NBC buys stake in Euronews, names new president

NBCUniversal, the U.S. media conglomerate owned by Comcast Corp , has made an investment in European broadcaster Euronews and named Noah Oppenheim as the president of NBC News, according to an internal memo seen by Reuters on Tuesday.

Financial details of the investment were not disclosed in the memo. However, Reuters, citing sources, reported in November that NBC would buy a stake of between 15 percent and 30 percent.

The investment will allow NBC to reach out to 277 million new households��in��13 languages across Europe, Africa and the Middle East.

Euronews was created in the wake of the 1990 Gulf War as a "European CNN" and used to be owned by a consortium of state-owned European channels before Egyptian billionaire Naguib Sawiris took a 53 percent stake in the broadcaster.

The memo said Oppenheim, the executive in charge of NBC's morning show "Today", will replace Deborah Turness, president since 2013.

Turness will be named as the first president of NBC News International. Both Oppenheim and Turness will report to NBC News Chairman Andy Lack.

(Reporting by Laharee Chatterjee in Bengaluru; Editing by Maju Samuel)