During a turbulent time for its television business, NBCUniversal owner Comcast said it may pursue several big deals to adapt to the changing environment.
First, Comcast President Mike Kavanaugh said the company is considering spinoffs of its cable networks, including USA Network, Bravo, MSNBC, CNBC and Syfy. He emphasized that NBC Broadcast Network and Peacock will remain core companies.
“Like many of our peers in the media industry, we have experienced the effects of transition in our video business and have considered the best path forward for these assets. and our ability to take advantage of opportunities in the changing media landscape and create value for our shareholders by creating a new, well-capitalized company comprised of our strong portfolio of cable networks. We’re looking into it,” Cavanagh said in his third interview with Comcast. – Thursday’s quarterly results conference call. “I’m not ready to talk about specifics yet, but I’ll get back to you once I reach a firm conclusion.”
He added that the company is interested in finding a partner for its Peacock streaming service as it looks to grow its business.
“As you know, we chose not to participate in the M&A process surrounding Paramount earlier this year, but despite the complexities, we intend to explore partnering in the streaming space,” he said.
The cable channel spinout would transform the company’s television business and create complications for MSNBC and CNBC, which are now combined into NBC News. Similarly, Bravo’s shows (like Watch What Happens Live and the Real Housewives series) are popular on the streaming service Peacock.
In the industry, traditional companies with cable channels are launching roll-up vehicles to acquire other channels to gain scale, pushing for tighter deals with pay-TV providers and other options for streaming. There is speculation that he may be able to pursue this.
Mr. Cavanagh declined to address the matter directly on the call, but said “there could be some kind of attack” if the company pursues a spinoff.
On the streaming side, Peacock has acceptable scale (currently 36 million subscribers), but Comcast clearly believes that working with another partner could make it a more attractive competitor to Netflix. I’m thinking. Two logical partners would be Paramount+ (whose executives are openly discussing a partnership) or Warner Bros. Discovery’s Max.
Regarding the choice to announce the decision to consider the possibility, Kavanaugh said he wanted to disclose the idea to Wall Street early rather than divulging it later.
“The reason we’re presenting here is because we want to study it. There are a lot of unanswered questions,” Cavanagh said. “So, we want to work with transparency. So, you know, there are going to be rumors and stuff like that, and we expect that, but what we want to focus on. We want our shareholders to understand that.”
