• Media and entertainment insiders expect an uptick in industry M&A in 2025.
• Comcast and Skydance Media's deals could unleash more activity.
• Insiders identified the deals they think are most likely to happen in 2025 and beyond.

With several buzzy media and entertainment deals already planned for 2025, industry insiders say next year could see a flurry of M&A activity.

Bankers and investors largely expect Trump's return to the White House will be favorable for dealmaking and are rubbing their hands together in anticipation of a big year ahead.

"Every banker that has pay-TV is crunching the numbers," said Jonathan Miller, CEO of Integrated Media, which invests in digital media. Miller sees media at an inflection point that could accelerate M&A. Now that streaming TV businesses are maturing, owners of linear TV channels can start to think about hiving off that no-growth business.

A big player here is Comcast, which announced in November that it would spin off most of its NBCUniversal cable channels, including CNBC, MSNBC, and E!, into a new SpinCo. That new entity plans to grow in part by acquiring other cable channels, so the move is widely expected to trigger other deals.

A second potential trigger of M&A is Skydance Media's long-awaited merger with Paramount Global. This will combine David Ellison's production company, known for hits like "Top Gun: Maverick," with Paramount's assets, including a storied movie studio, CBS News, and cable networks like MTV and Nickelodeon. Paramount is expected to get rid of assets alongside the merger.

Both the Comcast and Paramount deals are expected to close in the second half of 2025.

Another big theme that could pave the way for deals is the continued fallout of Peak TV's end, which industry insiders expect to continue to winnow the number of independent TV suppliers. Look for more production companies to shut down or combine, as in the recent merger of LeBron James' sports-focused SpringHill with Fullwell 73, the production company behind "The Kardashians."

While Big Tech has become a major player in entertainment and, increasingly, sports rights, don't look to them to be the savior of struggling media and entertainment companies.

"The tech companies have realized they could get the milk without buying the cow," said Alex Iosilevich, partner at Alignment Growth, which invests in media and entertainment. "You see it with the sports rights. You don't need to buy Warner to get the next NBA rights."

Business Insider spoke with half a dozen media and entertainment investors, bankers, and advisors who speculated about the deals they think could happen in 2025 and beyond. Some of the people were granted anonymity to protect business relationships; their identities are known to BI.

Paramount is widely expected to unload assets

It's taken as a given in the industry that Paramount will pare down, as it's tried to do for years, now that its Skydance merger is imminent and the company is poised to install former NBCUniversal CEO Jeff Shell at the helm.

Co-CEO George Cheeks has said the company is evaluating sales of assets to shave $500 million in costs, which could include BET Media and the Paramount Pictures lot. (It's already been in talks to sell BET to a group led by CEO Scott Mills.) Leaders have insisted they're keeping CBS. But Paramount's networks face the same tough market as the rest of the linear landscape.

Some see Showtime as a prime target for Starz, the cable network that's shifting to streaming with its imminent spinoff from studio Lionsgate. Starz could be on the hunt for assets to help it bulk up.

Comcast SpinCo could be a buyer or a seller

NBCU executive Mark Lazarus, who will be SpinCo's CEO, has talked it up as a buyer. It certainly has options. It could look no further than Paramount, which has already hung a for-sale sign on assets, or Warner's grab bag of channels like TBS or TLC. Another potential target is AMC Networks, the prestigious but sub-scale network and streamer (though it specializes in the type of TV dramas that have largely migrated to streaming).

SpinCo could also be a seller. Some also think SpinCo could be bought entirely by a private-equity firm further down the road. SpinCo may have to wait a couple of years to sell itself to avoid a tax liability anyway.

WBD is expected to make a move

Warner Bros. Discovery recently announced that it would split into two divisions in 2025, signaling M&A options are on the table. One will house the growing digital streaming and studio businesses, and the other will consist of its declining legacy television networks. WBD needs the cash from its linear channels to pay down its still-considerable debt, but separating the good from the bad could help it sell some assets.

Industry insiders have predicted WBD could do anything from adding Paramount's linear channels or Comcast's SpinCo — considering Warners' debt, it could happen in a stock-for-stock swap — to selling properties like CNN that aren't core to its streaming business. And depending on how the Murdoch succession plays out, a longer-term play could be to buy Fox assets. With scale still the coin of the realm, Warners has to eat or be eaten.

Lionsgate has a valuable catalog

Now that Lionsgate is separated from Starz, it's widely seen as a candidate for sale, something Anson Funds Management, an activist investor, is pushing for.

