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NBCUniversal Media, LLC (Trade name NBCUniversal or Comcast NBCUniversal since 2013), abbreviated as NBCU, is an American multinational mass media and Show business conglomerate that is a subsidiary of Comcast and headquartered at 30 Rockefeller Plaza in Midtown Manhattan in New York City. It is mostly involved in the media and entertainment industry, named for its two most significant divisions: the NBC (NBC)—one of the United States' Big Three television networks—and Universal Pictures, one of the major Hollywood film studios.
It also has a significant presence in broadcasting through a portfolio of domestic and international properties, including Bravo, Telemundo, and Universo, the streaming service Peacock and ownership stakes in Snap Inc. and Vox Media. Via its Universal Destinations & Experiences division, NBCUniversal is also the third-largest operator of in the world.
NBCUniversal was created on May 11, 2004, as NBC Universal, Inc. on November 8, 2004, when Vivendi Universal sold 80% of Vivendi Universal Entertainment (Universal Pictures) to the now-defunct General Electric, NBC's then-owner. The sale gave Vivendi a 20% stake in NBC Universal, while GE held the remaining 80%. Comcast attained 51% and thereby control of the newly reformed NBCUniversal in 2011, by acquiring shares from GE, with GE buying out Vivendi's stake. Since 2013, the company has been wholly owned by Comcast, which bought the remaining 49% of the company from GE.
In 1995, NBC began operating NBC Desktop Video, a financial news service that delivered live video to personal computers. The following year, NBC announced an agreement with Microsoft to create an all-news cable television channel, MSNBC (using its subscriber base from America's Talking network). A separate joint venture with Microsoft included establishing a news website, MSNBC.com (now NBCNews.com).
In 1998, NBC partnered with Dow Jones & Co. The two companies combined their financial news channels outside the United States. The new networks included NBC Europe, CNBC Europe, NBC Asia, CNBC Asia, NBC Africa, and CNBC Africa.
In 1999, NBC took a 32% stake in the Paxson group, operator of Ion Television. Five years later, NBC decided to sell its interest in PAX TV and end its relationship with PAX owner, Paxson Communications.
In 2001, NBC acquired the US Spanish-language broadcaster Telemundo, which includes the bilingual Mun2 Television for $1.98 billion. That same year NBC acquired the cable channel Bravo.
On August 2, 2004, the television divisions of NBC and Universal Television were combined to form NBC Universal Television. Entertainment shows produced by the new group included The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, and Saturday Night Live.
The formation of NBC Universal saw the establishment of NBC Universal Cable, which oversaw the distribution, marketing, and advertisement sales for thirteen channels. It also owned a 50% stake in Canal+ and a 15% stake in A+E Networks until 2012.
In 2005, NBC Universal joined HANA, the High-Definition Audio-Video Network Alliance to help establish standards in consumer electronics interoperability. Later that year, NBC Universal announced a partnership with Apple Computer to offer shows from all the NBC Universal TV networks on Apple's iTunes Store.
In January 2006, NBC Universal launched a new cable channel, Cloo, later rebranded as Cloo. Exclusive: Sleuth Gets A New Name: Meet Cloo , TV Guide, April 7, 2011 Exclusive: Newly Rebranded Cloo TV Picks Up First Original Series TV Guide July 15, 2011 One year after Sleuth's debut, NBC Universal announced that the company would launch a horror-themed cable channel, Chiller, on March 1, 2007.
On June 14, 2007, NBC Universal Television Studio was renamed Universal Media Studios. The company explained that the reason for the name change was because "the new name fully describes the company's mission to be the premier content provider for television and digital platforms, spanning all television parts and creative genres."
In August 2007, NBC Universal purchased Sparrowhawk Media Group and renamed it NBC Universal Global Networks. This acquisition gave NBC Universal all Hallmark channels outside the United States, plus the English channels Diva TV, Movies 24, Hallmark Channel and KidsCo. Later that fall, the company also acquired the Oxygen network in a separate $925 million deal. The sale was completed one month later.
In the summer of 2008, NBC Universal, Blackstone Group and Bain Capital announced their intention to buy The Weather Channel from Landmark Communications. The deal closed on September 12, 2008. Shortly after the acquisition was completed, NBC announced that its existing TV weather network, NBC Weather Plus, would be shut down by December 31, 2008.
In July 2008, Universal Cable Productions split off from Universal Media Studios and moved into NBCUniversal's NBCU Cable Entertainment division.
