WASHINGTON (AP) — Comcast will spin off many of NBCUniversal’s cable television networks, including USA Network, CNBC and MSNBC, into a separate public company.
The shift, which comes as more and more people opt for streaming services over traditional cable, was telegraphed by the company when it released its most recent earnings last month.
The new company will also get Oxygen, E!, SYFY and Golf Channel as well as movie ticketing platform Fandango and the Rotten Tomatoes movie rating site.
Peacock will remain with Comcast, as will Bravo, which provides significant content for the Peacock streaming service.
Mark Lazarus, current chairman of NBCUniversal Media Group, will serve as the new entity’s chief executive officer. Anand Kini, the current chief financial officer of NBCUniversal, will take on the same title with the new company as well as the chief operating officer role.
"As a standalone company with these outstanding assets, we will be better positioned to serve our audiences and drive shareholder returns in this incredibly dynamic media environment across news, sports and entertainment," Lazarus said Wednesday.
Comcast said in the 12-month period ending September 30, the assets that will comprise the new company generated about $7 billion of the company’s approximate $123 billion in revenue.
Comcast expects the new company to have the financial flexibility to be “a potential partner and acquirer of other complementary media businesses.”
The spin-off is targeted for completion in about a year, the entertainment giant said, pending financing and approval from its board and government regulators.
Shares of Comcast, based in Philadelphia, rose 1% to $42.75.
Like other cable companies, Comcast in recent years has shifted its business emphasis away from tradition cable toward streaming and other sources of revenue, such as its movie studio, theme parks and home wireless and internet services.
In its most recent quarter, Comcast reported that paid subscribers to its streaming Peacock channel jumped by 3 million, or 29%, to 36 million subscribers. Peacock’s revenue soared 82% to $1.5 billion in the period.
Peacock was launched in 2020, and after a confusing, glitchy start, has taken off recently, boosted in part by the platform’s success and popularity during the 2024 Paris Olympic Games.
Peacock streamed all 329 medal events and over 5,000 hours of coverage during the Games, with viewers streaming more than 23 billion minutes of Olympic coverage, led by Peacock. That's a 40% increase over all previous Summer and Winter Olympics combined, Comcast said.
Comcast reported revenue of more than $32 billion and profit of $1.12 per share in its most recent quarter, boosted by the summer box-office success of "Despicable Me 4," which grossed more than $1 billion worldwide.
The company expects to open its Epic Universe theme park in Orlando in May of next year.
FILE - The symbol for Comcast appears on a screen at the Nasdaq MarketSite, on Oct. 1, 2019 in New York. (AP Photo/Richard Drew, File)
FILE- A Comcast truck is shown on Jan. 24, 2019, in Pittsburgh. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar, File)
NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stocks are quiet as Wall Street gears up for what may be the biggest event left on its calendar this year, the earnings report from superstar stock Nvidia after the close. The S&P 500 was flat in early trading Wednesday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 74 points, or 0.2%, while the Nasdaq composite slipped 0.1%. Williams-Sonoma soared after delivering better profit and revenue than expected. Target fell sharply after delivering results that fell short of analysts’ expectations. Target also gave a weaker-than-expected forecast for the holiday season. Treasury yields edged higher in the bond market.
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP’s earlier story follows below.
HONG KONG (AP) — World stocks were mixed on Wednesday, despite gains on Wall Street, as worries mounted over escalations in the Russia-Ukraine war.
On Tuesday, Ukraine fired several American-supplied longer-range missiles into Russia, according to the official, marking the first such use in nearly 1,000 days of war. On the same day, Russian President Vladimir Putin formally lowered the threshold for Russia’s use of its nuclear weapons.
Britain’s FTSE 100 rose 0.1% to 8,108.45 after the Office for National Statistics reported the inflation rate picked up to 2.3% in October, a sharp increase from the 1.7% rise recorded in September. Germany’s DAX added 0.6% to 19,173.08, while the CAC 40 in Paris was up 0.5% to 7,268.87.
The futures for the S&P 500 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average were up 0.3%.
In Japan, the Nikkei 225 slipped 0.2% to 38,352.34 after the Finance Ministry reported the country recorded a trade deficit in October, for a fourth straight month. Exports rose 3.1% from a year earlier as a weak yen and the rising price of energy kept import costs high. A trade deficit occurs when the country is importing more goods and services than it is exporting.
Shares of Seven & i Holdings Co., the company that owns over 80,000 7-Eleven convenience stores worldwide, soared 8.4% on Wednesday after local media reported that the founding family plans to raise over 8 trillion yen ($51.66 billion) to take the company private within this financial year.
China's central bank announced it will keep its benchmark lending rates unchanged after it cut its one-year lending rate to 3.1% in October. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng edged 0.2% higher to 19,705.01, and the Shanghai Composite gained 0.7% to 3,367.99.
Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 dipped 0.6% to 8,326.30. South Korea’s Kospi added 0.4% to 2,482.29.
On Tuesday, the S&P 500 rose 0.4% to 5,916.98 after erasing an early drop of 0.7%. The Nasdaq composite also shook off an early loss to turn 1% higher to 18,987.47, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 0.3% to 43,268.94.
Nvidia’s 4.9% climb accounted for most of the index’s gain. The chip company’s stock rallied ahead of its profit report for the latest quarter, which is coming later Wednesday, and vaulted its gain for the year to nearly 197% thanks to the craze around artificial-intelligence technology.
The worries on the Ukraine-Russia conflict sent investors into U.S. Treasury bonds, which are seen as some of the world’s safest investments. The rise in their prices in turn lowered their yields, and the 10-year Treasury yield fell to 4.39% from 4.41% late Monday.
Gold also rose 0.6% and recovered some of the losses it sustained following Donald Trump’s victory in the U.S. presidential election, as investors herded into places traditionally considered safer during times of trouble.
Walmart climbed 3% after topping forecasts for both profit and revenue. The nation’s biggest retailer said it saw broad-based strength across its categories, including sales made both online and in stores. It also said it served more upper-income households, while raising its forecasts for sales and profit for the full year.
Lowe’s likewise delivered bigger profit and revenue for the latest quarter than analysts expected, but its stock nevertheless dropped 4.6%. A report in the morning said construction crews broke ground on fewer new homes last month than economists expected, and rival Home Depot slipped 0.9%.
Other big companies set to report their latest quarterly results this week include Target on Wednesday and Deere & Co. on Thursday.
In other dealings early Wednesday, benchmark U.S. crude oil edged 30 cents higher to $69.54 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
Brent crude, the international standard, added 25 cents to $73.56 per barrel.
The dollar rose to 155.63 Japanese yen from 154.54 yen. The euro slipped to $1.0574 from $1.0598.
FILE - The morning sun shines on Wall Street in New York's Financial District on Tuesday, Nov. 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Peter Morgan)
Currency traders watch their computer monitors near the screens showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI), left, the foreign exchange rate between U.S. dollar and South Korean won, center, and the Korean Securities Dealers Automated Quotations (KOSDAQ), at a foreign exchange dealing room in Seoul, South Korea, Wednesday, Nov. 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)
