Comcast executives spent much of a post-earnings conference call on the biggest news of the last few months, an upcoming cable spinoff with President Mike Cavanagh calling a new company comprised of most NBCUniversal cable networks as “a free-standing, strong collection of businesses with lots of cash flow generation capability for many years to come, good market position and great focus.”
It’s led by Mark Lazarus with the roster of executives fleshed out earlier this month. But many details are still to come. “When they’re ready to talk about their strategy, which will be at some point down the road, we’ll come back,” Cavanagh told analysts who pressed for details. However Lazarus and his team take that strategy forward, “I’m optimistic that [it] creates good opportunities for our shareholders.”
NBCU’s remaining media and entertainment businesses will be run by Donna Langley, chair of NBCUniversal Entertainment and Studios, and Matt Strauss, chair of NBCUniversal’s media group. It will be broadcast and streaming focused with the NBC network, Peacock, sports, the film and television studios and theme parks. It’s also keeping the Bravo cable network. Execs indicated that only a fraction of viewership on Peacock comes from the soon-to-spun out cable networks. “They weren’t integral to the emphasis we’ve put on Peacock and a streaming future,” Cavanagh said.
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“When you look at the what remains in the aggregate media company, it’s a strong, strong business, one of the best in the country and, if not, the world.”
Asked if NBCU would be interested in partnerships, he said, “Absolutely … partnerships, bundling, we will consider, will consider anything … But I think the point of it in partnerships is, what do you bring to the table? And you know, getting our assets very tightly focused around a strong strategy for Peacock enables us to be a good partner.
Executives also said the LA wildfires would impact theme parks in the current quarter. And they discussed the unexpectedly steep exodus of broadband subscribers that knocked Comcast stock lower today.
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