NBCUniversal Television Distribution

Credits

Editions by
Michael Kenchington

Background

In 2004, when NBC merged with Universal, its three syndicated units (Universal Television Distribution and Universal Domestic Television on the Universal side, NBC Enterprises on the NBC side) were merged to form one studio: NBC Universal Television Distribution (NBCUniversal Television Distribution starting in 2011). On January 26, 2011, Vivendi S.A. sold the remaining 20% of NBC Universal to General Electric; two days later, Comcast Corporation acquired 51% of NBC Universal, Inc. with GE owning 49%. NBC Universal, Inc. became NBCUniversal Media, LLC, a subsidiary of the holding company NBCUniversal, LLC. On March 19, 2013, Comcast acquired the rest of NBCUniversal from GE, making NBCU a wholly-owned subsidiary. On October 5, 2020, it was renamed to NBCUniversal Syndication Studios, in an effort to drop "Television" from its branding and in order to increase its streaming focus.

NBC Universal Television Distribution

Contents   Logo (September 26, 2004-2011)

NBCUniversal Television Distribution

Contents   Logo (March 5, 2011-)

NBC Universal Television Distribution

Logo (September 26, 2004-2011)

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Visuals: It's the same as the NBC Universal Television Studio logo, except the text "TELEVISION DISTRIBUTION" fades in below the logo.

Variants:

• From November 5-9, 2007, April 21-27 and November 17-23, 2008, and April 20-26, 2009, the logo is placed on a sky background with a URL "GreenIsUniversal.com" (in green, of course!) and green grass below the logo, with leaves falling off the logo and green monarch butterflies flying past it. This was introduced to celebrate "Green Week"/"Earth Week", observed by all NBC Universal properties that week; all of the television operations changed their bugs to feature a green tint (NBC, MSNBC, USA, etc.).
• On November 20, 2008, there is another variant of the "Green is Universal" variant. It features the 2007 Green is Universal logo (which is the word "green" with "IS UNIVERSAL" in the bottom right of "green" with the circular globe having a leaf at the end of each part) on the same background used on the 2007 Green is Universal background. The letters start popping up one by one for the logo. Later, there is the wind blowing up the letters to form the slogan "Green Your Routine" underneath the logo.
• On the variants where the logo isn't on its gold sun background, the NBC Universal font is thicker and smaller than on the original version.
• There is also a black & white variant seen on the lost pilot episode of Leave it to Beaver.
• From April 20-26 and November 16-20, 2009, and April 19-23 and November 15-19, 2010, the sky on the Green is Universal logo is much clearer, there are no clouds, the green grass is taller, a green butterfly lands on the logo then flies away, and there is a sunshine effect behind the NBC Universal logo to represent the sun.
• The logo would come in either the standard 4:3 version (seen on full-screen prints) or the widescreen 16:9 version.
• A 2.35:1 scope version exists.

Technique: CGI.

Audio: Same as the NBC Universal Television Studio logo.

Audio Variants:

• On The Martha Stewart Show, the end title theme played over this logo.
• Several shows and DVDs of some shows used the regular 1999 NBC Studios music plug.
• A high tone variant of the fanfare was used on newer DVD releases of Little House on the Prairie, starting with season 2.
• On Starting Over, the 2000 warp speed low tone NBC Studios theme plays over the logo.
• NBC airings of Revelations used a generic theme.

Availability:

• It was found on shows such as reruns of Law & Order: Criminal Intent last aired on Bravo and local reruns of Saved by the Bell, along with episodes of Jerry Springer, Maury, The Martha Stewart Show, The Steve Wilkos Show, and Access Hollywood in local syndication, and Caught on Camera reruns on Universal Channel and on Shout! Factory's releases of seasons 3 & 4 of Punky Brewster on DVD, which plastered the Coca-Cola Telecommunications logo on season 3 and follows the 1982 or 1989 Columbia Pictures Television "Torch Lady" or the short Columbia TriStar Television Distribution logo on season 4 except on 2 episodes because the NBC Enterprises logo was used, this also followed the NBC Enterprises logo on newer DVD prints of seasons 2 & 3 of Little House on the Prairie.
• It was also seen on TV One Access on TV One.
• This logo appeared on one episode on Minute to Win It on GSN after the Universal Media Studios logo.
• The black & white version can only be found on the lost pilot episode of Leave it to Beaver on DVD.
• This version also plastered the Universal Domestic Television and Multimedia Entertainment logos on pre-2004 reruns of Maury and Jerry Springer; the latter can be seen at nosey.com.
  • Plus, this version was also seen across the globe on series such as Project Runway to hence "NBC Universal International Television Distribution", but only using "Television Distribution".
• It was also seen on the syndicated version of Deal or No Deal.
• It was also seen at the end of a Sleuth airing of In The Shadow of a Killer (1992).
• It also appeared at the end of an August 21, 2019 UK airing of Terror by Night (1946) on Channel 4.
• It also appeared at the end of January 15, 2020 UK airing of Sherlock Holmes and the Secret Weapon (1942) on Film4.