The summer of 2008 marked NBC Universal's first venture into the United Kingdom with the acquisition of English television production company Carnival Films.
On November 12, 2008, NBC Universal acquired 80.1% of Geneon Entertainment from Dentsu in Japan, merging it with Universal Pictures Japan to form a new company, Geneon Universal Entertainment Japan.
On March 16, 2009, NBC Universal-owned cable channel Sci Fi announced that it would be changing its name to Syfy, replacing a generic term with a proprietary brand name that was able to be trademarked. The re-branding and name change took place on July 7, 2009. Syfy: Not Your Father's Sci-Fi , Fortune, July 7, 2009
On August 27, 2009, A&E Television Networks (A&E) merged with Lifetime Entertainment Services (Lifetime), A&E Acquires Lifetime, Variety.com, August 27, 2009 A&E Networks, Lifetime Merger Completed , Broadcasting & Cable, August 27, 2009 giving NBC Universal an equal share of both Lifetime and A&E with The Walt Disney Company and Hearst.
On October 20, 2010, NBC Universal-owned horror/suspense-themed cable channel Chiller announced a major rebranding campaign incorporating a new logo and on-air look that launched on Wednesday, October 27, 2010. Chiller Announces Major Redesign , TV By the Numbers, October 20, 2010 Syfy and Chiller President Dave Howe said, "We have very ambitious plans to grow this network as a brand." The channel would shut down in 2017.
U.S. regulators approved the proposed sale on January 18, 2011, with conditions. Comcast would have to give up NBC control over online video site Hulu and ensure NBC Universal programming is available to competing cable operators. The company unveiled a new logo designed by Wolff Olins, which replaced a logo featuring the NBC peacock and an invocation of the Universal Pictures globe, with a wordmark. The company also began to stylize its name in CamelCase as "NBCUniversal" rather than "NBC Universal", to reflect the unity of its two main divisions.
On January 26, 2011, Vivendi sold the remaining 20% of NBC Universal to GE, giving GE complete control of the company ahead of the completion of the sale of 51% of the company to Comcast on January 28, 2011. Comcast and GE formed the joint venture holding company NBCUniversal, LLC. NBC Universal, Inc. became a unit of Comcast and adopted the name NBCUniversal Media, LLC, on January 29, 2011. 8-K filed on 01/31/2011 General Electric Company
Comcast had planned to buy out GE's 49% stake over the following seven years, but ownership of NBCUniversal remained split at 51–49% for two years, until the announcement on February 12, 2013, that Comcast intended to complete the $16.7 billion purchase ahead of time all immediately. The sale was completed on March 19, 2013.
The corporation, on July 19, 2012, formed the NBCUniversal News Group with the NBC News, CNBC, and MSNBC divisions."New York Deadline" Pat Fili-Krushel To Oversee NBCUniversal News Group deadline.com, Retrieved on July 23, 2012 That same year, Comcast sold its stake in A&E Networks to Disney and Hearst, making the company a 50-50 joint venture.
In February 2013, NBCUniversal merged its two cable divisions, NBCUniversal Cable Entertainment & Cable Studios and NBCUniversal Entertainment & Digital Networks and Integrated Media, into one unit while moving out Telemundo and Mun2 to a new division, NBCUniversal Hispanic Enterprises and Content. The move also created the corporate-level position of executive vice president in charge of digital ventures. In July, the company placed NBC TV Stations and Telemundo's O&Os stations into a new division, NBCUniversal Owned Television Stations, with New England Cable News being transferred into NBC TV Stations.
On December 16, 2015, Steven Spielberg, Jeffrey Skoll of Participant Media, Anil Ambani of Reliance Group, and Darren Throop of Entertainment One founded Amblin Partners, which would primarily focus on producing and distributing films and television using the DreamWorks Pictures, Amblin Entertainment, and Participant Media brands. On the same day as the company's formation, Amblin Partners announced that it entered into a five-year distribution deal with Universal Pictures by which the films would be distributed and marketed by either the main Universal banner or its specialty label, Focus Features. The Girl on the Train was the first film released under the deal, following the expiration of the former's distribution deal with Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures with the release of The Light Between Oceans in August 2016.