"I don't think they'll be independent in 2026," one banker said.

There'd be no shortage of buyers for Lionsgate, as it's one of the last independent Hollywood studios out there. Its massive library includes "John Wick," "The Hunger Games," and "Twilight."

Paramount or WBD could snap it up for its library, though they wouldn't necessarily want its distribution or management business. Legendary Entertainment (home to "Dune" and "Godzilla") and its major investor Apollo Global Management, as well as Sony, were previously said to all be interested in Paramount, so they could be potential buyers for Lionsgate. Some also see Fox in the market for a studio, as it sold its TV and movie studios to Disney in 2019.

And while Big Tech has generally preferred to build than buy, Amazon has shown an openness to acquiring, having put down $8.5 billion for MGM Studios three years ago.

Don't count out Disney

That leaves the other legacy media giant: Disney.

About a year ago, CEO Bob Iger floated the idea of selling Disney's TV and cable properties like ABC, but he's since retreated from it. The company line was that Disney wouldn't get the price it wanted and that it'd be too complex to separate them from the rest of the company. Iger and Trump have also sparred in the past, and Disney could look to avoid deals that need government approval.

That said, Iger could change his mind, and now that its streaming business sees a path to ongoing profitability, he seems to have more options. Disney could entertain selling its TV networks like ABC, which it doesn't need to fuel its streaming business. And Disney, without its linear TV business, could be more valuable to a potential buyer, should it decide it's better off selling itself.

One industry player mused that Disney could sell Hulu+ Live TV, its cable-like TV package, and exit the distribution business.

Is Roku headed for a sale?

Roku has been a beneficiary of the continued shift of viewers to streaming, with smart TVs in 85 million homes. Needham recently got Roku in the conversation again with a note predicting it could be sold in 2025, now that Walmart has closed its sale of TV maker Vizio. Needham analysts think anyone from Netflix to The Trade Desk could be interested in Roku as a way to build their streaming ad business, while a retailer like Target could see Roku as a way to use TV ads to drive shopping.

Lara O'Reilly contributed reporting.

• Are you still paying for cable TV?
• If so, consider that the people who own cable TV networks seem increasingly uninterested in hanging on to them.
• That's the real story behind WBD's corporate maneuvering Thursday — to make a cable TV spinoff or sale much more likely.

Comcast is ditching its cable TV networks. Now Warner Bros. Discovery may do the same.

That's the takeaway from Thursday's news that WBD is splitting up its cable TV business from its streaming and studio operations.

To be clear: WBD is not saying that it intends to ditch its cable networks, like TNT and Food Network.

Instead, it's using hand-wavy language like "a new corporate structure designed to enhance its strategic flexibility and create potential opportunities to unlock additional shareholder value" to describe what it's doing.

But to be super clear: The reason WBD is doing this now is so it can get rid of its cable operations in the future, perhaps by merging them with the cable TV spinoff that Comcast has planned for next year. And, just as important, because it wants to tell Wall Street that a breakup is on the table.

Not coincidentally, WBD shares are up 13% on the news.

Reminder: WBD has floated this idea before, though less formally. Earlier this summer, WBD execs said (quietly) they were looking at the same kind of corporate restructuring, and then decided to back off the idea.

What has changed since then?

On the one hand, not a lot. The structural challenges around a split still remain: Namely, the fact that while cable TV networks are declining assets, they're still profitable ones, and those profits help keep their owners' other assets afloat.

On the other hand: Now that Comcast has announced it is absolutely going to split off its declining cable TV assets, it helps make other splits more likely. That's because Comcast's spun-off cable TV operation will want to find other cable TV networks to add to its collection so it can increase negotiating power. Which (potentially) solves the "who wants to buy a declining asset?" problem WBD was looking at before.

Also of note: Donald Trump's second term in office may be much, much friendlier to consolidation, as WBD CEO David Zaslav noted the morning after Trump's election. (Reminder: The Trump 2.0 merger mania many people expect may not extend across the board. Trump's incoming team continues to make noise about reining in Big Tech, and that scrutiny may also apply to (at least some parts of) Big Media.)

All of which is worth remembering if you still pay for a package of cable TV networks, which means you are continually being asked to pay more for them. (Just Thursday, Google said it was hiking the price of its YouTube TV cable bundle by 14%.) You, the consumer, are being told cable TV is worth paying more for. But cable TV owners want to get these things off their books.

