What's the Deal with Comcast’s Cable Services?

 On the back of their recent post-earnings conference call, speculation around the future of NBCUniversal’s cable networks has intensified significantly. Brandon Blake, entertainment lawyer Los Angeles at Blake & Wang P.A., shares the news we have so far.

 

                                                                      Brandon Blake

 

The Spinoff, SpinCo

 

Comcast has been promising a significant spinoff of its cable assets for a while now. This will, naturally, be most of NBCUniversal's cable networks, which Comcast’s Mike Cavanagh reiterated offers a compelling free-standing business opportunity with “plenty of cash flow generation capability” built in.

 

Now, we know that the spinoff company, currently billed as SpinCo (pending regulatory procedures), will be headed by Mark Lazarus. We’ve also been given some insight into their upcoming executive roster. However, they have been very cagey about potential strategies for the spinoff entity, especially in a market where cable subscribers are shrinking. We were promised further details later this year.

 

The Best of the Rest

As for the remains of NBCUniversal's entertainment and media businesses, they will fall under the jurisdiction of Donna Langley, the current chair of NBCUniversal Entertainment and Studios. She will be joined by Matt Strauss, chair of NBCUniversal’s media group.

 

Free of their current cable assets, this will leave them focused primarily on broadcast and streaming, with Peacock staying on this side of the table. Interestingly, the Bravo cable network is also slated to remain.

 

Executives were quick to assure investors that very little of Peacock’s current viewership is derived from the cable networks, so the split shouldn’t impact the platform much. It also appears that they are primarily focused on building on Peacock as their streaming destination rather than on new direct partnerships, at least for now. Peacock already provides a pipeline of their productions to other platforms across the board.

 

One thing is certainly clear— the core NBCUniversal group is turning away from its cable legacy to focus on a big streaming push in the coming years. Will it be enough to force Peacock into the same league as streaming giants like Disney+ and Netflix? For that, we shall have to wait and see.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   

 

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