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Under terms of the deal, G.E. will buy Vivendi’s 20 percent stake in NBC Universal for about $5.8 billion. It removes one of the few remaining hurdles in its plan to sell control of the television and movie company to Comcast in a $30 billion agreement that reflects the changing landscape of broadcast television.
While a deal between G.E. and Comcast still could hit a snag over the final price, that is considered highly unlikely: G.E. wants to sell NBC because of rising losses, and Comcast wants to buy it to control more of the television programs and movies that flow through its cable systems.
The final parts may take days to sew up, and there is a tentative plan to announce a final deal Thursday, according to those people, who spoke Monday on condition of anonymity because the negotiations were not complete.
While the agreement still could fall apart, G.E.’s decision to sell NBC Universal reflects the shifts in fortune that are battering the media business, especially network television.
G.E. executives had insisted until very recently that they had no interest in selling NBC Universal, even as they tried to interest suitors, like Time Warner and Comcast, through backchannel flirtations.
Their attempts grew more urgent after internal forecasts showed that the broadcast division of NBC Universal, once very profitable, could lose big, a remarkable downturn for a network that had earned about $400 million in past years, according to an executive briefed on the matter. NBC has had an especially difficult few years in prime time, where the network, once home to ‘‘Seinfeld,’’ ‘‘Friends’’ and ‘‘E.R.,’’ is mired in last place in the U.S. television market.
Although News Corp., the conglomerate controlled by Rupert Murdoch, had considered making an offer, Comcast was the lone serious suitor, a testament to the uncertain future of mainstream media as the Internet has fractured audiences and few viable business models have emerged for the distribution of content online.
In 2003, when Vivendi held an auction for its Universal properties, many big media companies took part, including Comcast, Viacom, Cablevision, Liberty Media and MGM.
This time, there was only Comcast, which under its chief executive, Brian L.
Roberts, has long harbored big ambitions of becoming a major producer of television and movies. In 2004, Comcast failed in a hostile takeover bid for Walt Disney Co.
In the proposed deal, Comcast would contribute its cable channels, which include Versus, the Golf Channel and E Entertainment, and a modest amount of cash, about $5 billion, to a joint venture in which it would own 51 percent. G.E.
would retain a 49 percent stake and would be expected to reduce its ownership over several years.
John C. Malone, the chairman of LibertyMedia and a longtime media investor, sees the deal as a victory for Comcast.
‘‘It does not represent a huge risk Comcast is making with its core business,’’ he said. ‘‘There is the opportunity to see if they can achieve synergies without betting the farm.’’ Many others, however, said the deal was less about synergy than other media mergers had been. At least in theory, Comcast-NBC Universal will be a company separate from Comcast’s cable assets.
Instead, the deal is a bet by Comcast on how it can expand its business. It could use its power in film, with Universal Studios, to expand video-on-demand offerings by altering movie release windows to make movies available on demand the same day they are released on DVD, noted Craig Moffett, an analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein.
The groundwork for the tentative deal between G.E. and Vivendi was laid out last week, when G.E.’s chief executive, Jeffrey R. Immelt, met in person with his counterpart at Vivendi, Jean-Bernard Lévy, in Paris, the people briefed on the deal said. News of the tentative agreement with Vivendi was first reported in The Wall Street Journal.
Michael J. de la Merced and Steve Lohr contributed reporting.
