Our little recession hasn’t left television untouched; about 80 percent of every news show is dedicated to coverage, and late night comics have hit the subject.  But it looks like the effect could become much more noticeable as NBC is now thinking about cutting back on its programming hours.

Ratings are down, advertisers are cautious, and an actors’ strike remains a possibility.  Since NBC Universal has its fingers in more than television, it’s feeling pressure in many additional ways, too.

So, according to Paul J. Gough and Georg Szalai, NBC Universal chief Jeff Zucker asked during a recent conference, “Can we continue to broadcast 22 hours in primetime?  Three of our competitors don’t.  Can we continue to broadcast seven days a week?  One of our competitors doesn’t.”

Those comments don’t amount to a promise to turn everyone’s televisions black every Tuesday and Thursday, of course; even if NBC decides to do something, there are a whole lot of intermediate steps along that path.

It’s just interesting (if that term can be used without sounding too clinical) to see the recession reaching a little further into mainstream culture.