• Warner Bros. Discovery is splitting its linear TV business from streaming and studios.
• Comcast last month also spun off its cable networks — except Bravo — into a stand-alone company.
• The moves illustrate a cable business in decline, with both repositioning for M&A opportunities.

Warner Bros. Discovery is separating its linear television business from its streaming business and film studios.

It follows a similar move by Comcast, which announced in November it would spin off all of its NBCUniversal cable networks except Bravo into a stand-alone company.

The new corporate structure will be complete by the middle of next year, WBD said. Unlike Comcast, WBD won't spin its assets off into a separate company.

A new Global Linear Networks division will house TV properties like the Discovery Channel and CNN, while the Streaming & Studios side will be the home of Max and movie studio Warner Bros. Motion Picture Group.

"Our Global Linear Networks business is well positioned to continue to drive free cash flow, while our Streaming & Studios business focuses on driving growth," WBD president and CEO David Zaslav said in a statement.

A source with direct knowledge of the matter said the move was meant to clean up the company's structure, which was formed in 2022 from the combination of WarnerMedia and Discovery. (Discovery itself was the product of its acquisition of Scripps Networks in 2017.)

This person said the company is still determining how the specific business units will be divided, and no leadership changes were planned.

The moves by both Comcast and WBD illuminate a cable business increasingly in decline. Their repositioning of properties could help them participate in potential mergers and acquisitions expected to reshape the media and entertainment industry in 2025.

Warner Bros. Discovery was supposed to create scale and value and help compete with Big Tech by mashing WarnerMedia's prestige networks like HBO and CNN with Discovery's lifestyle properties like HGTV. But its stock has sunk to about a third of its value at the time of its creation in 2022. (It was up about 14% Thursday morning on the news of the new organization.)

Industry observers say a Comcast-like spin wouldn't be favorable for WBD because it needs the cash from its linear channels to pay down the heavy debt it took on to form the company.

Still, they see WBD bulking up or shedding channels, with Paramount Global or Comcast seen as the most likely merger partners.

The announcement was met with mixed reactions from analysts. BofA Securities, which has long argued that WBD should sell assets or merge with another company, said in a note that it saw WBD's linear assets as a logical partner for the Comcast SpinCo, while its streaming and studio assets could be an attractive takeover target for multiple suitors.

Longtime ad industry advisor Brian Wieser said that as with the Comcast SpinCo, a WBD separation weakens the company on a few fronts, though. Without being tethered to the cable channels, he said, it'll be harder for WBD's streamer Max to grow its ads business, which is becoming increasingly important. The linear networks will lose leverage in distribution negotiations without Max and have trouble attracting talent if they're seen as a declining business, among other issues, he said.

In July, WBD reportedly floated the idea to investors of essentially undoing the 2022 merger to create the two separate divisions. And in August, the company said its TV assets were worth $9 billion less than it had anticipated just two years ago.

• Despite what some analysts predicted, the sky hasn't fallen at Warner Bros. Discovery without the NBA.
• The company's new deal with the cable giant Comcast is better than some anticipated.
• Those at WBD are thrilled to have saved money on NBA rights while avoiding a carriage-fee disaster.

It looks like Warner Bros. Discovery didn't "have to have the NBA" after all.

A year and a half after WBD's CEO, David Zaslav, gave that quote, the NBA's broadcast partner of four decades was outbid by Disney's ESPN, Comcast's NBC, and Amazon for the league's next TV deal, valued at $76 billion over 11 years.

Zaslav was widely chastised for allowing NBA rights to slip through his fingers after appearing indifferent about their value at a time when live sports seemed like it could be the cable bundle's only hope. Some media analysts said WBD underestimated NBC's bid and that the value of its TV networks would take a major hit without the NBA.

But the worst didn't happen. The media conglomerate has managed to secure higher rates for most of its TV networks from Charter and Comcast, the two largest cable providers in the US, people familiar with the terms of the deals told Business Insider.

The Comcast deal is particularly notable, as some in the industry expected the cable giant to drive a hard bargain. Comcast and WBD surprised the industry on Monday when they announced they'd reached a carriage-renewal deal. The financial terms weren't disclosed, but people familiar with them told BI that Comcast's affiliate fees for TNT would remain flat and that it would pay slightly more for WBD's other networks. In return, Comcast customers in the US, the UK, and Ireland can get Max for free.