On April 28, 2016, two days after The Wall Street Journal reported that NBCUniversal's parent-company Comcast was in talks with then-CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg about an acquisition following failed 2014 merger talks with Hasbro and SoftBank Group, NBCUniversal officially announced to acquire DreamWorks Animation for a total of $3.8 billion. Universal Pictures took over the distribution for DreamWorks Animation films after its deal with 20th Century Fox expired, following the release of in 2017. The sale was approved by board members, but was subject to regulatory approval. On June 21, 2016, the acquisition was approved by the United States Department of Justice. On August 22, 2016, the acquisition was completed with DreamWorks Animation now completely owned by Universal Pictures. That allowed Universal rights to both DreamWorks Animation and Illumination films beginning in 2019. DWA's first film to be distributed by Universal was . The company later sold its stake in A&E to Disney and Hearst, making it a 50-50 joint venture.
On February 15, 2017, NBCUniversal acquired a minority stake in Amblin Partners, strengthening the relationship between Universal and Amblin, and reuniting a minority percentage of the live-action DreamWorks Pictures label with its former DreamWorks Animation division.
On February 28, 2017, NBCUniversal announced that it would acquire the remaining 49% stake in the Universal Studios Japan theme park that it did not own.
On May 1, 2017, NBCUniversal announced that Universal Kids would be relaunched as Universal Kids on September 9, 2017. Universal Kids would later cease operations on March 6, 2025.
However, on December 11, 2017, Comcast officially dropped the bid, saying that "We never got the level of engagement needed to make a definitive offer." On December 14, 2017, Disney officially confirmed its acquisition of the most 21st Century Fox assets, which was granted approval from the United States Department of Justice Antitrust Division on June 27, 2018, and approved by stockholders from both companies one month later.
On April 25, 2018, Comcast launched its takeover offer for Sky plc at £12.50 per-share, or approximately £22.1 billion. 21st Century Fox owned a significant stake in Sky and was trying to take full control of it itself, ahead of its own acquisition by The Walt Disney Company. NBCUniversal CEO Steve Burke stated that purchasing Sky would roughly double its presence in English-speaking markets, and allow for synergies between the respective networks and studios of NBCUniversal and Sky. On June 5, 2018, Culture Secretary Matt Hancock cleared both 21st Century Fox and Comcast's respective offers to acquire Sky plc. Fox's offer was contingent on the divestiture of Sky News. On June 15, 2018, the European Commission gave antitrust clearance to Comcast's offer to purchase Sky, citing that in terms of its current assets in Europe, there would be limited impact on competition. Comcast included a 10-year commitment to the operations and funding of Sky News. On July 11, 2018, Fox increased its bid for Sky to £14.00 per-share, valuing it at £24.5 billion. Comcast subsequently counterbid just hours later with an offer at £14.75 per-share, valued at £26 billion.
On September 20, 2018, the Panel on Takeovers and Mergers ordered that a blind auction be held "in order to provide an orderly framework for the resolution of this competitive situation". In this process, Fox, followed by Comcast, made new cash-only bids for Sky. After these first two rounds of bidding, there would be a third round where both companies could make new offers. However, the third round of bidding would only be binding if both companies make a bid. Comcast won the auction with a bid of £17.28 per-share, beating Fox's bid of £15.67. Sky plc had until October 11, 2018, to formally accept this offer.
Following its auction victory, Comcast began to acquire Sky shares from the open market. On September 26, 2018, Fox subsequently announced its intent to sell all of its shares in Sky plc to Comcast for £12 billion. On October 4, 2018, Fox completed the sale of its shares, giving Comcast a 76.8% controlling stake at the time. On October 12, 2018, Comcast announced it will compulsorily acquire the rest of Sky after its bid gained acceptances from 95.3% of the broadcaster's shareholders with the company being delisted by early 2019. Sky was delisted on November 7, 2018, after Comcast acquired all remaining shares.
While NBCUniversal and Sky still operate mainly as separate entities within Comcast, following the Sky takeover Comcast has begun the process of integrating some of NBCUniversal's international operations with parts of Sky. Among other moves, NBCUniversal's pay television channels in the United Kingdom will be folded with Sky's, and Sky Deutschland will become the parent company of NBCU's German networks.
NBCUniversal Content Studios was formed in October 2019 with Hammer as chairman and George Cheeks as vice chairman, who was co-chairman of NBC Entertainment. This new unit consists of Universal Television and Universal Content Productions. Hammer was replaced as chairman of the Direct-to-Consumer and Digital Enterprises unit by Comcast executive Matt Strauss, while Paul Telegdy would become sole chairman of NBC Entertainment and continue reporting to Shell.
