More than 15 years ago, Comcast took its first steps toward taking over NBCUniversal. Now it’s unwinding the media business from the broadband and TV pipes, planning to spin off NBCU and Sky into a stand-alone entity.
So what changed in the intervening years? Mike Cavanagh, Comcast co-CEO who is set to become chief exec of NBCU after it spins off, tried to explain the evolution of the company leadership’s thinking on a call with Wall Street analysts Monday morning.
“There’s no surprise that both the media and telecom landscapes have become increasingly competitive, and that pace of change continues to accelerate,” Cavanagh, who joined Comcast in 2015 originally as CFO.
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Cavanagh continued, “And so we simply don’t see these conditions changing anytime soon. So, where we previously believed that scale and the diversification benefits warranted operating these businesses as one company, we’ve now simply changed our mind about that. We’ve now concluded that future success for each of our businesses will depend on focus, speed and strategic flexibility that this separation will unlock, and I think what’s special about this moment is that we have a strong balance sheet and significant financial resources, and that’s going to allow us to set up both companies with their own strong investment-grade balance sheets, enabling their pursuit of future growth and value creation that we see for each new company.”
Brian Roberts, chairman and co-CEO, told analysts the split “is not about separating what we built together. It’s about positioning two exceptional businesses to move forward with greater focus, agility, and the ability to fully capitalize on the opportunities ahead.”
Asked whether investors should view the planned separation as a step toward potential “strategic transactions” for either company — meaning mergers or acquisitions — over time, Roberts responded, “Absolutely not.”
“This is the right move to put each company in the strongest position to create value, fully monetize its assets and aggressively pursue its own organic growth strategies,” Roberts said. Cavanagh jumped in to add, that the plan for NBCUniversal and Sky “is to build and invest for growth. We have the ambition that’s big to pursue opportunities that keep us ahead of evolving consumer behavior and audience demands, and we have the freedom now to explore adjacent businesses where we have the right to play.”
Shares of Comcast were up 9% in midmorning trading Monday, but the stock is still off its 52-week high and is down year-to-date.
Comcast is fresh off another spin: In January 2026, it completed the separation of Versant Media, a business that includes CNBC, MS NOW (formerly MSNBC), USA Network, Fandango and more.
Separately, in December 2025, Comcast had formally entered a bid to combine Warner Bros.’ streaming and studios business with certain of Comcast’s related businesses with a “headline price” of $35.43 per WBD share. Comcast lost out to Netflix, which itself was subsequently outbid by David Ellison’s Paramount Skydance for a $111 billion deal to merger with WBD in its entirety.
Roberts, on the call Monday, said that as Comcast’s board considered splitting the cable connectivity business apart from NBCU and Sky, there were three basic questions.
One, can these businesses stand alone and have the heft to stand alone as separate companies? Two, do they have clear and viable capital allocation path to invest? And three, is now the right time? “And the answer we came back with was ‘yes’ to all counts,” Roberts said.
“These are two exceptional businesses, each with scale in their own right… and the financial strength that we hope to have to succeed as standalone companies,” Roberts said. “Our philosophy has always been to invest for growth, and we’ve done that over many years, and it’s really strengthened these businesses and created tremendous value.” Among the points Roberts spelled out, he said that Comcast has built a “scaled streaming business” with Peacock, which is poised to hit profitability in the second quarter of 2026 less than six years after initial launch.
Cavanagh, about why Sky is being coupled with NBCU, said: “At its core, Sky is a premium media and entertainment business with one of the most powerful consumer brands, leading news, entertainment, sports, and strong positions in attractive European markets. Bringing Sky together with NBCUniversal enhances the scale and global profile of the media and entertainment company, creates more opportunities to invest on entertainment, sports, and news content, enables the sharing of innovation and technological advantages that we see all the time.”
The separation of Comcast Cable and NBCU-Sky is expected to occur in mid-2027.
Michael Angelakis, Comcast’s former CFO who has served as chairman and CEO of investment fund Atairos Group since 2015, has been tapped to be CEO of Comcast following completion of the separation. He’s joining Comcast in the interim as a strategic adviser.
Pictured top: Mike Cavanagh (left), Brian Roberts
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