D.C. Memo: SpinCo's Viewership Slide 'Catastrophic,' MoffettNathanson Says

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SpinCo: The cable channels that Comcast is spinning off in 2025 -- MSNBC, USA, CNBC, SyFy, E!, Oxygen, and Golf Channel -- have hit some really hard times in terms of viewership. "Perhaps nothing illustrates the context better than this one extraordinary chart [below]. Here’s the long-term viewership trends of what Comcast is spinning off. The word 'catastrophic' comes to mind," said MoffettNathanson Senior Managing Director Craig Moffett in a report Tuesday.

Apparently, after the spinoff is complete, the SpinCo networks won't need to test their value in the carriage distribution market. "Thankfully, Comcast has indicated that SpinCo’s carriage agreements are all relatively recent. That buys some time," Moffett said. Still, Moffett was not upbeat. "A collection of networks with this viewership profile will have little negotiating leverage, not much of a story to tell advertisers, and nothing indispensable to offer streaming services," he said. While Comcast’s cable channels are in decline, Moffett said they "still throw off a great deal of cash," with about $7 billion in annual revenue and two-thirds of that coming from pay-TV operator carriage fees. Moffett expects merger activity to involve SpinCo at some point but not until 2026 to avoid tax consequences. “To be clear, cable network consolidation through SpinCo is not imminent and unlikely to play out until at least 2026,” Moffett said.