Comcast to spin off NBCUniversal, putting major sports on the move

In a move sure to send shock waves through the media industry, Comcast announced on Monday that it plans to spin off NBCUniversal, its content arm, which includes the NBC broadcast network, the Peacock streaming service, the Universal movie studio, and the European media arm Sky. The move comes shortly after NBCUniversal spun off the majority of its cable assets into the company now known as Versant. Comcast expects to complete the separation in about a year.

NBCUniversal’s split from Comcast will have huge implications for sports media. NBC owns a major portfolio of sports rights, including the NFL, NBA, Olympics, Kentucky Derby, PGA Tour, college football, and more. After the split, NBCUniversal will be a prime acquisition target, with the company’s value derived in no small part from its omnipresence in the lives of sports fans.

The move comes at a particularly important time for NBCUniversal as it prepares to engage in media rights negotiations with the NFL. As has been reported, the NFL is aiming to negotiate new broadcast deals with its current partners before its opt-out options hit at the end of the decade. Such negotiations could result in NBCUniversal footing an NFL bill that is over $1 billion more per year than the $2 billion it currently pays for its Sunday Night Football package. And, as a reminder, this spinoff (or a subsequent sale of NBCUniversal) will likely trigger the NFL’s change-of-control provision, similar to Skydance’s acquisition of Paramount last year, which can compel NBCUniversal to the negotiating table even if the company would rather sit pat on its current deal.

Comcast investors responded positively to news of the split, with shares surging nearly 20 percent pre-market on Monday. No doubt, with looming NFL negotiations and NBCUniversal’s recent jump into the NBA, which runs the company $2.5 billion per year, the cost of sports rights has contributed to dissatisfaction from Comcast investors, who are happy to remove the media arm from its books.

With a separation now imminent, the question will become: Who is interested in acquiring NBCUniversal? While the company will have its fair share of financial obligations in the form of sports rights, a purchase also offers the rare opportunity to get into business with the NFL, in a fully formed national primetime package no less. Those opportunities don’t come around often and could be valuable to any number of companies looking to do business with the league. Peacock, of course, also offers other streamers an opportunity to scale up their content offerings. And the Universal movie studio comes with its fair share of intellectual property that would be valuable to any media conglomerate.

If anything has become clear in the media industry throughout the last 18 months, it’s that everyone and everything is a free agent. Spinoffs, mergers, licensing deals, rumored splits. Everything is in play. Even a big-four broadcast network like NBC.