Comcast to split cable business from media in NBCUniversal, Sky spinoff

June 29 : Comcast will split into two publicly traded companies through a spinoff of NBCUniversal and Sky, separating its cash-generating broadband arm from a media and entertainment business under pressure from streaming rivals and industry consolidation.

Shares of the company surged 22 per cent in premarket trading on Monday. They were down more than 17 per cent this year through Friday's close, after two straight annual declines.

The proposed separation unwinds 15 years of consolidation that brought together content and distribution, with both feeling the strain from the rapid rise of streaming, and sets up the two companies for more deals.

The latest major media split-up follows years of cord-cutting that have eroded profits at the cable TV arms of legacy companies and forced them to seek scale to better compete with streaming giant Netflix.

Paramount earlier this year won a bidding war for Warner Bros Discovery with its $110 billion bid, a deal that would create an industry giant.

Comcast, which leans on cable for much of its cash flow, is also losing broadband customers to fixed wireless offerings from U.S. carriers such as T-Mobile and Verizon and to fiber rivals that are aggressively building out networks.

"The transaction we are announcing will unlock a more entrepreneurial management approach and open up a multitude of new opportunities for each business," Brian Roberts, chairman and co-CEO of Comcast, said.

The split, expected to be completed in about a year, will create one company anchored by Comcast's cable, wireless and business services arm and another built around Universal theme parks, film and TV studios, NBC, Peacock and the European media business Sky.

Comcast Co-CEO Mike Cavanagh will run the new NBCUniversal. Michael Angelakis, a former chief financial officer, will return to lead Comcast as CEO, after initially joining as a strategic adviser ahead of the separation.

Brian Roberts will be "actively involved" in leading both companies after the split. He controls about a third of the voting power through super-voting shares at Comcast, which was founded by his father Ralph Roberts.

NBCUniversal will have the same dual-class share structure as Comcast, the company said.

Comcast shareholders will own stock in both companies after the deal closes. Comcast will keep a stake of as much as 19.9 per cent in NBCUniversal for up to a year following the spinoff, which it plans to monetize over time.

Analysts said the move could make NBCUniversal an attractive takeover target for companies, especially Netflix after it lost the bidding war for Warner Bros Discovery.

"NBCU will become M&A target eventually. Netflix would likely have interest in the studio," said Ross Benes, senior analyst at eMarketer.

"But I don't expect them to bid on the entire media company and it is unclear if NBCU would be willing to do another split to separate the studio from the rest of the media business."

LAST MAJOR UNDOING OF TELECOM, MEDIA

Comcast recently completed the spinoff of some cable TV networks, including CNBC and USA Network, into Versant Media , which began trading on the Nasdaq earlier this year.

Its latest move marks one of the last great unravelings of the telecom-and-media mergers, a bet that gained popularity in the 2010s as carriers raced to pair distribution with content.

Comcast itself led the charge in 2011 when it bought a controlling stake in NBCUniversal from General Electric, taking full ownership by 2013 in a deal valued at about $30 billion.

AT&T tried to go even bigger, spending $49 billion on DirecTV in 2015 and $85 billion on Time Warner in 2018, only to spin off WarnerMedia in 2022 and dump DirecTV by 2025.

"Connectivity and media are no longer naturally moving at the same speed," PP Foresight analyst Paolo Pescatore said.

"It feels like a sensible move, but also a sign of how much pressure there is on legacy media groups to simplify, consolidate and prove where future growth will come from."