Comcast chairman and Co-CEO Brian Roberts said staffers are eagerly anticipating the forthcoming split of NBCUniversal from the company’s broadband, pay-TV and wireless division.
“Really, there’s an energy and excitement with the proposed separation in both organizations,” Roberts told Wall Street analysts Thursday at the end of the company’s third-quarter earnings call. “We spent years building these businesses, and as the industry transforms itself, we’re meeting the moment.”
The remarks followed the release of strong quarterly results, with revenue and earnings beating analysts’ expectations despite a 6% downturn in revenue due to pressure squeezing all broadband purveyors. NBCU powered the report on the July-to-September period, with record-breaking box office from The Odyssey and booming viewership and ad revenue of the World Cup.
The split is expected to be completed by the middle of 2027, setting up NBCU as its own stand-alone entity to be run by Comcast co-CEO Mike Cavanagh. It will unlock a number of strategic options for the entertainment giant, while its Philadelphia-based sibling will be in restructuring mode as it adjusts for competition from satellite operators including Elon Musk’s Starlink. Comcast said it is taking a $1 billion charge in the current fourth quarter related to restructuring in the connectivity division, with that overhaul include an as-yet-unspecified number of layoffs.
On the NBCU end, Roberts said he and his management colleagues are “really pleased with Peacock,” which recorded its second straight quarter of profitability thanks to Spanish-language World Cup telecasts and Love Island USA.
Roberts said the streamer’s “open architecture and some of the relationships we’re gonna be able to have really gives us a unique place in the market.” As with a recent distribution agreement reached with Google and YouTube, NBCU and Peacock after the split will be “working with, hopefully, everybody,” the exec added.
Earlier in the call, Cavanagh said the company is “well into the execution phase” of the split, which includes “building the stand-alone public company infrastructure.” The pattern was established two years ago with the Versant spinoff, which was proposed in late 2024 and completed a year later ahead of Versant’s January IPO.
“While there is still significant work ahead, we have a clear path to completion and remain focused on creating two companies with a strategic flexibility, financial strength, and leadership to compete and grow independently,” Cavanagh said. “And we have tremendous confidence in the future of both companies. Each has significant structural advantages, a strong competitive position, and substantial opportunities for long term growth and value creation.”