Comcast poised to confirm cablenet spin-off, Mark Lazarus to lead new company
Comcast is reportedly moving ahead with its recently floated plan to spin off its cable networks into a separate company.
Mark Lazarus
The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) on Tuesday reported that the US media giant will move MSNBC, CNBC, Syfy, E!, Oxygen, USA Network and Golf Channel into a separate entity. Cablenet Bravo, broadcast net NBC and streamer Peacock are not part of the spin-off and will remain within NBCUniversal.
Mark Lazarus, who currently serves as chairman of NBCUniversal Media Group, will lead the currently unnamed company as its CEO, according to WSJ, with NBCUniversal chief financial officer (CFO) Anand Kini becoming CFO and chief operating officer of the new entity.
The deal, which Comcast is reportedly set to make official on Wednesday, is being structured as a tax-free spin-off transaction and will take roughly a year to complete.
The move will prompt a rejig of NBCUniversal’s senior ranks, with chief content officer Donna Langley becoming chair of NBCUniversal’s entertainment and studios divisions. WSJ said the new role would give Langley more power to greenlight projects and greater oversight and control over content spending.
In addition, Comcast’s chairman of direct-to-consumer and international Matt Strauss will become chairman of NBCUniversal Media Group.
The reports come just three weeks after Comcast president Mike Cavanagh first told investors it was mulling a spin-off of the cable networks during the company’s third-quarter earnings call.
At the time, Cavanagh framed the potential of a spin-off as being very much in the exploration phase.
“We are now exploring whether creating a new, well-capitalised company owned by our shareholders and comprising our strong portfolio of cable networks would position them to take advantage of opportunities in the changing media landscape and create value for our shareholders,” he said, adding that Comcast was “not ready” to discuss details but would provide updates if it reached “firm conclusions.”
However, it appears to have reached a firm conclusion in short order.
The cable networks involved in the spin-off generated around US$7bn in revenue in the 12 months ending September 30, according to WSJ. However, many believe that cable networks owned by other studio groups including Warner Bros Discovery (WBD) or Disney would need to join the Comcast spin-off to make it a truly viable offering.
Over the past few weeks, both Disney CEO Bob Iger and WBD president and CEO David Zaslav have played down or dismissed their interest in spinning off their cable assets.
Across the US studios, cable networks continue to be a source of significant albeit declining profit. These profits have been essential over the past few years as all have spent billions of dollars investing in their streaming services, which are only just beginning to reach a point where they break even, aside from Peacock which posted a loss of US$436m in the third quarter.
