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NBC News moving into Conan's old studio

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-nbc-studios-20100917,0,4717356.story

NBC Universal will build a new West Coast newsroom and production center in Conan O'Brien's former studio on the Universal lot, the entertainment company said Thursday.

The 60,000-square-foot facility will move the Los Angeles bureau of NBC News and local affiliate KNBC from Burbank to Universal City. The company didn't disclose how much the new studios will cost, but such facilities typically require tens of millions of dollars to build.
 
philosofy said:
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-nbc-studios-20100917,0,4717356.story

NBC Universal will build a new West Coast newsroom and production center in Conan O'Brien's former studio on the Universal lot, the entertainment company said Thursday.

The 60,000-square-foot facility will move the Los Angeles bureau of NBC News and local affiliate KNBC from Burbank to Universal City. The company didn't disclose how much the new studios will cost, but such facilities typically require tens of millions of dollars to build.

I can't imagine how it would cost "tens of millions of dollars" to build - the structure is already built. I can see a couple of million to re-configure the studio for a news operation, build offices and cubicles, and sets...but "tens?"
 
All I can think of is the corner office in my former place of employment which nobody wanted because it
had this strange history of anyone who got it being gone from the company within a year. (the Exit Portal
we called it)
 
Conans studio was already in HD. Couldn't they reuse some of the old equipment and just add some new stuff to it? Unless they ripped it all out after he left. Why do they need to move the news in a studio that has bleachers? Are they going to rip that out too?
 
Well, considering the circumstance it makes sense. I don't like it, but I was wondering what they were going to do with Studio One anyway.

flytrap said:
Conans studio was already in HD. Couldn't they reuse some of the old equipment and just add some new stuff to it? Unless they ripped it all out after he left. Why do they need to move the news in a studio that has bleachers? Are they going to rip that out too?

I'm guessing the old equipment is most likely being used on other shows that needed the HD equipment other than just sitting around gathering dust in storage. I have no idea if the bleachers are even there anymore.
 
flytrap said:
Conans studio was already in HD. Couldn't they reuse some of the old equipment and just add some new stuff to it? Unless they ripped it all out after he left. Why do they need to move the news in a studio that has bleachers? Are they going to rip that out too?

I'm sure the HD production stuff has already been moved. You don't let equipment like that just sit. Too expensive.
 
I just noticed this:

The 60,000-square-foot facility will move the Los Angeles bureau of NBC News and local affiliate KNBC from Burbank to Universal City.

They are not just moving the news operations, but channel 4 as well. So to answer the original question, $10 mil is a good estimate on moving everything and the buildout.
 
10 million is a good estimate. Since it's a news operation that's going in there, you have to figure in edit bays, satellite equipment and the like. Plus the whole place has to be wired for all of that.
 
Not just "The Tonight Show", but "Days" as well. As both shows continue to be based in Beautiful Downtown Burbank.
 
TheBigA said:
Not much in such a big building. Do they rent out the extra space?

Access Hollywood is there (Carson's old studio, it still has the audience seating) and the locals KVEA (Telemundo) & KWHY (Spanish Independent & up for sale) are in Burbank too. A great deal of space at NBC in Burbank is dedicated to set building, not just for their own productions but for other production companies as well. Nothing much is going on in Leno's old pre-Conan 'Tonight Show' studio there. I was in there a few weeks ago and there was just some stuff in storage and a couple of guys working on refinishing the floor.
 
I had heard rumors that NBC and/or KNBC is looking to get out of their current location so the net can sell it off at great profit. Leno would probably lease his space. However, newspeople moving through what basically amounts to a tourist attraction seems odd, unless there is some secret tunnel into the facility, which I don't discount. Kent, please tell me NBC news anchors don't have to enter above ground!
 
searadiofreak said:
I had heard rumors that NBC and/or KNBC is looking to get out of their current location so the net can sell it off at great profit. Leno would probably lease his space. However, newspeople moving through what basically amounts to a tourist attraction seems odd, unless there is some secret tunnel into the facility, which I don't discount. Kent, please tell me NBC news anchors don't have to enter above ground!

LOL. Yes, the poor news folks will have to enter above ground, but the location of Conan's old 'Tonight' studio is off the beaten path of Universal's studio tram tour. Occasionally Universal will take some folks on the more expensive VIP tour down there... but there ain't much to see there, just Dick Wolf's 'Law & Order' offices & the NBC/Uni commissary.
 
searadiofreak said:
I had heard rumors that NBC and/or KNBC is looking to get out of their current location so the net can sell it off at great profit. Leno would probably lease his space.

Keep in mind that NBC sold the Burbank facility a few years ago and has been leasing the space back from the real estate investors who bought it. I'd expect that the space KNBC and NBC News were taking up will end up being leased either to other NBC divisions or to outside production firms.

KNBC and NBC News are, for now, mostly in the "KNBC Building," the office tower at the northwest corner of the lot. KNBC's newsroom, if memory serves, is on the second floor, shared with KVEA/KWHY. Network news is a couple of floors up - there's Studio 7, the tiny little room that's often used when NBC or MSNBC are anchoring from LA, and the newsroom/studio one floor up from there. The KNBC studio is Studio 5, roughly in the middle of the studio complex; KVEA and KWHY use Studio 10 across the hall. (I may have those reversed.)

I expect the real savings here for NBCU will come from freeing up the space in 5 and 10 for outside tenants.
 
It'll be interesting to see what happens if/when NBC completely vacates the property. I'm surprised 'Days of Our Lives' has not moved out to Universal... perhaps NBC brass are just waiting to cancel it after their contract runs out (next year?). If that happens, pretty much Leno & 'Access H'wood' would be the only productions left @ NBC in Burbank. If the economy gets hot again, you can bet the developers that now own the complex will probably want to make drastic changes....... i.e. demolition.
 
KentBrockman said:
you can bet the developers that now own the complex will probably want to make drastic changes....... i.e. demolition.

I was thinking the exact thing when you said the pre-Conan Leno studio was empty. If I remember correctly, that portion of the building was added on, and wasn't well built. If it's not being used, it's probably ripe for demo. At some point even Leno will have to move. I think they have to amortize the costs of the studio he's in.
 
TheBigA said:
I was thinking the exact thing when you said the pre-Conan Leno studio was empty. If I remember correctly, that portion of the building was added on, and wasn't well built. If it's not being used, it's probably ripe for demo. At some point even Leno will have to move. I think they have to amortize the costs of the studio he's in.

The pre-Conan Leno studio was Studio 1, one of the two mirror-image studios on the Alameda Avenue side of the building. As the number might indicate, it was part of the initial core of the complex circa 1950-whatever it was. (The current facade was added on later, including the area that was used as the Leno audience lobby.)

The adjacent studio, 3, is being used for Access Hollywood.

Those are still good, useful studio spaces in a great location. I suspect they're less likely to be demolished than to be adaptively reused by someone other than NBC.
 
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