A busy Wednesday for NBCU CEO Jeff Zucker—a speech in Washington to carry on predecessor Bob Wright’s battle against piracy; and an appearance on CNBC’s Squawk Box to chat about that same subject, M&A and the impending launch of Fox Business News.

IP theft:  Speaking at a U.S. Chamber of Commerce conference, Zucker urged “unity” to fight what he says now is a losing battle. Zucker introduced results of the latest study from the Institute for Policy Innovation claiming that the total output lost to the U.S. economy from IP theft is nearly $60 billion a year. But, he said, on the digital side, it’s not a lost cause, calling “conventional wisdom” that technology can’t stop it “baloney.”

‘Ripping apart old business models’: That’s what Zucker says NBCU is doing—“pioneering radically new ways of reaching our audience.” On the digital side, “We have embraced the new capabilities of digital distribution, and we are making big investments to make this happen.” He offered the example of 30 Rock‘s upcoming premiere: free video streaming on NBC.com, NBC Direct free, time-limited downloads; Amazon.com (NSDQ: AMZN) sell-thru; via VOD in many areas; some cell phone plans; in a few weeks, streaming from NBCU-NWS JV Hulu.com/network; and, eventually, DVD. It all depends “critically on our ability, as the copyright holder, to protect this content from being stolen and to prevent our new distribution models from being compromised at birth by pirates and counterfeiters.

His solution? Increased enforcement, federal grants to states and cities to develop model IP enforcement, and—without mentioning Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) or NBCU’s demands of other distribution partners—“strong technology-based action strong
technology-based action.” He calls technological protections “an under-appreciated aspect of the fight against piracy and counterfeiting” and applauded AT&T (NYSE: T) for its efforts as an ISP. Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) and MySpace also were singled out for adding filters to block copyrighted content uploaded sans permission.

M&A: On CNBC, Zucker said he doesn’t feel held back by the inability as a GE subsidiary to use stock in deals: “We’re able to do the acquisitions we want to do, that we think are smart.” He also said it’s hard to see how Facebook’s numbers add up to a $10 billion value and that some of the multiples being paid now are “just in the stratosphere” and don’t make “much economic reality or much economic sense.” He also talked about growing “much” of NBCU’s digital properties organically. (That’s after the big iVillage buy, of course, not before it.) Also, in case you thought he’d say otherwise, “we are not scared” by the competition, ie Fox Business News.  (via Reuters)