Late Tuesday, word leaked out from The Wall Street Journal before spreading elsewhere and made official Wednesday morning that Comcast will be spinning off failing, far-left cable network MSNBC, along with CNBC and five other channels to become its own, publicly traded company.
That said, it’s not a full break from television as Comcast will keep NBC, the cable network Bravo, and the Peacock streaming platform.
Take notice of the publicly traded description for this company. Conservatives, Elon Musk, and others tired of MSNBC’s poisonous rhetoric has the opportunity to do perhaps the funniest thing ever.
Fox News Digital’s Brian Flood detailed MSNBC’s recent ratings headaches last week:
MSNBC’s reliably liberal audience has tuned out the anti-Trump network since Election Day with a staggering 54% drop in primetime viewership.
MSNBC averaged 1.1 million viewers during the month of October but plummeted to an average audience of 736,000 on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday of last week following President-elect Donald Trump’s historic landslide victory over Vice President Kamala Harris. MSNBC’s remarkable 31% drop comes as Fox News Channel’s viewership grew by 61% over the same time period.
MSNBC also shed 26% of its year-to-date totals, but things got even worse in primetime.
During the primetime hours of 8-11 p.m. ET, MSNBC averaged 1.8 million total viewers in October but viewership of "Alex Wagner Tonight," "All in with Chris Hayes" and "The Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell" have averaged only 808,000 total viewers since election night. The 54% drop represents more than half of the network’s primetime viewers, and MSNBC is also down 51% from its year-to-date totals while Fox News is up 58% in primetime compared to 2024 averages.
MSNBC is also down 16% among total day viewers and 57% during primetime among the critical demographic of adults age 25-54, which is most coveted by advertisers.
The Journal’s Amol Sharma had the details in the original piece updated to include Comcast’s public confirmation, including their acceptance “that it will be better off without a business that was once its crown jewel” after only a month since word trickled out this was being studied.
Sharma explained this also was an acknowledgment of Americans increasingly cutting the cord, leaving a set of costly assets Comcast no longer wanted to be burdened with.
“Comcast is betting that NBCUniversal’s remaining assets—including in broadcast TV, sports, movies and theme parks—will be better positioned for growth, and that its strong balance sheet can absorb the loss of still-healthy profits from cable networks,” he said.
As for why Bravo’s staying, look no further than it being the home for reality TV shows such as Below Deck, the Real Housewives franchises, and Andy Cohen’s Watch What Happens Live.
The move will “take around a year to complete” and, under the name SpinCo, “will have an ownership structure that mirrors Comcast’s, with Comcast Chairman and CEO Brian Roberts holding a one-third voting stake” but not “on the board of the new venture.”
Along with other executives from Comcast remaining involved with this new company, Sharma said “Mark Lazarus, who is currently the chairman of NBCUniversal’s media group, with oversight of TV and streaming platforms, will be named chief executive of the new venture” plus “Anand Kini, who has served as chief financial officer of NBCUniversal, will be the CFO and operating chief of the new company.”