This new deal, especially TNT's fees remaining flat without the NBA, looks like a win for Zaslav that certainly wasn't guaranteed just a few months ago.

No NBA, no problem?

Before the Charter and Comcast deals were announced, the general feeling in the media world was that pay-TV providers could play hardball and demand lower affiliate fees for WBD's networks, especially an NBA-less TNT. Shrinking affiliate fees and weaker ad revenue from lower ratings could be disastrous for debt-riddled WBD.

Instead, in mid-September, WBD struck a deal with the cable giant Charter in which it secured a flat rate for TNT and higher rates for other channels like CNN, HGTV, and Discovery. However, doing so took a key concession: giving away its Max streaming service.

The Charter deal was heralded as a success, with Zaslav a "clear winner" in the eyes of the veteran media analyst Rich Greenfield of LightShed. Greenfield had said that if WBD could fend off a major decline in affiliate fees in its next deals, then "investor fears are misplaced."

Still, another major test was ahead: WBD's negotiations with Comcast. Some observers thought WBD got a sweetheart deal from Charter since the cable legend John Malone was on the board of both companies, but they expected Comcast would take no prisoners. LightShed's Brandon Ross predicted that Comcast CEO Brian Roberts would be aggressive in negotiations.

The terms WBD and Comcast agreed to are remarkably similar to WBD's deal with Charter, and each came together more than a year before key deadlines. "Most favored nation" clauses mean cable providers can get similar terms as their competitors, but some analysts thought Comcast would get a better deal that Charter could match in retrospect.

Company insiders seemed pleased with the deals, though the WBD side seemed especially thrilled. Some people within the company believed they'd been vindicated after taking heat for losing the NBA.

Those with knowledge of WBD's thinking said the company could actually be better off without the NBA now that it avoided carriage-fee cuts. Instead of paying up for the NBA, whose ratings are down so far this season, the company can invest in other sports or pay down debt.

Unlike Amazon or Comcast, which have other businesses that can help subsidize their NBA rights, WBD would have needed its NBA investment to pay for itself — mainly through carriage fees, advertising revenue, and subscriptions to Max, which airs the NBA on TNT. And the company wasn't sure that would be possible if it paid significantly more money for fewer games.

So while the WBD hoped to keep the NBA at the right price, it was prepared to walk away — hence Zaslav's surprisingly blunt quote. By opting for plan B, WBD sent the message that its priority was keeping costs in check and paying down debt.

WBD shares are up by 58% since mid-September, suggesting that the market is rewarding the company for passing on the NBA — even though doing so was controversial.

Cable broadband companies continue to insist that data caps are good for people with low incomes, pushing back against comments filed by consumer advocacy groups. NCTA—The Internet & Television Association urged the Federal Communications Commission to avoid regulating the monthly data limits and overage charges that cable firms such as Comcast and Cox impose on many Internet plans.

Advocacy groups "suggest that usage-based pricing disproportionately harms low-income users, reasoning that these users are least able to afford overage fees if they exceed data thresholds," the NCTA said in comments filed last week with the FCC. "However, in reality, usage-based pricing benefits low-income or price-sensitive consumers by providing additional options for less expensive plans."

The NCTA contends that "there is no basis for the assertion that regulation is warranted because low-income consumers are uniquely harmed by usage-based pricing. To the contrary, in many cases usage-based pricing provides more options for consumers, including lower-priced ones, which helps consumers stay connected."

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• Elon Musk teased the idea of buying the TV network MSNBC.
• "How much does it cost?" Musk wrote on X.
• Comcast plans to spin off some of its cable channels, including MSNBC.

Elon Musk has teased the idea of buying the liberal TV network MSNBC.

Musk floated the idea on social media, responding to a post on X shared by Donald Trump Jr. that said Comcast was putting the network up for sale.

"Hey @elonmusk I have the funniest idea ever!!!" Trump Jr. wrote alongside the post.

"How much does it cost?" Musk replied.

Musk, the world's richest person, later added: "The most entertaining outcome, especially if ironic, is most likely," accompanied by a laughing emoji.

While he may have been joking, it's worth remembering that Musk made a similar comment years before acquiring X (then Twitter) in 2022.

In 2017, Musk took to the platform to declare his "love" for Twitter, to which someone replied: "You should buy it then."

"How much is it?" Musk asked.

While there's no formal indication that Musk intends to go ahead with an offer for MSNBC, the idea has already sparked some concerns.

