Sunday announced 16 new TV shows - seven of them comedies - for the 2012-13 season, and in a show of confidence said it will broadcast singing contest The Voice in the fall as well as the spring.

NBC, headquartered in New York City, has been the least-watched of the four major US TV networks for several years, said it hoped the slew of new comedies would capture the young viewers most coveted by advertisers because of their spending power.

"We want to get more comedy on the schedule. I think it would be good for the health of the network," NBC entertainment chairman Bob Greenblatt told reporters in a conference call.

"We are adding several new comedies which we hope will portend the future of where we go with shows that are broader and more accessible and will garner a bigger audience," Greenblatt added.

NBC, majority-owned by Comcast Corp, unveiled the schedule a day ahead of an "upfront" presentation of its 2012-13 schedule to advertisers.

Some 75 percent of advertising sales are made in the few weeks following the upfront presentations.