Headline Roundup • November 21st, 2024
Comcast Splits Up, Causing Ramifications for Cable News
Summary from the AllSides News Team
Comcast has recently decided to split up, departing from all but the NBC broadcast network, containing NBC News and NBC Sports, streaming service Peacock, Universal film and television studios, Universal Studios theme park, and local TV stations. The spinoff company will include MSNBC, CNBC, USA, Oxygen, Syfy, E!, the Golf Channel, Rotten Tomatoes, Fandango and SportsEngine.
For Context: Following the election, MSNBC ratings were down 24% year over year, and prime-time news viewership was down 30%. The spinoff, valued at seven billion, isn't expected to be completed until next year.
Why a Spinoff: As more people cut cable subscriptions for streaming services, "CNBC’s own media reporter, Julia Boorstin, noted, 'the smaller company can be more acquisitive' in dealmaking with other media companies that are also seeking to offload their cable offerings."
The Media Landscape: While a Los Angeles Times (Lean Left bias) opinion piece noted MSNBC's status as a "maverick," saying, "Once Trump got elected, MSNBC became home base for viewers opposed to his policies and behavior," others were concerned that traditional media may be on the ropes. A Fox News (Right bias) writer said, "Beyond the financial questions – whether the smaller cable units have to seek a larger partner – is an unmistakable implication: that all-news channels have a questionable future." Though independent media figures are making millions on Substack, he concluded that traditional media will not go extinct. "For all their flaws and bias, they do this thing called reporting. Most of the disclosures about the most controversial Trump nominees have come from big news organizations. And the most important moments of the campaign, the two debates and key interviews, have played out on television," He added.
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Weeks after floating a huge trial balloon, Comcast followed through this morning, announcing plans to spin off most of its linear cable networks into a separate company, including such stalwarts as CNBC, MSNBC, USA Network and SyFy.
It’s the first tangible action among media executives who exulted in the days after the election about a more relaxed regulatory and M&A regime under the imminent Trump Administration. More importantly, the Comcast announcement likely will set off other spinoffs, mergers, and other deal-making as traditional Hollywood continues to undergo a wrenching transformation...
Comcast’s cable networks, which include MSNBC and CNBC, make a heckuva lot of money.
It doesn’t matter.
As the Wall Street Journal first reported, the communications giant confirmed yesterday it’s spinning off almost all its cable properties, including USA, E!, Oxygen, Syfy and Golf Channel, which generated $7 billion in revenue in the latest 12-month period.
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MSNBC
When NBC launched MSNBC in 1996, the network was marketed with the slogan “It’s Time to Get Connected,” a line that acknowledged the emergence of the internet as a game-changing force in the media. Microsoft, then a minority partner in the channel, made web culture part of its programming.
Now, MSNBC is being upended by the very technology it first embraced, with streaming video now accounting for nearly half of all TV viewing, according to Nielsen. The decline of pay TV has culminated in Comcast placing MSNBC — along with...