Thomas Whalen, an associate professor of social sciences at Boston University, told The Telegraph that Musk's idea was "a bombshell on the broadcasting landscape."

"Musk's move seems like a hostile takeover and it bodes badly for the media moving forward," Whalen said. "I think how Vladimir Putin and oligarchs have been buying the free media in Russia."

It follows Comcast's announcement earlier this week that it would be spinning off some of its cable television networks, including MSNBC, into a separate company.

The new company, called "SpinCo," will provide news, sports, and entertainment content, Comcast said in a press release.

President-elect Donald Trump has dished out some strong criticism of MSNBC in the past, and the impending Trump era is adding to internal fears over the network's future.

In a Truth Social post in 2023, Trump called the network "the world's biggest political contribution to the Radical Left Democrats" and "nothing but a 24 hour hit job on Donald J. Trump."

"Our so-called 'government' should come down hard on them and make them pay for their illegal political activity," he wrote.

Business Insider has contacted MSNBC for comment.

• Incoming boss Mark Lazarus addressed the CNBC newsroom Thursday.
• The day before, CNBC anchors had made bleak jokes on-air about Comcast's spinoff plans.
• Three CNBC staffers told BI the mood inside the company seemed upbeat during Lazarus' visit.

In a meeting at CNBC headquarters in New Jersey on Thursday afternoon, incoming boss Mark Lazarus presented a bullish view of the future after the bombshell news that Comcast would spin off the network.

Three CNBC staffers told Business Insider they felt Lazarus' optimistic talk landed well in the newsroom. They asked for anonymity to discuss internal meetings. Their identities are known to BI.

The vibe was a bit of contrast to Wednesday, when Comcast announced plans to spin off most of its NBCUniversal cable TV networks — including CNBC — into a separate public company called SpinCo (for now). On Wednesday, CNBC anchors shared some worries and dark humor on-air, with "Squawk Box" coanchor Joe Kernan quipping, "We're going out into the cold, cruel world."

Lazarus, who will be SpinCo's CEO, addressed a packed newsroom Thursday at CNBC and didn't hold a Q&A, though he mingled with staff and took questions one-on-one afterward. While speaking with staff, Lazarus said the new company would keep the money generated by its properties and pursue other M&A targets, describing it as entrepreneurial and flexible, one CNBC staffer said.

Lazarus said SpinCO "would be a predator, not prey" and examine various targets "like digital businesses and IP," a second CNBC staffer recalled.

A third staffer said Lazarus talked about the SpinCo having the ability to invest in its cable networks, giving the example of the Golf Channel as one that's thrived digitally.

The first staffer said that after the meeting, talks in the hallway seemed upbeat. That said, CNBC has undergone several rounds of layoffs over the past year, they added.

"People felt better than they did when it first started," the third staffer said. "The plan isn't just to dress it up for PE."

In addition to CNBC, Comcast is spinning off MSNBC, E!, and Oxygen — but holding onto Bravo, whose "Real Housewives" shows and other reality fare are inexpensive to produce and integral to its Peacock streaming service.

Before his meeting with CNBC staff on Thursday, Lazarus and MSNBC president Rashida Jones spoke to execs, producers, anchors, and hosts at MSNBC on Wednesday, Vanity Fair reported.

There were also signs of optimism there, with host Rachel Maddow saying it was positive to have Lazarus there on "day one," Vanity Fair reported. Still, reporting from The Ankler described the meeting as "intense."

Comcast is going forward with the spinoff — which it says will take about a year to complete — amid sagging prospects in the cable TV business. And it's not alone. Disney chairman and CEO Bob Iger previously floated the idea of spinning off its cable channels, but the company has more recently retreated.

• Comcast is looking to separate from most of its cable networks.
• However, the media titan is keeping Bravo, which makes popular reality-TV shows.
• Here's why holding onto Bravo makes sense, even though the spinoff might not work.

Comcast wasn't bluffing about unloading its steadily declining cable TV networks.

The cable giant is officially planning to spin off most of its pay-TV channels, in a move that's the latest indictment of the sad state of the traditional TV business.

Notably, Comcast's NBCUniversal isn't biding all of its cable networks adieu, however. It's hanging onto Bravo, a purveyor of reality-TV shows like the "Real Housewives" series and "Vanderpump Rules."

The logic behind that decision is simple: Bravo's shows are inexpensive and popular, and they perform very well on Peacock, its budding streaming service.

