Craig Moffett: Last News

Shares of troubled Dish Network parent EchoStar have fallen sharply Monday in the wake of a downbeat second-quarter earnings report, with chatter continuing about a potential bankruptcy filing.

UPDATED with closing price. Comcast‘s decision to spin off NBCUniversal cable networks into a new publicly traded entity has drawn applause in some parts of the business world, but skeptics are also making their voices heard.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor After spending billions to snare control of the massive media portfolio known as NBCUniversal, parent company Comcast now plans to break it up. The Philadelphia media giant will move forward with an effort to spin off the bulk of its cable assets, which include MSNBC, USA, E!, Oxygen and Syfy, according to a person familiar with the matter. Only Bravo, viewed as an important feeder of programming to the Peacock streaming service, will stay with the NBC TV business.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor As the pay-TV sector continues its downward spiral, DirecTV and Dish Network — two longtime rivals that have explored joining up at various times for years — may be headed to the altar. DirecTV is in talks with EchoStar, Dish’s parent company, to acquire Dish and Sling TV, according to reports by Bloomberg, the Wall Street Journal and CNBC. A deal could be finalized as early as Monday, Sept.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Telecommunications giant Verizon Communications plans to take over smaller player Frontier Communications in an all-cash deal valued at $20 billion, as Verizon seeks to bolster its fiber footprint to battle its biggest rival, AT&T. According to Verizon, Frontier operates the “largest pure-play fiber internet” network in the U.S.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor MoffettNathanson, a leading Wall Street research outfit covering the media and communications sectors, is once again an independent entity. In December 2021, SVB Financial Group acquired New York-based MoffettNathanson, which was founded in 2013 by analysts Craig Moffett and Michael Nathanson. In March of this year, Silicon Valley Bank — part of SVB Financial Group — collapsed after a run on its assets, leading the parent company to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor As streaming video continues its ascendancy, cable, satellite and internet TV providers in the U.S. turned in their worst subscriber losses to date in the first quarter of 2023 — collectively shedding 2.3 million customers in the period, according to analyst estimates. “We are watching the sun beginning to set” on the pay-TV business, SVB MoffettNathanson senior analyst Craig Moffett wrote in a report Friday. With the Q1 decline, total pay-TV penetration of occupied U.S. households (including for internet services like YouTube TV and Hulu) dropped to 58.5% — its lowest point since 1992, two years before DirecTV launched as a new rival to cable TV, according to Moffett’s calculations. As of the end of Q1, U.S. pay-TV services had 75.5 million customers, down nearly 7% on an annual basis.

By Dade Hayes