Comcast to Spin Off Cable Nets

With Epic Universe opening in May of 2025, the Comcast theme park is expected to bring in barrels of money for the company.

It appears that Comcast doesn’t want any of its cable channels dragging down what should be a good year for Comcast stock.

So, the company has decided to spin off a new publicly traded company that will have networks like CNBC, MSNBC, and USA, along with a few digital assets, including its Fandango movie-ticket service.

Comcast sees those as the weaker legs of the company and will spin them off while hanging onto the NBC broadcast network, Peacock streaming service, Universal film and TV studio, and Universal theme-parks business. They will also hold onto Bravo because the Real Housewives makes enough money for all of Bravo.

While NBC is spinning off the others, they aren’t ruling out selling them outright. Expect a few companies to step up, mainly hedge funds, and show an interest.

Of course, Byron Allen will also say he’s interested, but that’s just another Allen pipedream that will never happen.

If MSNBC and CNBC are sold off, how would talent sharing work, given that NBC newsgroup will no longer own MSNBC/CNBC?

Would NBC poach talent before a sale?

There are many questions, but right now, Comcast is making this move to better position its stock price for the future. So far, this move is all about bookkeeping.

We’ll have to stay tuned for the rest.