In the deal, Comcast is holding onto Peacock, as well as its broadcast network, NBC. Those platforms are how Comcast distributes its all-important NFL rights, so they were never on the chopping block.

Though it may surprise some, Comcast has determined that Bravo is also too valuable to let go. Ten of the 50 most in-demand TV shows on Peacock this year are from Bravo, noted Brandon Katz, the senior entertainment industry strategist at data firm Parrot Analytics. Parrot's demand metric is based on third-party data, including search results, social-media content, and ratings sites.

"Bravo has a real brand identity that holds value to consumers as opposed to Syfy and USA Network, which have largely pulled back from scripted programming in recent years and are not as recognizable and resonant," Katz wrote, referencing two networks that Comcast is planning to spin off.

Bravo has also served as an anchor for Peacock's expansion into reality-TV originals, which has produced Bravo-style hits like "Love Island USA" and "The Traitors."

Ratings giant Nielsen found this summer that the sixth season of "Love Island USA" was the most-watched reality TV series among streaming originals, as it racked up over a billion minutes viewed and registered in the top-10 rankings for four straight weeks following its debut.

Without Bravo content, Peacock's reality-TV strategy would be left with a huge hole.

"Comcast likely views Bravo as an important piece of its Peacock strategy, with content that is too difficult to separate from the cable network without destroying any value the network might have," wrote Michael Hodel, a communication services analyst at Morningstar.

Why Comcast's spinoff might not pay off

The other reason why Bravo could have been a keeper is that it still generates cash that can help Comcast pay for the NBA broadcast rights it won over the summer.

"Given the cost-cutting that will likely be required to ameliorate the incoming expenses of NBCU's rich NBA deal, keeping that money-making asset in-house makes sense even if it's shrinking year-over-year," Katz wrote.

Still, Comcast's other cable channels likely turned a profit as well. That, plus the fact that those networks could be weaker on their own, has left some analysts stumped as to why this spinoff happened at all — other than to make investors happy.

Wall Street generally hates declining businesses, like the pay-TV networks that Comcast has been saddled with.

"Comcast will now have a cleaner and clearer growth story," analyst Craig Moffett of MoffettNathanson wrote to BI.

However, Moffett said that the spun-off networks likely make more sense with Comcast than on their own. Analyst Rich Greenfield of Lightshed Partners had made a similar point a few weeks ago.

"It will be challenging to separate NBC from the cable nets, especially for carriage negotiations," Moffett wrote.

Brian Wieser, a media and advertising analyst for Madison and Wall, struck a similar tone.

"Unless Comcast has a vision for what it would do with the capital to build up its remaining media business or how it will cause a merger of the business with another company's cable networks, the transaction would be dis-synergistic," Wieser wrote.

Whatever the fate of the spinoff, Comcast clearly sees the value of Bravo's scripted content, compared to the more challenged TV news business. Investors will ultimately judge whether the spinoff was worth it. As of midday Wednesday, they seemed unconvinced, as the company's shares were only up modestly hours after the news broke.

Comcast today announced plans to spin off NBCUniversal cable TV networks such as USA, CNBC, and MSNBC into a new publicly traded company. Comcast is trying to complete the spinoff in one year, effectively unwinding part of the NBCUniversal acquisition it completed in 2011.

The entities in the planned spinoff generated about $7 billion of revenue in the 12 months that ended September 30, 2024, Comcast said. But cable TV channels have become less lucrative in an industry that's shifting to the streaming model, and the spinoff would let Comcast remove those assets from its earnings reports. Comcast's total revenue in the 12-month period was about $123 billion.

Comcast President Mike Cavanagh said in the Q3 earnings call on October 31 that Comcast is "experiencing the effects of the transition in our video businesses and have been studying the best path forward for these assets."

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• CNBC anchors projected an air of mild panic about the news that Comcast would spin off the network.
• The media conglomerate announced it would create a new entity for most of its cable networks.
• Some NBCU insiders worry about the new entity's prospects and potential staff cuts.

CNBC anchors turned their signature irreverent style on themselves on Wednesday as their parent company, Comcast, became a headline in announcing plans to spin off the business-news network along with many other cable assets.

"We're going out into the cold, cruel world," Joe Kernan, a coanchor of "Squawk Box," quipped on air.

It's no secret that the cable business has long been in decline as viewers drift to streaming services. A fellow CNBC anchor, David Faber, came up with an analogy to describe the situation: "We've been on a life raft, and it's kind of been sinking. Now we're all going to be able to swim for ourselves, you know, so it's up to us."