NBCUniversal Television Distribution

Logo (March 5, 2011-)

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  The Lorax (2012)

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  The Secret Life of Pets

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  Minions: The Rise of Gru

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  Jurassic World: Dominion

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  Violent Night

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  Puss in Boots: The Last Wish

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  Cocaine Bear

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  The Super Mario Bros. Movie

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  Ruby Gillman, Teenage Kraken

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  Trolls Band Together

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  Kung Fu Panda 4

Visuals: On a flowing purple satin background, the current NBCUniversal logo (in NBCU's corporate typeface, Rock Serif) swivels across letter-by-letter and zooms in at the same time. Then, the "Television Distribution" text, in the Rock Sans typeface (which is also exclusively for NBCU's own use), fades and zooms in. All the words are in white lettering.

Trivia: The new logo debuted on January 27, 2011 and was created at Wolff Olins.

Variants:

• For Earth Week (April 17-22, 2011 and April 16-22, 2012), a special Earth Day version of the logo was used with a recycling symbol-like design made out of the NBC logo's feathers with "GREEN is UNIVERSAL", with "GREEN" bigger and above "is UNIVERSAL", next to it and the slogan "Green lives here." intact underneath. This causes a green version of the NBCUniversal logo to zoom in. This is all against the classic NBC Earth Day background.
  • Most of the time, the Green is Universal logo appears as an in-credit logo at the end of Universal films since The Lorax (2012). The 2011 GiU logo is seen with the text "THIS MOTION PICTURE USED SUSTAINABILITY STRATEGIES TO REDUCE ITS CARBON EMMISIONS AND ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT." The font of the text varies by film. The text is absent on DreamWorks Animation films and the GiU logo is pushed to the right.
  • Sometimes, the logo is white.
  • On Minions: The Rise of Gru, Puss in Boots: The Last Wish and Kung Fu Panda 4, the logo is in yellow.
  • On Cocaine Bear and Genie, the "IS UNIVERSAL" text is green.
  • On Ruby Gillman, Teenage Kraken, the logo is black.
• On reruns of pre-2012 episodes of Jerry Springer, Maury, and The Steve Wilkos Show, the logo is letterboxed to 4:3, rather than center-cut.

Technique: CGI for the background, 2D computer animation for the text.

Audio: Same as the previous logo.

Audio Variants:

• The GiU movie variants just have the closing theme playing over.
• Sometimes, the 1999 NBC Studios is played. This appeared on American Ninja Warrior.
• ABC airings of Motive used a generic theme.

Availability:

• It's seen on Access Hollywood/Access Daily, Maury, The Jerry Springer Show, The Steve Wilkos Show, Steve Harvey, The Kelly Clarkson Show, Judge Jerry, the syndicated run of Baggage, and reruns of The Office, also plastering older Universal logos on some local reruns of Law & Order, most episodes of Law & Order: Criminal Intent in local syndication, syndicated Deal or No Deal reruns on GSN, H&I airings of Hercules: The Legendary Journeys which follows older MCA TV/Universal Television Entertainment/Studios USA logos, current prints of seasons 3 & 4 of Punky Brewster which follows the 1982 Columbia Pictures Television or the 1987 Coca-Cola Telecommunications logos, and Nosey prints of older episodes of The Steve Wilkos Show and The Maury Show.
• This logo was also seen at the close of the talk show Harry during its two-year run (2016-2018).
• It also appeared at the end of the Monster High TV special New Ghoul @ School on its DVD release.
• Also seen at the end of most non-TV/non-Netflix and international prints of recent DreamWorks Animation Television series, like The Epic Adventures of Captain Underpants.
  • Various shows and movies on Peacock also have this, often following older logos (or in some cases, is added where there wasn't a logo, like on Code Monkeys).
• This logo also makes an appearance on the Freeform reruns of the pilot episode of The Office.

Legacy: Reaction to this logo and its preceding NBCU re-branding have been primarily negative. Not only does this logo eschew any sort of identifying NBC and Universal elements to it, it is generally seen as corporate and lazy compared to the previous logo.

Copyright Stamps

Here is some information about the copyright stamps on the NBCUniversal Television Distribution series and TV movies:

• 2004-: Copyright © [YEAR] Universal Television Enterprises LLC. All Rights Reserved.
• 2004-2019: Copyright © [YEAR] Universal Talk Television (Productions) LLC. All Rights Reserved
• 2010-: Copyright © [YEAR] Stamford Media Center and Productions, LLC. All Rights Reserved.

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