Variety: Comcast Plans Massive Cable Spin-Off, Separating USA, MSNBC and More From NBC, Theme Parks

Story from Variety:

After spending billions to snare control of the massive media portfolio known as NBCUniversal, parent company Comcast now plans to break it up.

The Philadelphia media giant will move forward with an effort to spin off the bulk of its cable assets, which include MSNBC, CNBC, Universal Kids, USA, E!, Oxygen and Syfy, according to a person familiar with the matter. Only Bravo, viewed as an important feeder of programming to the Peacock streaming service, will stay with the NBC TV business. Comcast said in October it was going to study the ramifications of such a maneuver, but, clearly, it had already done so.

The “new” NBC will consist of its broadcast operations, NBC News, NBC Sports, Peacock and the company’s theme parks. A formal announcement could come as soon as Wednesday, this person said. Confirmation of the spin-off was reported previously by The Wall Street Journal. Comcast declined to make executives available for comment.

“Investors have yearned for exactly this, or at least something close to it, for years,” said Craig Moffett, an analyst with MoffettNathanson, in a research note released after Comcast previewed its plans last month. The deal would uncouple reliable growth assets, such as the Peacock streaming service and NBCU’s sports properties, from the eroding economics of cable.

Many of the company’s cable networks are projected to lose subscribers and ad dollars in months to come, according to data from Kagan, a market-research firm that is part of S&P Global Intelligence. MSNBC, for example, is expected to see subscribers winnow to 61.3 million in 2025, compared with 64.5 million in 2024. Ad dollars at Syfy are seen falling to $249.8 million in 2025, compared with $261.8 million in 2024.

Mark Lazarus, the NBCUniversal executive who oversees the bulk of its TV operations, would move to lead the new cable-network company, and would be joined by Anand Kini, the NBCUniversal chief financial officer, who will take on more operating duties.

Matt Strauss, who supervises direct-to-consumer operations, will become the new chairman of NBCUniversal, with oversight of distribution, sports and ad sales, while Donna Langley, the company’s chief content officer, will gain new authority over content production and spending for the new NBC. Cesar Conde will continue to run NBC News as well as Telemundo and local TV stations, while Adam Miller, an executive vice president who has been close to Comcast executives for years, will take on a chief operating officer role.

The split will raise some thorny obstacles. MSNBC is filled each day with content based on the newsgathering of NBC News and in recent months, Conde and his senior executives have worked to make CNBC more a part of overall operations, after a period during which the business-news outlet and NBC News were run very separately. Such an issue might be remedied for a period of time by some sort of licensing agreement between the two corporate entities, but such a pact might not extend if the new cable company was part of some merger or consolidation.

The split will undo a massive media deal. Comcast spent more than $13 billion in cash and asset contributions to buy 51% of NBCU in 2011, and then another $16.7 billion in 2013 to acquire the remaining interest in the company. Since that time, Comcast has acquired the kid-media assets in DreamWorks Animation, invested heavily in U.S. rights for the Olympics, and even dabbled in digital media by investing in BuzzFeed.

But the spinoff is indicative of the growing weakness of cable as a medium. Stand-alone cable networks have become complex but toxic assets in the modern media lineup. They continue to generate millions in advertising and distribution revenue USA, for example, is projected to take in $697.7 million in 2025, according to Kagan, compared with $684.6 million in the prior year — a rare uptick among the group. How the spin off might affect those estimates remains to be seen.

Still, they require millions in content spend to keep up their ratings at the exact moment that many of their viewers are moving to streaming services.

Paramount Global and Warner Bros. Discovery, two of the bigger owners of top cable networks, have said the assets are losing value. Warner in August unveiled a massive $9.1 billion write-down of its TV assets, citing business headwinds as well as the projected loss of its lucrative agreement with the NBA to show games on its cable networks. Paramount Global followed suit, revealing a $5.98 billion impairment charge as it prepared for its acquisition by Skydance Media.

The new cable vehicle could become an acquisition target, given its relative small heft in the broader media landscape. Or perhaps it could become an aggregator, buying up other cable networks in a bid to rebuild. Given the state of the U.S. entertainment business, either move could be viable.