"Maybe we can latch on to a bunch of other people drowning," Kernan replied.

Comcast brass presented the deal, in which it will spin off nearly all of its cable networks into a separate entity headed by Mark Lazarus, now the chairman of NBCUniversal's media group, as a way to grow its remaining businesses while enabling the spun-off networks to consolidate with others.

Bravo, the home of the "Real Housewives" franchises and other reality fare, will remain part of NBCU, along with its film and TV studios, the Universal theme park, the NBC broadcast network, and the streaming service Peacock.

"That Lazarus guy, he's amazing," Faber said, adding that he was "just trying to get on his good side."

Analysts — including those featured on CNBC — didn't hold back on Wednesday about what the spinoff means for the cable network.

"This is them saying we no longer want to be in this business, this is no longer a growth business," Rich Greenfield, a cofounder of LightShed Partners, said of Comcast during a CNBC segment. For CNBC specifically, he said, the question is "can these networks stand on their own?"

"Rich, I think I like you less today," Becky Quick, an anchor on "Squawk Box," responded later in the broadcast.

CNBC's Julia Boorstin laid out questions about the deal, suggesting the so-called SpinCo could make meaningful acquisitions from other media companies in transition, like Warner Bros. Discovery, Paramount, and Starz.

"One of my sources very close to the situation said, 'This isn't the end, this is the beginning,'" she said. "The question is what else does this company acquire, how do they try to squeeze as much revenue as possible from these linear networks, and what do they do with them from a digital perspective in terms of streaming. And what do they do in terms of non-television revenues, things like events, things like communities."

Elsewhere, others inside NBCU had their own questions and concerns about the spinoff.

One question for CNBC folks is whether they'll maintain the prestige and workplace benefits that came with being part of Comcast. There's also a question of what separating MSNBC could mean for NBC News and local NBC stations. MSNBC's left-leaning tilt has sometimes complicated things for straight news-focused NBC News and local NBC stations.

Anxiety was running high among some staffers at CNBC in London, who worried that international offices could be hit first by any cuts in shows or personnel resulting from a spinoff. These people, like some others in the story, spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of workplace repercussions. Their identities are known to Business Insider.

One concern is that the spinoff could make it harder for NBCU's separate but co-owned news outlets to compete. NBC and CNBC have closely collaborated on reporting about topics like Elon Musk's role in the Trump administration that draws from CNBC's business expertise. NBC also relies on CNBC's sports coverage.

An NBC News staffer told BI that some in the newsroom felt "blindsided" by the news.

"The message has been to integrate as much as possible, so I definitely think this raises a lot of questions about whether that can continue," this person said.

Cable television has long been viewed as a stagnant business, showing little promise for growth over the years. However, Comcast believes it has found a new growth opportunity. On Wednesday, the company announced that it’s spinning off NBCUniversal’s cable television networks — such as CNBC, E!, Golf Channel, MSNBC, Oxygen, SYFY, and USA Network — […]

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• Cable networks used to be incredibly valuable. But in the streaming and cord-cutting era, they're in decline.
• That's why Comcast is ditching almost all its cable networks into a new stand-alone company.
• It would like to persuade other cable-TV owners to join in.

One of the country's biggest cable TV companies doesn't want its cable networks anymore. Would you like them?

That's the pitch Comcast is making Wednesday as it announces plans to split off almost all its cable TV networks into a new company. It's the same pitch Comcast floated as a possibility back in October, and most of the details are the same.

Comcast is set to spin off a new publicly traded company, owned by its existing shareholders. Into the spinco goes every cable network Comcast owns except for Bravo. That means networks like CNBC, MSNBC, USA, along with a few digital assets, including its Fandango movie-ticket service.

It plans to hang on to the rest of its media business, including its NBC broadcast network, Peacock streaming service, Universal film and TV studio, and Universal theme-parks business. And Bravo. (Can't wait for someone smart to explain why Comcast is so attached to Bravo. Maybe it's as simple as "Real Housewives"?)

For the record: Comcast says it thinks the cable networks it is ditching can be successful on their own. The new company "will be ideally positioned for success and highly attractive to investors, content creators, distributors and potential partners," CEO Brian Roberts said in a statement. That "partners" reference is important — Comcast has also floated the idea of folding in other companies' cable networks into the spinoff, which would theoretically give it more heft and negotiating power with advertisers and pay-TV distributors.

