Don’t Bet on the Comcast-NBCUniversal Split Actually Happening

Brian Roberts, Mike Cavanagh
Mike Cavanagh and Brian Roberts in Sun Valley, Idaho, July 2019. Photo: Drew Angerer/Getty Images
Matthew Belloni
June 30, 2026

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To me, the big question from today’s transformative Comcast news is whether the planned split of the NBCUniversal media empire into its own publicly traded company will even happen. Call me cynical, but it seems that by merely announcing a plan to create a pure-play entertainment company—unburdened by the challenged cable and broadband business and the shrinking TV networks spun off into Versant—potential merger partners may emerge for both the connectivity and media sides of the company.