Shortly after NBC Universal announced its deal for Sparrowhawk Media, we caught up with Chief Executive Jeff Zucker.

Zucker discussed why international expansion makes sense now, the economy’s impact on advertising and the nameless online video joint venture with News Corp.

What makes an international cable deal so appealing to you right now?

This is an important move for us to grow our international business. Clearly, media is growing more outside the United States than it is inside the United States. So for us to be able to double our global networks business was just a unique opportunity. There’s a lot of interest in these channels and it dovetails nicely with the footprint we already have outside the United States. And it will allow us to double our international business revenues over the next three years.

Is it a risky time to expand in cable given the fragmentation of media?

We don’t think so. We think, in fact, it’s the same thing we see here in the United States. The biggest story in TV in the United States this summer has been the tremendous strength of the cable networks. We’re seeing very much the same thing internationally. The growth of the Internet has not come at the expense of cable networks either domestically or internationally.

Are there any particular global regions you like at the moment?

What this acquisition does is fills in gaps where our portfolio already existed. This gets us into Eastern and Central Europe and Asia in ways we just weren’t. So what this does is really round out our portfolio.

You’ve made clear your intention to boost the international business. What other kind of acquisitions would you look at?

I’m not going to go into specifics at this time. It won’t be all through acquisitions — we’re going to grow organically as well. We already had a plan to grow out global networks footprint organically. It’s a combination of acquisitions and organic growth. So we’ll look to be opportunistic just as we were here.

How concerned are you about the economy and its possible impact on advertising?

Obviously, the economy is something we keep a close eye on. There is an article out today in MediaPost that confirms what we obviously know, which is that the scatter market for the fourth quarter is incredibly strong. Double digit price increases over the upfront, which was strong. Things are very strong. Business is excellent right now. I know some thought that advertisers would reconsider their television buys, but that has not happened this year. Nothing has been pulled back. We feel very good. There is no evidence that the economy is softening when it comes to advertising. 
    
How’s the online venture with News Corp progressing? Is September still a launch date?

Yeah. I think we’ll have some news shortly on that. 
     
Any chance of you announcing the name?

It was an excellent try, but we’ll have news later. 
     
The Dow Jones board has now accepted the News Corp. bid. What does all this mean for CNBC?

CNBC is in excellent shape. They’ve transformed themselves as a network over the last two years. They’ve never been in a stronger position. We’ve had many strong competitors in the past. We’re not going to take anybody lightly but we feel excellent about how CNBC is positioned.