On February 25, 2020, Comcast announced it would purchase Xumo from the Panasonic/Viant joint venture for an undisclosed sum. The acquisition of the service—which will continue to operate as an independent business, albeit within Comcast's cable television division—stems mainly from Xumo's partnerships with smart TV manufacturers (including LG, Panasonic, and Vizio), which would allow Comcast to use Xumo's placement to market or showcase Xfinity and other Comcast services as well as use its technology to develop additional streaming platforms. The company plans to add content from the NBCUniversal programming library and the company's various television networks as well as use it to upsell Peacock, akin to ViacomCBS's utilization of Pluto TV.
In 2023, following the firing of CEO Jeff Shell, NBCUniversal announced that corporate management will be led by a leadership team while Michael J. Cavanagh continues to oversee Comcast as a whole.
On November 20, 2024, Comcast announced that it would spin off most of its cable networks and selected digital properties into a new publicly traded company controlled by its shareholders, to be led by Mark Lazarus. Initially referred to under the interim name "SpinCo", the company's name was announced as Versant on May 6, 2025. Versant will consist of properties such as USA Network, CNBC, MSNBC, E!, Golf Channel, Oxygen, and Syfy, as well as digital properties such as Fandango Media and SportsEngine; the aim of the spin-off is to separate them from NBCUniversal's flagship businesses, while providing them with the ability to make their own further investments and acquisitions. Bravo remains under the NBCUniversal umbrella, due to the network being a major provider of content to Peacock, while Telemundo's own cable operations remain unchanged.
Universal Kids was also excluded from the spinoff, with NBCUniversal later confirming on January 13, 2025, that it would close on March 6, 2025. In October 2025, both CNBC and MSNBC began the process of formally separating themselves from NBC News, effectively beginning the transfer of assets to Versant, which was situated as a subsidiary of Comcast until the spin-off was completed.
A month later in November of that year, NBCUniversal retained the Keeping Up with the Kardishians franchise including its spin-offs when they partnered with Samsung's free ad-supported service Samsung TV Plus to established a FAST channel dedicated to that franchise entitled in the UK entitled Keeping Up with.. with the new FAST channel will show series from the Keeping Up with the Kardishians franchise such as the main series.
On January 5, 2026, after the completion of spin-off of most NBCUniversal's cable assets into Versant, the company updated its logo by incorporating the redrawn version of the NBC logo first introduced in 2022, albeit with colored gradient first introduced by Comcast in 2024, to the existing 2011 wordmark, reasserting the company as the owner of NBC.
On November 6, 2025, NBCUniversal's parent company Comcast contracted Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley about a possible takeover of the studio and streaming assets of WBD. On November 20, Paramount Skydance, Netflix, and Comcast each officially submitted their bids, with the former bidding for the entirety of WBD and the latter two bidding for its studio and streaming assets. According to CNBC, David Zaslav will announce whether to split the company in two or sell off the whole company to one of the potential buyers before the end of the year.
By December 2, 2025, Comcast submitted a bid to merge Warner Bros. with NBCUniversal, according to Bloomberg, while Netflix submitted a mostly cash offer. Under Comcast’s proposal, Comcast would take control of the combined entity and Warner Bros. shareholders would receive a mix of cash and stock. Paramount also submitted a bid for Warner Bros. Discovery, a 100% cash offer backed by debt financing from Apollo and Middle Eastern sovereign-wealth funds.
On December 5, Netflix announced that they would be buying the Warner Bros. streaming and studio company for $72 billion after the split closes in the third quarter, valuing WBD at $82.7 billion. As part of the deal, Netflix will acquire the Warner Bros. film and television studios, HBO and their streaming service HBO Max (including their respective libraries and DC Entertainment/DC Studios but not the linear networks, which would still be from Discovery Global). Paramount would later launch a Takeover bid for the entirety of WBD three days later for an enterprise value of $108.4 billion, with Comcast dropping out of the bid for WBD’s studio and streaming assets. At the UBS media conference on December 8, Mike Cavanagh admitted that Comcast’s bid was "light on cash" compared to bids by Netflix and Paramount and that "we didn’t expect that we had a high likelihood of prevailing with a deal that made sense to us."
On December 17, Bloomberg reported that Comcast launched a valuation bid for WBD's streaming and studios division at $81 billion at $35.43 per share.
