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To Bradshaw, that future is back to the business the company knows best: entertainment and communications. Both are fields in which RCA was an early and proud pioneer in everything from network programming to color television and space satellites. Says he: "The strength is still there. We have enormous strength in marketing; we are a leader in satellite communications; we have strength in entertainment programming. Match all that against the communications explosion that is coming in the 1980s, and we have got some tremendous opportunities."
Although rumors persist in entertainment and news circles that Bradshaw may eventually be compelled to attempt to sell NBC, the new boss insists that the network is not on the market. Nonetheless, Bradshaw has a major and frustrating problem with his biggest subsidiary. With the exception of the critically acclaimed Hill Street Blues series, NBC has few standout offerings of any sort in its current prime-time lineup. Its market share of viewers has dropped by 8% in the past year. Says Bradshaw with grim gallows humor: "Our NBC profits are so much lower than the competition's network income that even if we became an average network there would be much profit potential."
Bradshaw is counting on Grant Tinker, a highly regarded Hollywood studio executive and onetime producer of the successful Mary Tyler Moore series, to bring back the viewers. Bradshaw appointed Tinker last summer to replace the widely disliked Fred Silverman as head of NBC. The appointment has been praised as a morale booster at the net work. Said an NBC producer: "You don't have to keep your back against a wall for protection all the time now. When Fred was around, you did." It remains to be seen, though, whether Tinker can translate good vibes among his staff to a boost in the network's ratings.
Equally unsettled is the outlook for SelectaVision, the high-tech consumer product that RCA has been counting on to grab a share of the booming $2.5 billion home video programming market. Though RCA has so far sold 60,000 SelectaVisions, the company predicted that it would sell 200,000 last year.
Unlike the very successful videotape recorders that are produced by companies like Sony and Panasonic, SelectaVisions cannot copy programs being broadcast, but only play prerecorded discs. Even so, RCA has bet that at $500 a unit, the price would lure buyers away from videotape recorders that can sell for twice as much.
Industry analysts believe that RCA's retreat from the world of conglomerates will result in a healthier company. Said R. Joseph Fuchs of Wall Street's Kidder, Peabody: "It makes sense to get rid of the diversified businesses and hop back to being a communications company." The sale of C.I.T. or Hertz would also give RCA some badly needed cash to spend on expensive new ventures into satellite communications, cable programming and broadcasting. — By Christopher Byron Reported by Peter Stoler/New York