Comcast’s media spin-off sparks fears of Sky sale

It was a London cab ride to Westfield shopping centre that helped convince Brian Roberts, the executive chair of Comcast, to buy Sky in 2018.

“The cab driver was incredibly knowledgeable about the difference between Virgin and Sky. We learned a lot there,” the scion of US cable later explained, after he had managed to snatch the company from the grasp of Rupert Murdoch’s Fox in a blind auction for £31bn. The final deal included a guarantee to protect the editorial independence of Murdoch’s beloved Sky News and fully fund it until 2028.

Not surprisingly, given it was the third largest takeover of a UK-headquartered company to date, the chatter in the City was that Comcast had overpaid. By 2022 it was forced to make a $8.6bn writedown on Sky, blaming reduced cashflows from customers cutting back on pay-TV subscriptions in core markets.

Does Roberts now rue the day he listened so intently to that cabbie? Last week Comcast announced it would be spinning off Sky into a standalone media operation along with NBCUniversal, the much larger Hollywood film studio, TV and theme park business.

“Comcast wants to get back to being the consolidator [in cable],” said one former Sky executive. “It’s like scraping the barnacles off the boat – you want to get rid of this content business, this overseas business.”

The timing is surprising. Sky is widely expected to formally bid for ITV in the next few weeks. The outline of the deal, steered by Sky’s CEO Dana Strong, was announced back in November 2025. ITV told the market it was in talks to sell its media and entertainment unit to Sky for £1.6bn. Sky had reportedly reached a deal with ITV studios, the programme-making arm which is not included in the deal, to continue to supply key programmes.

Comcast’s management has flatly denied that the spinoff means NBCUniversal or Sky are being dressed up for a sale. “Definitely not,” said Mike Cavanaugh, a former investment banker at JPMorgan Chase who will lead the newly merged company. But his presence, analysts say, indicates otherwise.

Any sale would come just as Sky’s Astra satellites reach the end of their operational life and ITV prepares for the transmitter switch off, meaning both are heading for broadband only delivery. Will the Sky/ITV deal survive? Will the US-based NBCUniversal support Sky after the split? Can Sky and ITV prosper without wealthy owners, together or alone?

Analysts warned that a sale, if that’s the plan, could be tough to get past regulators.

“The whole rationale of Comcast owning Sky was the fact that Sky was like Comcast, with broadband and content,” said media analyst François Godard. “Now Comcast says that doesn’t work, and that’s destabilising for Sky. If Netflix were to buy NBCUniversal, you would have regulatory problems. Even if Netflix was buying Sky alone, agreement from competition regulators wouldn’t be guaranteed, and if it’s Sky plus ITV, it would be very challenging.”

There’s also the question of what happens to Sky News. In comments leaked to the Telegraph last year, Strong reiterated that Sky was committed to its news operation for the long term, regardless of whether Comcast continues to provide funding. Were Netflix or another streamer to swoop in, that commitment could come under threat.

Markets reacted positively to the NBCUniversal spinoff, with Comcast’s share price closed up 4.5% on Monday (it will retain a 19.9% stake). Hiving off the pure-play media companies has its advantages. Despite Comcast having contributed millions towards the costs of Donald Trump’s White House ballroom, the US president has repeatedly attacked Roberts over NBC coverage and called him “a disgrace to the integrity of broadcasting” in a 2025 social media post.

“Under the Trump administration, having a media business and a news business that irritates him gets you noticed,” said another media source. “If you’re a pure-play telecoms business, they probably don’t give a shit.”

Sky and Comcast declined to comment.

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