Comcast‘s surprise announcement on Thursday that it may spin off its cable networks—everything from MSNBC to Bravo—into a completely new company roiled the industry, with some questioning what good would it do for the dying cable business.
Comcast President Mike Cavanagh announced the company’s intention during its earnings call on Thursday, saying they were “studying” the move because of the “effects of the transition of our video businesses”—that is, ratings were down due to streaming and how people consumed content and they needed to figure out the best way to make money in a failing business era.
That would mean, Cavanagh said, networks like MSNBC, Bravo, CNBC, and USA would be part of some unnamed, independent company, ideally owned by Comcast shareholders. NBC’s broadcast network, along with Peacock and the studio business, would remain with Comcast.
What such an unusual arrangement would look like, however, remains to be seen.
NBCUniversal‘s synergy remains second only to Disney in impact. It’s why audiences saw NBC host Willie Geist calling into MSNBC’s Morning Joe from Paris during this year‘s financial boon in the Olympics, and why promos for Universal Pictures’ Wicked have been engrained on many of its non-news programs across networks that call 30 Rock home. Should the company cleave itself of its handful of cable networks, industry insiders speculated, it could rob itself of a massive marketing machine—and the advertising revenue that’d come with it.
It also calls into question what happens to the fickle contracts of stars who appear across the various networks, such as the reporters who are both NBC and MSNBC stars.
Geist, for example, is a host of the Sunday edition of the broadcast network’s Today, but he’s also a co-host of Morning Joe’s 9 a.m. hour, and many of the Peacock family‘s reporters break news across the news division’s channels. Chuck Todd also hosted Meet the Press on NBC on Sunday, but he continued the franchise with MTP Daily on MSNBC throughout the week before it eventually moved to streaming.
It’s especially relevant as Comcast—and NBC News Group chairman Cesar Conde—figure out what to do with their talent, which are more often the draw for audiences than the reporting they spew. Today will already say good-bye to Hoda Kotb next year after it reportedly considered cutting her $20 million salary, and co-host Savannah Guthrie has also reportedly signaled she may leave once her contract is up. Lester Holt, 65, may also be ready to do the same.
If Comcast cuts the cord with networks like MSNBC and CNBC, they potentially lose the benefits reaped by Morning Joe hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski (who effectively helped boot Biden out of the election and helped crown Tim Walz as the vice presidential candidate), the $30 million-a-year Rachel Maddow, and CNBC‘s Joe Kernen and Andrew Ross Sorkin. They’d also let go of the draw of Real Housewives mastermind Andy Cohen, who helped launch BravoCon into one of the network’s top live hits.
