It’s an era of media consolidation—and decoupling.
On Monday morning, Comcast Corporation announced plans to separate its media and technology businesses into two separate, publicly traded companies, spinning off NBCUniversal and Sky.
The move effectively reverses one of the most transformational—and controversial—business combinations in media history: Comcast’s 2011 merger with NBCUniversal created a cable-TV juggernaut that controlled both content and distribution, giving it an outsize influence over how television was made and sending shockwaves throughout the industry.
However, the landscape has changed dramatically in the years since then, most notably through the rise of streaming, and Comcast has since disentangled its cable-TV properties, spinning most of them off, all while other major players in the media industry have further consolidated.
Most notably, the $81 billion Warner-Paramount mega-merger is still in the works, and more recently, Fox announced its acquisition of Roku for $22 billion.
The NBCUniversal spinoff comes roughly a year after Versant—a media company that now owns and operates MS Now (formerly MSNBC), CNBC, USA Network, and some other properties—was likewise spun off from Comcast.
It’s also perhaps part of a larger strategy on Comcast’s part to shift away from the cable TV business as streaming and cord-cutting have become more or less the norm in many households.
When will the spinoff happen?
According to Comcast, the separation will take roughly a year to complete, and happen via a tax-free spinoff, leaving Comcast shareholders with both NBCUniversal and Comcast shares.
Shares of Comcast Corporation (Nasdaq: CMCSA) surged during premarket trading on Monday and were up about 10% after the markets opened. However, even with today’s boost, the stock is down about 7.43% year to date.
Who will lead the separate companies?
Comcast’s co-CEO Mike Cavanagh will be the new CEO of NBCUniversal, and Comcast’s former CFO, Michael Angelakis, will be the CEO of Comcast.
Brian Roberts, the current chairman and co-CEO of Comcast, will continue to be involved in the leadership of both companies.
Cavanagh said that he believes the new dynamic will allow both entities to better compete going forward.
“Both companies begin this next chapter from positions of strength. Comcast will continue to build on its leadership in connectivity, while NBCUniversal, together with Sky, will have the scale, brands, content and financial resources to compete as a premier global media and entertainment company,” he said in a statement.