But in the end, this is essentially a garage sale: Maybe someone else will want this stuff. But if Comcast wanted it, it wouldn't be getting rid of it.

And as I said last month: Comcast is getting rid of its basic-cable networks for the same reason everyone who owns basic-cable networks would like to get rid of their cable networks. They have limited business prospects because the number of people paying for and watching cable networks is falling every year, and there's no end in sight. Public investors want nothing to do with them.

That's why Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery took a combined $15 billion write-off earlier this year (and why Disney took one as well, though it was much smaller). They were belatedly telling investors they were less valuable than they used to be.

But while Comcast's peers have thought about getting rid of some or all of their cable holdings, they haven't done it. In part because it's hard to imagine who a buyer would be. And in part because even though they're declining, cable TV networks still generate a lot of cash, and their parent companies have been reluctant to part with that.

Now that Comcast is doing it, will others follow? One indicator may be the way Wall Street reacts to Wednesday's news: Comcast shares, which have been in the doldrums for a year, perked up a bit in advance of the announcement.

One other thought: Comcast doesn't expect this deal to trip any regulatory triggers, because it isn't a consolidation — it's just splitting one company into two. It also doesn't involve the transfer of a broadcast-network license, which would require a sign-off from the Federal Communications Commission.

On the other hand: During his latest presidential campaign, Donald Trump repeatedly threatened media companies over their news coverage, and has even sued CBS over a "60 Minutes" interview with Kamala Harris. And Brendan Carr, Trump's pick to chair the FCC, has been echoing Trump's complaints about TV news: "The status quo, particularly when it comes to legacy media, needs to change," he told Fox News this week. So I wouldn't rule out the notion of government weighing in on this one before it's over.

• Comcast plans to spin off the bulk of its NBCUniversal cable channels.
• The planned spinoff includes MSNBC, CNBC, E!, and Oxygen, among others.
• NBC, Bravo, and the streaming service Peacock would not be spun off under the plan.

Comcast is planning to break off the bulk of its cable television channels.

The plan to spin off some NBCUniversal channels includes MSNBC, CNBC, USA, Oxygen, E!, Syfy, and the Golf Channel, while NBC, Bravo, and the streaming service Peacock will remain under NBCUniversal, Comcast president Mike Cavanagh announced in a memo to NBCU employees viewed by Business Insider.

The assets that are part of the planned spinoff generated $7 billion in revenue during the year that ended in September, according to The Wall Street Journal, which first reported that the spinoff was going ahead.

The spinoff, dubbed "SpinCo" for now, which would take about a year, will enable growth in NBCUniversal's remaining assets, Cavanagh wrote in his memo.

"The well-capitalized, independent company will be positioned to lead in the changing landscape for cable networks given the strength of its portfolio and the quality and focus of its management team," Cavanagh wrote. "SpinCo will provide a diverse and differentiated content offering that will reach approximately 70 million U.S. households, making it highly attractive to investors, content creators, distributors, consumers, and potential partners. The company will have significant cash flow, a strong balance sheet, and the financial flexibility to pursue growth opportunities, both organically and potentially through acquisitions."

He wrote that the new entity's ownership structure would be similar to Comcast's and that Mark Lazarus, currently chairman of NBCUniversal's media group, would be named CEO.

Comcast said it was exploring spinning off its cable networks late last month, with BI's Peter Kafka writing that the move served as yet another signal of cable TV's decline.

Analysts said Comcast could increase its valuation by selling its cable networks, though they were unsure if it would actually work out, BI previously reported.

"Carving out the US cable networks, which include USA, CNBC, and E!, without Peacock or the NBC broadcast network would be odd," Michael Hodel, a media analyst at financial-services firm Morningstar, previously wrote. "The cable networks likely have little value on their own. A spinoff would have to be part of a larger strategic move, like merging with another firm."

Other media giants are wrestling with what to do about their declining traditional TV channels. Disney CEO Bob Iger in the past floated the idea of selling Disney's TV and cable channels. On its earnings call last week, Disney retreated that idea, though, suggesting that the price wouldn't be high enough and that it would be too complex to separate them from the rest of the company.

That complexity hovers over Comcast as well. NBCU's various TV channels are tightly integrated, sharing back-office functions and talent that would have to be untangled, for one.

This article was originally published on November 19 and has been updated with new details of the planned spinoff.