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

The US group is creating a standalone media operation with NBCUniversal just as Sky prepares a bid for ITV, write Barney Macintyre and Stephen Armstrong

- Barney Macintyre and Stephen Armstrong

A London cab ride to Westfield shopping centre 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 for £31bn in a blind auction. 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, for 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 listening 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.