NBC Sports President Rick Cordella on How Comcast's NBCU Cable-Net Spinoff Will Impact Sports Ops There'll still be some tentacles between the two of us where we have to work together' By Jason Dachman, Editorial Director, U.S.
Friday, November 22, 2024 - 3:36 pm
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Comcast rocked the entire media industry on Wednesday when it announced plans to spin off the bulk of its NBCUniversal cable-TV networks as a separate company. Comcast said that the remaining NBCUniversal assets - which include NBC Sports Group along with broadcast TV, movies, and theme parks - will be better positioned for growth.
NBC Sports Group's Rick Cordella called Comcast's cable-network spinoff a microcosm of the larger industry.
I think it's probably just a microcosm of our larger industry, what's happening with cable assets, NBC Sports Group President Rick Cordella said at the SBJ Media Innovators conference later that day. When NBCU was first purchased by Comcast, [cable networks] were the crown jewel, and now we're looking at things a bit differently in the fragmented media world that we're in.
The spinoff company, which is being referred to as SpinCo for now, will comprise NBCU's cable-television networks, including USA Network, CNBC, MSNBC, Oxygen, E!, SYFY, and Golf Channel (Bravo will remain with NBCUniversal Media Group), along with complementary digital assets Fandango and Rotten Tomatoes, GolfNow and Sports Engine. As for the impact on NBC Sports Group, all properties through USA and Golf Channel - including Premier League, NASCAR, WWE, the Olympics, college basketball, PGA TOUR, LPGA, and Golf Majors - will be part of SpinCo's portfolio and featured on the two networks.
I can't speak about all the logistics of what else will happen, said Cordella, but, from a sports perspective, the partners that we have on cable assets like Golf Channel and USA, we're going to fulfill every obligation. Every single promise we made to them across NBC, which we call RemainCo, and across SpinCo, which is the cable assets, we're going to fulfill.
The transaction is expected to take approximately a year, and, although NBC's broadcast network and Peacock will still carry sports content, the content is expected to be shared with the spun-off networks, according to the WSJ.
At the end of the day, he added, when this company does spin off, there will still be some tentacles between the two of us where we have to work together, whether it be production or ad sales or other sort of functional areas between the two companies.
The new publicly traded company will be led by current NBC Universal Media Group Chairman Mark Lazarus, who will become CEO of the new entity. Meanwhile, Matt Strauss will become chairman of the remaining NBCUniversal Media Group. He will continue to lead Direct-To-Consumer - Peacock, International Networks, Global Streaming - while taking on responsibility for NBC Sports, Advertising Sales, Content Distribution, Decision Sciences & Research, and NBC Broadcast Affiliate Relations.
Mark has been my boss for a pretty long time, noted Cordella, so it's bittersweet to see him leave. I know he's excited about the opportunity he's going to have. Matt Strauss has been around in Comcast and NBC for a long time and was my boss at Peacock for three or four years, and a lot of the Peacock sports rights that we acquired in early days went through Matt. He is a big supporter of sports overall, so I'm excited about it. He's going to be great.
Describing Strauss as bullish on sports, Cordella cited his leadership as a major factor in acquiring streaming sports rights for Peacock: If you look at Peacock's portfolio from where we've invested our money, that has a lot to do with Matt saying, Let's go after sports.' We're seeing the data that's coming in, driving subscribers, driving traffic overall [so] he has been saying yes to me a lot [in terms of sports-rights acquisitions].
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NBC Sports President Rick Cordella on How Comcast's NBCU Cable-Net Spinoff Will Impact Sports Ops There'll still be some tentacles between the two of us where we have to work together' By Jason Dachman, Editorial Director, U.S. 
