Inside the Cable TV Hospice: Can NBCUniversal’s Divorce From MSNBC, Syfy, E! and More Prolong the Life of Once-Popular Channels?

variety.com:

NBCUniversal’s Peacock platform. Nothing is more symbolic of cable’s hard times than the news announced in late November by NBCUniversal’s parent company, Comcast, that it was selling off most of its linear cable channels. (Comcast, the largest provider of cable and broadband service in the country, makes most of its money from providing the northeastern U.S.

with high-speed internet access and cable TV subscriptions.) NBCUniversal will hold on to the NBC network and the ever-buzzy Bravo, but will essentially divorce itself from the not-inconsiderable problems faced by seven outlets that were once the backbone of NBCUniversal’s TV division: USA Network, CNBC, MSNBC, Syfy, E!, Oxygen Media and Golf Channel. (Also included are digital assets like Fandango and Rotten Tomatoes.) If that’s not “inflection point” enough for the biz, there are also big shifts afoot elsewhere.

This year, Warner Bros. Discovery’s ad-supported entertainment networks have a new leader in Channing Dungey, who is plotting a different course for channels like TNT, TBS and Discovery while keeping her primary focus on running Warner Bros.

TV Group. And Paramount Global is about to be acquired by Skydance, which brings with it a new leadership team that likely has its own ideas about what to do with a once-vibrant collection of cable brands like MTV and Comedy Central.