and has been buying up other UK indie…