Ownership by Comcast (2011–present)
On December 3, 2009, after months of rumors, a deal was formally announced in which Comcast would buy a stake in NBC Universal from GE for $6.5 billion after the spin-off of certain businesses, pending regulatory approval. Under the agreement, NBC Universal would be controlled with a 51% stake by Comcast and GE would retain the remaining 49%. The deal includes a provision under which Comcast must contribute $7.5 billion in programming, including regional sports networks and cable channels such as Golf Channel, Versus, and E! Entertainment Television. GE used some of the funds, $5.8 billion, to buy out Vivendi's 20% minority stake in NBC Universal. Under the terms of the deal, Comcast reserved the right to buy out GE's share at certain times, and GE reserved the right to force the sale of its stake within the first seven years. Vivendi completed the initial transaction on September 27, 2010, selling a $2 billion stake to GE (approximately 7.66%).
Attempted buyout of 21st Century Fox assets and subsequent acquisition of Sky
On November 16, 2017, NBCUniversal's parent company Comcast made a bid to acquire 21st Century Fox's filmed entertainment, cable entertainment, and international assets, ten days after The Walt Disney Company (at the time, owners of rival network ABC, cable sports channel ESPN and theme parks Disneyland and Walt Disney World) was reported to be negotiating with Fox for the same assets. The deal contained key assets such as the 20th Century Fox film and television studios (Universal Pictures and Universal Television's respective rivals), a 30% stake in Hulu, television assets FX Networks, National Geographic Channel, and international television operations such as Star India, while excluding the Fox Broadcasting Company, the Fox News Channel, Fox Television Stations, Fox Business Network, Fox Sports 1 and 2, Fox Deportes, and the Big Ten Network, all of which were spun off into the "New Fox" company (later known as the Fox Corporation) run by the Murdoch family.
Preparation of Peacock streaming service
On January 14, 2019, NBCUniversal announced that it would launch an over-the-top streaming service to compete with Netflix, CBS All Access, Amazon Prime Video, Hulu, Apple TV+, HBO Max, and Disney+. A reorganization of the major direct reporting division was made. Bonnie Hammer was appointed chairman of NBCUniversal Direct-to-Consumer and Digital Enterprises via the streaming services and the Digital Enterprises unit. Her former unit, NBCUniversal Cable Entertainment Group, was given to Mark Lazarus as chairman, NBCUniversal Broadcast, Cable, Sports and News. Universal Filmed Entertainment Group chairman Jeff Shell added NBC Entertainment, Telemundo and international channels as chairman of NBCUniversal Film and Entertainment. On September 17, 2019, NBCUniversal announced the service would be called Peacock and launched on July 15, 2020. In 2025, Comcast executives told investors that Peacock had grown a customer base of more than 41 million paid subscribers.
Vudu acquisition
In February 2020, it was reported that Comcast (via NBCUniversal) had entered talks into acquiring Vudu from Walmart. On April 20, 2020, Fandango Media (jointly owned by Comcast and WarnerMedia) announced that it would be acquiring Vudu. The acquisition was completed on July 6, 2020. Vudu was renamed Fandango at Home in 2024.
Restructuring and Versant spin-off
In September 2022, NBCUniversal announced it had moved Universal Filmed Entertainment Group's consumer products division Universal Brand Development to Universal Parks & Resorts and had it merged with the latter's merchandise unit Universal Parks & Resorts Merchandise Group to form a single unified global consumer products business & focused on theme park experiences division for NBCUniversal's franchises renamed the former to Universal Products & Experiences, with Universal Brand Development president Vince Klaseus had lead the rebranded division.
Attempted acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery
On October 2, 2025, CNBC reported that NBCUniversal would be the biggest wild card for the acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery's assets.
Possible acquisition of Paramount Skydance
On December 24, 2025, The Wrap reported that Paramount Skydance may try to merge with another studio if their planned bid to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery fails (with the Netflix-WBD deal still going through), with The Wrap stating that some experts believe that Paramount Skydance may try to merge with NBCUniversal (in case they merge, they would have to sell CBS due to the FCC regulation stating that there can't be a merger between the two of the Big Four broadcasting networks) or acquiring Lionsgate, if their bid for WBD fails.
Notable people
Assets
Libraries
NBCUniversal Film & Entertainment
NBCUniversal Media Group
See also
External links
Categories: Official Website, Nbcuniversal, 2004 Establishments In New York City, 2004 Initial Public Offerings, 2011 Mergers And Acquisitions, American Companies Established In 2004, Comcast Subsidiaries, Comcast, Companies Based In Los Angeles County, California, Former Joint Ventures, Mass Media Companies Based In New York City, Mass Media Companies Established In 2004, Universal City, California, Companies Formerly Listed On The New York Stock Exchange
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