In September, it was reported NBC hacky sack and Jeff Immelt favorite Beth Comstock was going to be tossed back upstairs to GE after a quick run as NBC's "integrated media" chief. Now, the move is official: Comstock will become the head of marketing and digital media for GE, which means she's going to be heavily involved in the Beijing Olympics, which GE's units are thoroughly ingrained in.

Some wondered whether she would survive the company's churn, or just be punished, for the disaster that is iVillage (and its attempts at synergy). Turns out, she's being given a veritable promotion, and the move was carefully orchestrated to look like one. But that doesn't mean everyone has faith: While Comstock has racked up a few digital achievements (helping launch Hulu.com, which is still too young to call a success) and GE is on target to meet its goal of $1 billion in digital revenues, plenty of folks aren't willing to forgive her rife-with-mistakes learning-on-the-job way of doing things.

Comstock's exit, and the dissolution of her position, leaves three players in her wake, all reporting to CEO Jeff Zucker: network sales chief Mike Pilot takes over research; Universal Television president Jeff Gaspin takes over iVillage; and biz dev chief Salil Mehta will run digital strategy.

Beth Comstock is heading back to the GE hen house after a quick stint as NBC's "integrated media" chief. After a disastrous move buying iVillage.com for $600 million, then wasting even more cash on its barely-watched TV spin-off, Beth is said to be returning to the corporate mothership as chief marketing officer, where her expertise in marketing will help steer the 2008 Olympics. Turns out, there's more involved than endless promos featuring NBC's logo attached to the Olympic rings. [NYP]

Just in time to follow up to last week's showcasing of the televised misery that is iVillage Live (unbeknownst to us, it was a repeat) comes Brooks Barnes' report that even NBC thinks the show is an utter failure.

After NBC paid $600 million for the lady lifestyle site, they attempted to capitalize on their myriad avenues of synergy with a daytime spin-off show. But even with constant plugs on the Today show and an entire TV program dedicated to plugging the site, traffic to iVillage.com had actually fallen off. Cue the halt in production on iVillage Live, which returns, um, live next month. After some serious tinkering.

NBC's interactive media chief Beth Comstock is not, however, ready to call the show a bust. In one effort to save the hemmoraging, they're relocating the show from Orlando – where they had endless opportunities to plug the Universal Studios theme park – to Chicago, so they can book more celebrity guests. And be closer to Oprah, who owns a little TV network called Oxygen. Which NBC is said to be interested in a possible acquisition of.

Last Wednesday, Post biz reporter Peter Lauria let fly a hollow-point bullet through the temple of Beth Comstock, NBC Uni's integrated media chief. Even though "she is still considered a fast-rising star among General Electric and NBC brass," Lauria reported staffers are losing confidence in her and, according to a source, "people are beginning to question why she has been given so much responsibility relative to her performance."

More than a few industry onlookers agreed Lauria's item was delivered on a silver spoon from NBC chief Jeff Zucker, who's leading the battle against Comstock, letting her take the blame for iVillage Live, the disaster of a TV show spin-off of iVillage.com, the women's website that's been faring somewhere between "alright" and "eh." (To be fair, Lauria did deliver an iota of hope: "NBC still appears to be behind iVillage and Comstock, whose other credit is playing a key role in the creation of the online video joint venture between NBC and News Corp.")

Today, however, the fun is just getting started.

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