Comcast Splits Again: NBCUniversal and Sky to Go It Alone

Published: July 2, 2026

remote television tv — Photo by Kaboompics.com via Pexels

By Movieguide® Staff

Comcast announced Monday that it will break itself into two separate publicly traded companies, separating its cable and broadband business from NBCUniversal and the British broadcaster Sky.

The Philadelphia-based company’s second corporate breakup in under two years sets up NBCUniversal — home to Universal Pictures, the studio behind franchises like JURASSIC WORLD and DESPICABLE ME — to stand alone for the first time since Comcast took full ownership in 2013.

“A very exciting day for our company” is how Comcast Chairman and Co-CEO Brian Roberts described the plan in a statement Monday. Roberts said the new structure should free both businesses to chase growth on their own terms, while he stays actively involved with both companies, working alongside each new CEO.

Movieguide® readers will know the bigger of the two new firms by its movies, not its cable boxes. NBCUniversal keeps Universal Pictures, Peacock, NBC, Telemundo, Bravo, Sky and Comcast’s theme parks, while the slimmed-down Comcast keeps Xfinity broadband and wireless service to more than 65 million homes and businesses.

We covered Comcast’s last breakup back in 2024, when the company spun a batch of cable networks into Versant. That deal closed in January, pulling channels like CNBC, USA Network and Golf Channel out of NBCUniversal, while Bravo stayed behind because of how much traffic its reality lineup sends to Peacock.

This new split follows similar logic, separating faster-growing content and theme parks from a slower-growing cable and internet business. Comcast’s own statement pointed to shifts in technology, viewing habits and the competitive landscape as the reasoning, betting that two focused companies will create more shareholder value than one conglomerate.

Under the plan, Comcast will carry out a tax-free spinoff, with shareholders ending up owning stock in both companies once the deal closes, targeted for mid-2027. Comcast Co-CEO Mike Cavanagh will become CEO of the new NBCUniversal, while Michael Angelakis, Comcast’s former chief financial officer, returns to run the standalone cable business. Roberts, whose father Ralph founded Comcast, will keep working with both new CEOs and retains roughly a third of the voting power through his super-voting shares.

“Fit well together and are set up for success” is how Cavanagh described NBCUniversal and Sky in a memo to staff Monday morning, adding that he plans a town hall to walk employees through the change. That tone — confident, not defensive — matters for a workforce that just absorbed one reorganization and is now bracing for another.

Wall Street liked what it heard, too. Comcast shares jumped 21% in premarket trading Monday and finished the day about 5% higher, a sharp reversal for a stock that had spent most of the past year sliding.

“Especially desirable in assigning fairer immediate value to the Studio and Parks businesses” is how Benchmark analyst Matthew Harrigan described the upside. In plain terms, investors think Universal’s movies and theme parks — the part of this conglomerate families actually interact with — are worth more standing on their own than folded into a phone-and-cable business.

“Absolutely not,” Roberts said when an investor asked on a call Monday whether the breakup was setting up either company for a future sale. The deal still needs sign-off from Comcast’s board, favorable tax rulings and regulatory approval before anything closes.

None of this changes what’s streaming tonight, but it’s worth tracking who ends up holding the keys to Universal’s movies, Peacock’s library and the theme park gates families walk through every summer. Comcast expects the new NBCUniversal to be up and running by mid-2027 — plenty of time for parents to watch whether “independent” turns into a sharper creative vision or just a new name on the same old blind spots.

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