NBCUniversal boss Steve Burke is handing sole oversight of the company’s lucrative stable of cable entertainment channels to Bonnie Hammer, The Post has learned.
The move, which will give Hammer new control over NBCU’s women-focused channels Bravo, Oxygen and Style — properties that were overseen by Lauren Zalaznick — in the latest shake-up at the media conglomerate.
Hammer had overseen USA, Sci-Fi, E! and a handful of other channels since a November 2010 split of duties with Zalazick instituted by Burke not long after the Comcast-NBCU merger.
Under the most recent changes, Zalaznick’s will oversee NBCU’s digitial properties.
Comcast is bringing someone new in to run Telemundo, its broadcast and cable Spanish language asset.
News of Hammer’s big promotion will be official Feb. 5, sources said.
Zalaznick and Hammer were known to have a “competitive” relationship and both had angled for the complete cable entertainment portfolio as new boss Burke surveyed his management team back in 2010.
Burke didn’t want to lose either executive and carved up cable between them.
Hammer’s enlarged role, sources added, is a reward for progress at E! Entertainment, the cable network that had struggled to grow under Comcast ownership before it became part of NBCUniversal.
Comcast owns 51 percent of NBCU — with GE holding the balance.
Hammer had also harbored ambitions to run the struggling NBC Network, but that job went to Bob Greenblatt.
The move continues a busy week of management gyrations at 30 Rock — as days ago NBC News boss Steve Capus announced he was leaving.