Comcast spinoff Versant — home to rebranded MSNBC

Shares of Versant Media Group, home to channels such as USA Network and CNBC, slumped 13% in its market debut after its spinoff from Comcast, underscoring investor skepticism around traditional TV businesses in the streaming era.

The spinoff is Comcast’s response to shifting market dynamics in the media industry, as streaming pressures traditional cable TV viewership, prompting media companies to rethink their ownership of legacy networks.

The separation will allow Comcast to focus on its streaming, film and TV assets while shedding its declining cable networks division – once a core part of the company’s business. Comcast first announced plans for the spinoff in late 2024.

Versant houses the NBCUniversal portfolio of networks, which also includes MS NOW – formerly MSNBC – and other iconic brands such as Oxygen, E!, SYFY and Golf Channel. It is also home to Comcast’s digital assets including Fandango, Rotten Tomatoes and SportsEngine.

The company’s shares closed at $40.57, down $6.08, while Comcast shares rose 1.7% to $28.13.

“Legacy TV networks still consistently generate revenue but their future outlook is bleak. It is tough to get investors excited about businesses whose best days are in the past,” said Ross Benes, senior analyst for TV and streaming at eMarketer.

Versant is headed by Mark Lazarus as chief executive. The assets making up Versant generate about $7 billion in annual revenue, Comcast has said.

It’s weird to see this. My first career was in the CATV industry. Out of college I was a door to door salesman in a new-build for a large operator. I worked my way up through the ranks to running one of the regions for them.

So, in my lifetime, I’ve witnessed the introduction of Cable; saw it grow into a huge industry; saw it get regulated to (literal) death; and now they are chopping it up and selling off the necrotic parts to try to stay alive. In short order, it will be surpassed by wireless/satellite transmissions from space.

All this in 40 years.

At one point the broadband infrastructure in this country was the largest privately funded construction project in the history of mankind. It is a shell of what it was prior to the Fed raping it in 1996.

I am glad I got out when I did.

All this in 40 years.

From the mid 60's to the early 2000 I sold computer systems and witnessed an industry that evolved from hardware sales to software/systems sales.

The computer size decreased while the power increased in ways that could not be imagined.

Many of the large scale computers of the 60s and 70s were so large that you could literally walk inside of them.

Today's young people carry as much compute power in their phone as we sold for millions back then.

I understand the concept, but cannot fully comprehend, the awesome power of AI and the changes that it is and will bring to the electronic world.

I too am glad that my age is what it is and have witnessed what has happened without the burning desire to explore AI.

“Comcast sucks!”

We’re not fans, either. Sadly it (Xfinity) was the only internet provider in the area where we bought our house. But we don’t have their cable, cellular, etc. — just internet.

At first they didn’t even want to run the cable to our house without us paying $7K for bringing it up from the street. I finally contacted our TN Consumer Affairs, and the very next day I got a call from Comcast HQ saying they’ll be happy / thrilled to service our home, at no cost to us. It was a two-month ordeal depending only on our phones’ hotspots.

CATV started in areas, mostly rural, that did not receive good over the air signals. Our company started in rural Ohio. The first systems were 12 or 24 channels of over air.

In the 70’s channels like HBO and WTBS started going up on satellites to be carried on the cable systems. Obviously HBO was a premium channel that required a box or “trap” at the pole.

I came in after that period. We had a dual cable systems (A “A side” and a “B side.” It was all of the broadcast channels and a bunch of tiered and premium channels. We were among the first to have “addressable” boxes that could be turned on an off based on our computer system.)

When I left, we were just introducing digital encryption, HD, and internet service. I recall clearly seeing the internet speed—specifically how fast we could download video) and saying to my head engineer…”We’re screwed.)

After I left fiber optics started getting laid for our backbone. This lead to the elimination of local “Head ends” where we would receive satellite signals. Now there were regional head ends or Network Ops Centers. For example, I had four headends in Western MA. Right after I left, there was one head endnear Boston that serviced the entire state. We kept one operating in WMass that only inserted commercials on cable channels. It would back up as a minimal head ends near in a disaster recovery situation.

Even though we made ALL of these improvements and cost saving moves, the Telecom Act (in 1995 or 96) restructured our rates and we could not recoup the capital expenses we had made up to that point. In short, the government let us “build” the systems…and then capped our ability to recoup the expense.

This lead to massive consolidation. Comcast, who was an “also ran” among the top 5 providers had the benefit of better financing and they just ate everyone up. They used that financing to buy NBC and other studios in Hollywood. They expanded their ownership of cable only channels (all companies would chip in to start, say MSNBC. Comcast expanded ownership through buy the CATV companies.). In the end Comcast owned a wide range of the vertical marketplace: They owned the programming, the fiber, the ad revenue…everything.

Now streaming has taken over. Comcast is trying to play with Peacock, but they missed the boat. Disney now owns a lot of the other product and video.

None of this would have happened if the government didn’t regulate pricing structures back in the 1990s.

So, the actual wire to the home will go away. I think we will see Musk evolve into a bigger player; with a national and portable service. The local systems will migrate to a 5G model and move away from copper and fiber on the poles.

In 20 years, the only people talking about “cable TV” will be in Business Schools doing “case studies.”

I was working alongside a bunch of Harvard MBAs who taught me a ton about how to manage a business, treat people, and make money.

I had interns assigned to me when I was a new manager. I found them to be practically useless as they were more interested in forming messages about how HBO should be programmed. Clearly, at the local level, that was going to be a hard nut to crack. They had no interest in learning about scheduling overtime, training agents, or dealing with the power surges in our studio. They were going to work on Madison Ave.

I am not suggesting YOU were useless. But in our environment you would have been tossed in with our Local programming people. At best, that meant you would announce local high school hockey games. LOL.

My wife was a comm major about the time you were. I can imagine her losing her mind as a college senior working in our company.

I learned a bunch working produce for the local Food Mart in college as well. You learn what you can, where you are.

I think it’s worked out OK for both of us.

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