Comcast announced in the latter half of June 2026 that it intends to split into two independent public companies, spinning off NBCUniversal and Sky in a tax-free transaction. The close is expected by mid-2027. The move follows the spin of Versant in the first quarter of this year, the collection of cable networks that includes CNBC, USA Network and Golf Channel. The Q2 print showed consolidated revenue of $29.9 billion, down 1.2 percent year over year. Adjusted EBITDA in the same quarter was down 13.4 percent. The headline earnings collapse masks a one-time gain from the 2025 sale of the Hulu stake, but the underlying cable business continues to bleed residential subscribers. Broadband net losses of 167 thousand in the quarter are the visible symptom, and the video losses of 280 thousand are the larger structural problem, because the video base has no path back to growth and the programming costs attached to it keep rising.
The central investment debate is whether the market should value this as a single conglomerate discount, or as two businesses whose standalone sum is worth more than the combined multiple. The connectivity half, which retains the broadband, wireless and business services franchises, generates most of the cash but faces fiber competition and price-driven churn. The media half, which carries NBCUniversal, Peacock, Universal Studios and the Universal theme parks, is a content machine that just posted its first quarterly profit at Peacock, adding two million subscribers to reach 48 million, yet still drags the consolidated margin. The separation is meant to let each business be judged on its own terms, and to give Comcast the cleanest possible platform to pursue the spectrum sale and the Atairos data center investment without the noise of a sports rights budget.
The load-bearing risk is that the spin itself is the catalyst, not the operating turnaround. If broadband losses do not slow and Peacock cannot sustain profitability, the two pieces may simply trade at a combined discount that mirrors the pre-spin price. The next test arrives in the third quarter, when the first full quarter without Versant revenue appears and the market can see the connectivity cash flow stand on its own.