By Variety | Created at 2024-11-20 17:34:09 | Updated at 2024-11-27 12:25:19
6 days ago
Comcast believes it has found a solution to the problem of what to do with a passel of big cable assets that are entering a period of ongoing decline. In doing so, however, the cable-and-entertainment giant also raises a significant number of questions.
The owner of NBCUniversal said Wednesday that it planned to split the media giant in two. One part will contain its NBC and Telemundo broadcast networks; NBC Sports; Bravo; Peacock; TV stations; the Universal film operations; and theme parks. The other will contain a group of large cable networks including USA, MSNBC, CNBC, E!, Oxygen and Golf Channel, as well as digital properties such as Fandango and Rotten Tomatoes.
The idea, according to people familiar with the matter, is to free the broadcast and streaming assets, seen as more desirable properties in an era when more people are moving to on-demand viewing of their video favorites on sites such as Peacock, Netflix and Disney+, from the cable properties. The cable networks remain profitable, but that business is in decline. Spun off from their home, executives believe, the new company could grow by snatching up other TV networks that others might want to ditch for similar reasons.
If only it were all so easy.
Below, a list of questions that executives at Comcast, NBCU and the new “SpinCo” will have to navigate — the process is likely to take a year! — as they undertake a venture that is likely to draw the constant scrutiny of the rest of the media industry.
*What other cable networks will the new company covet? The spin-off looks little like others of its kind. The new Comcast company won’t be loaded down with debt like rival Warner Bros. Discovery. Its managers are veterans, including new CEO Mark Lazarus, who has held senior operating TV roles for years. And Comcast expects the new entity to be an acquirer of assets, according to a person familiar with the matter.
To be sure, cable is not the media venue of the future. But have you seen these prices? Paramount Global and Warner Bros. Discovery, two of the bigger owners of top cable networks, have said their assets are losing value. Warner in August unveiled a massive $9.1 billion write-down of its TV assets, citing business headwinds as well as the projected loss of its lucrative agreement with the NBA to show games on its cable networks. Paramount Global followed suit, revealing a $5.98 billion impairment charge as it prepared for its acquisition by Skydance Media.
The new Comcast spin-off might be able to pick up storied brand names at lower costs, adding to the leverage its networks could have in the marketplace.
*How do you run two news networks cut off from the newsgathering of NBC News? Journalists inside the large NBC News Group have started “freaking out” in the past 24 hours, according to two people familiar with the operations, because the proposed spin-off raises many unanswered questions about their futures.
Can MSNBC and CNBC, separated from the newsgathering apparatus of NBC News, function as they have? To be sure, CNBC has largely been treated as a separate entity over the years, the result of quarrels between past executives, and has put new focus on cultivating ties with business-information aficionados. MSNBC, however, relies heavily on the information and details ferreted out daily by NBC News. Indeed, much of the MSNBC daytime schedule is filled with journalists, not opinion hosts, who remain affiliated with NBC News and Telemundo, including Chris Jansing, Katy Tur and Jose Diaz-Balart. NBC News contributors and reporters regularly guest on MSNBC segments.
Executives are likely to focus on this issue over the next year, according to a person familiar with the matter. It’s possible to have certain commercial or licensing agreements put in place that might guarantee usage of NBC News reporting, contributors and talent on the two cable networks. At the same time, the spin off could force MSNBC to focus even more heavily on the progressive opinion programing that is its bread and butter. And it could free CNBC to go after its core audience without having to worry about NBC News, which has its own reporters who cover business and the economy.
All these questions surfaced Wednesday during a meeting between MSNBC staffers and Lazarus, who was unable to state definitively whether or not the network might have to consider a name change or remove various NBC markings from its logo.
Some tea leaves may be in the offing. It will be interesting to see who replaces Andrea Mitchell when she leaves her long-running MSNBC noon program in early 2025. Will her successor come from the ranks of NBC News’ many Washington-based journalists? Or will it be a new opinion host who could lead a new charge into daytime (something MSNBC tried several years ago with Ronan Farrow and Joy Reid).
*Will Madison Avenue want to do as much business with two smaller media entities? Part of the appeal of NBCUniversal to advertisers is it represents a one-stop-shop of sorts. There is broadcast, cable, movies, digital, theme parks — and, in recent years, the chance to test out ads that let a streaming user click to shop for a product, or the opportunity to advertise in Apple News.
The new spin-off, however, is likely to create two smaller companies with opportunities less vast than those of competitors. For the cable entity, the prospect of selling USA, MSNBC and other cable networks will be more fraught. Advertisers have been pulling dollars out of general cable and putting them into streaming in recent “upfront” cycles, and they have been particularly wary of news networks, especially those that spotlight opinion programming.
In the past, NBCU could use its big-tent sports broadcasts, primetime schedule and late-night array to spur sponsors to buy some cable for additional ballast. Now, cable will be all alone.
It remains unclear as to whether the NBCU ad-sales team will stick together to sell everything under one basket, or if the group will be split along with the media properties. The concept raises major sticking points, such as whether two different teams of Comcast-backed ad reps will be calling on major agencies to sell different sports and entertainment programming, with less authority to cobble together the bigger packages many advertisers crave in a world where they need to show up more frequently to get their messages out to potential customers.
*Why isn’t Bravo going along for the ride? Bravo, the home to Andy Cohen’s late-night program and the “Real Housewives” franchise, is not immune to current cable trends. And yet, it’s going to stay with NBC.
The reason has little to do with linear economics and more to do with streaming. Simply put, subscribers to Peacock are heavy consumers of Bravo programming as well as the fare from broadcast, according to a person familiar with the matter. If the “new” NBC is all about fueling the growth of streaming (and the broadband sales of Comcast’s large cable-services division), then Bravo’s home may not be with its cable colleagues,
And yet, Bravo is not faring any better than its soon-to-be-separated cousins. Subscribers to Bravo are expected to dip nearly 5% over the next year, according to data from market-research firm Kagan, part of S&P Global Intelligence. Subscribers are seen falling to 62.6 million in 2025, Kagan says, compared with 65.8 million in 2024. Ad sales are also seen tumbling. Bravo’s ad revenue in 2025 is expected to total $274 million, a 6.5% decline from the $293.3 million the network is projected to capture this year.
*Is NBCU’s ‘Symphony’ now a broken record? One of the biggest selling points for the existence of NBCUniversal since Comcast began buying it from General Electric in 2009 has been the company’s ability to cross-sell and cross-promote both its own TV programs and movies as well as its advertisers’ goods and services. How to do it? Former NBCU CEO Steve Burke called the technique “Symphony” — a beautiful sound made only from the distillation of many different players.
That’s why some big broadcast debuts are touted in promos that air on E! or Oxygen, or why you’re seeing nods to Universal’s soon-to-launch “Wicked” show up alongside “Today” and “Saturday Night Live.”
Coordinating such stuff might be more difficult if cable and some digital are siloed off from the rest of the company. Will NBC and its spin-off have to assign executives to coordinate with each other across a corporate divide? The premise conjures up scenes from the 1999 satire “Office Space” (not a Universal film, by the way) in which one middle manager is asked over and over again to describe his job function of serving as a go-between with clients and engineers. “I deal with the g—amn customers so the engineers don’t have to! I have people skills! I am good at dealing with people! Can’t you understand that?”
