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Actually its not up to NBC. Its up to RKO:

Liberty Films was purchased by Paramount Pictures, and remained a subsidiary until 1951. Paramount owned the film until 1955, when they sold a few of their features and most of their cartoons and shorts to television distributor U.M.&M. TV. Corporation. This included key rights to It’s a Wonderful Life, including the original television syndication rights, the original nitrate film elements, the music score, and the story on which the film is based, The Greatest Gift.[25] National Telefilm Associates (NTA) took over the rights to the U.M.& M. library soon afterward.

However, a clerical error at NTA prevented the copyright from being renewed properly in 1974.[26] Despite the lapse in copyright, television stations that aired it still were required to pay royalties. Although the film’s images had entered the public domain, the film’s story was still protected by virtue of it being a derivative work of the published story “The Greatest Gift,” whose copyright was properly renewed by Philip Van Doren Stern in 1971. The film became a perennial holiday favorite in the 1980s, possibly due to its repeated showings each holiday season. It was sometimes mentioned during the deliberations on the Copyright Term Extension Act of 1998.

In 1993, Republic Pictures, which was the successor to NTA, relied on the 1990 U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Stewart v. Abend (which involved another Stewart film, Rear Window) to enforce its claim of copyright. While the film’s copyright had not been renewed, it was a derivative work of various works that were still copyrighted. As a result, the film is no longer shown as much on television (NBC is currently licensed to show the film on U.S. network television, and only shows it traditionally twice during the holidays, with one showing primarily on Christmas Eve from 8-11 Eastern time) and now Paramount (via parent company Viacom’s 1998 acquisition of Republic’s then-parent, Spelling Entertainment) once again has ancillary rights for the first time since 1955.

Due to all the above transactions, this is one of the few RKO films not controlled by Turner Entertainment/Warner Bros. in the USA.