Comcast Looking At Forming A New Stand-Alone Company For Its Cable Networks, President Mike Cavanagh Says

Comcast President Mike Cavanagh delivered an eye-opening update to investors on this morning’s third-quarter earnings call, saying the company is exploring creating a new stand-alone entity to house its cable networks.

“Like many of our peers in media, we’re experiencing the effects of the transition of our video businesses and have been studying the best path forward for these assets,” Cavanagh said. “To that end, we are now exploring whether creating a new, well-capitalized company owned by our shareholders and comprised of our strong portfolio of cable networks would position them to take advantage of opportunities in the media landscape and create value for our shareholders. We are not ready to talk about any specifics yet, but we’ll be back to you as and when we reach firm conclusions.”

The news comes after Warner Bros. Discovery and Paramount Global took a collective $15 billion in write downs on the value of their cable assets in the most recent quarter. Cord-cutting is shrinking the pay-TV bundle by millions of subscribers each quarter and it is hard to know where the floor will ultimately be, though live sports has provided some ballast.

Cavanagh added that Comcast “chose not to participate in the M&A process around Paramount in the earlier part of this year, but we would consider partnerships in streaming despite their complexities.”

Peacock, which is now at 36 million subscribers, is continuing to lose money. Comcast and NBCU have held talks with other media companies over the last couple of years, but no agreement could be reached for a joint streaming venture.