NBCUniversal is now single and ready to mingle
The champagne corks will continue popping today with Comcast announcing plans to spin its media assets into a brand new publicly traded company, to be named NBCUniversal. The news was met with nodding heads by practically everyone, with stock rising 11 per cent following the announcement.
As per the New York Times:
The deal is part of a trend in the media industry of separating faster-growing internet services from traditional TV. This year, Comcast spun off its cable channels, including MS NOW, CNBC and USA, into a separate company, called Versant, part of a bid to streamline its operations.
Comcast’s chairman, Brian Roberts, will be involved in the leadership of both companies after the deal, which is expected to be completed in a year, according to the announcement. Mike Cavanagh, a co-chief executive of Comcast, will become chief executive of NBCUniversal; Michael Angelakis, a former chief financial officer of Comcast, will become Comcast’s chief executive. NBCUniversal will be spun off tax-free to Comcast shareholders, with Comcast retaining a 19.9 percent stake for up to one year.
“Both companies come out of this better off than they started,” Mr. Roberts said in an interview with The New York Times. “It’s going to set us up for a very exciting future.”
Wall Street loves this as it now opens the doors for M&A activity. It’s not just the idea of NBCUniversal being purchased by a rival that has investors twisting in their knickers (and rest assured that as soon as this news broke, Netflix was being suggested as a potential new owner for NBCUniversal… which has some benefits… ), but there’s a lot of talk about a merger for Comcast with rivals like Charter.
Wall Street also weren’t super into the idea of a business combining media and infrastructure: cable and Internet.
The questions I have in this:
Where does the ownership of the greatest building in the world, 30 Rockefeller Plaza land in this new configuration?
Does a newly independent NBCUniversal now have an appetite to take streaming platform Peacock global?
In the same way that Versant (the recent spin-off company that is home to Comcast’s upper-tier cable channels MS Now, CNBC, the Golf Channel, and a handful of others) is now aggressively pursuing acquisitions to complement and strengthen its core assets, could we see NBCUniversal doing the same? And if so, what would it target?
Who might be interested in NBCUniversal? Netflix is an obvious contender. But, it’s a far less appealing acquisition than Warner Bros for a number of reasons. The cost would be appropriately lower too, so maybe that could provide reason enough to do some tire kicking. I’d also look to companies like Nintendo too. That’s a company looking to get deeper into film and TV right now and I’d have to assume the theme park business held by NBCU would be exceptionally attractive to them. The ties between NBCU and Nintendo are strong enough that Co-CEO Mike Cavanagh mentioned the company by name in his letter to staff today.
Has Grand Theft Auto VI just murdered GameStop and EB Games?
About a year or two ago I bought the Playstation 5. I could buy it with or without a disc drive and I chose without. My choice was practical:
I’m not a huge gamer and only buy maybe 1-2 games a year.
I really hate having physical discs following me around for years
It’s not like I am ever going to go to the effort of selling my games. Also… what if I want to play them again?
For hardcore gamers, point 3 is an actual concern. Selling and trading in games is vital to keep costs down and is just part of the culture. And the way this is largely done is through stores like GameStop in the US and here in Australia we have EB Games.
The release of Grand Theft Auto VI, however, is going to put a major sent in the second hand market in that the biggest title of the year is an entirely digital affair. There will be no discs for GameStop to buy second hand and then to on-sell at a higher price.
And further to that, the only reason that a gamer might want to buy GTA VI in-store is for the box, which will come with a code that is used to download the game. How much value is that box going to be to most gamers?
So, not only are retail stores going to see sales diminished, but there’s also not going to be much in the way of alternate new titles to sell with every major publisher shifting the release dates of their games to make way for the monster that is GTA VI.
They’re also going to have difficulty benefitting from the increase of hardware sales. As per Polygon:
GameStop is not the only retailer sweating GTA 6 right now. The sequel to one of the most successful games of all time has long been expected to drive hardware sales. With Rockstar’s game releasing in the thick of a component shortage driven by AI-related demand, console sales aren’t a guarantee anymore.
The most immediately obvious hurdle is pricing. Every major console has become more expensive in 2026; in the case of the Xbox, it has meant multiple price increases in a single year. Existing hardware prices are already shocking consumers, and all signs suggest the component crisis will only grow worse. Inevitably, some people will get priced out — which could mean fewer console sales.
News Desk
RIP The Good Life and To The Manor Born star Penelope Keith, aged 86. Read: The Guardian
Channel 5 is rushed to air a prime time special to celebrate Penelope Keith, The Good Life: Farewell Penelope Keith. Read: Radio Times
John Oliver will appear in a “juicy role” in daytime soap General Hospital across a three-episode arc airing on July 2, 3 and 6. Read: thefutoncritic
Tim Heidecker says he plans to only continue his Alex Jones impersonation for about six months when the new InfoWars launches. He’ll then transition to do something different. InfoWars “returns” on July 2, now owned by The Onion. Read: Indiewire
The life of Jesus Christ will be the focus of an upcoming BBC doc series from Wonderhood Studios. Read: Deadline
YouTube channel Carwow is launching its own FAST channel on Samsung TV Plus. Read: Deadline
A dumb article on Polygon posits that TV is only now catching up to the greatness of Sliders. Read: Polygon
If you care about seeing Daredevil’s black and red suit in the new season of the Disney+ show… Read: Dark Horizons
SWAT spinoff SWAT Exiles will land on Starz as the US home for the show. Read: THR
The Sopranos: The Complete Series comes out on Dec 8 as a limited edition 4K UHD disc set. Read:
Trailer Park
The Bombing of Pan Am 103 debuts on Netflix July 30.
The tragic bombing of a transatlantic flight over Scotland in 1988 unites the local police and the FBI in a hunt for the attackers. Based on a true story.
Ikka debuts on Netflix July 10.
With a loved one's life at stake, a celebrated lawyer must defend a man he suspects is guilty - battling his conscience every step of the way.
The Doll debuts on Netflix September 16.
When Stanislaw falls in love with the aristocratic Izabela, he dedicates his entire life to winning her over. Inspired by the classic Polish novel.
Lets avoid any dirty jokes with this title, shall we…
The Devil’s Mouth debuts on Prime Video July 29.
Five friends explore The Devil's Mouth cave system in Thailand for one last adventure before life in the real world begins. But they soon discover that something is hunting them under the water... fast, silent, and deadly. In the suffocating darkness, trust erodes, panic spreads and every wrong turn becomes a fight for survival.
Cybertruck Edgerunners 2 debuts on Netflix in the US fall.
In a city that thrives in the spotlight of violence, one question remains: when the world is blinded by spectacle, what extremes do you have to go to make your story matter?
That’s the newsletter for the today.
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