• by Wayne Friedman , Staff Writer, January 29, 2024

Love comes in all shapes and sizes -- even for media executives on top of tenuous future business operations.

Comcast in particular may be in a better spot than at least two other companies in the fight for their survival: Paramount Global and Warner Bros. Discovery.

Comcast is that rare horizontal media company that successfully figured out the tricky synergistic issues that others could not address. (Hello, AT&T).

Comcast's focus continues to be around its broadband products (though now maturing, and registering slight slowdowns), a mobile phone service, and perhaps a budding streaming distribution business, Xumo. This is in addition to NBCUniversal.

Over a decade and a half of operation, it is one of the few media companies to successfully combine a fairly large communications/broadband company, sometimes tangentially, with that of a legacy TV/movie content company, NBCUniversal.

But with the streaming internet world upon us, and legacy TV media companies being caught, to be put it gently, flat footed, it's all hands on deck to make big business moves. 

Maybe even more so now in early 2024, where top dog in the streaming world, Netflix, has recently seen its business accelerate, in terms of revenue, subscribers, and overall content heft. 

Even before this, legacy TV media companies have been fodder of media/acquisition talk. Comcast executives have been well aware of this. 

Looking to disable another potential media bomb, Brian Roberts, CEO of Comcast Corp. on Thursday referenced this, during the company's fourth-quarter 2023 earnings phone call. 

“While there may be speculation about what we could do next, I'd like you to hear it directly from me: I love the company we have," he told analysts.

Well, yes. Right now. This week. This month. But come say September 2024, other things may take root.

“When you put it all together, we have a great team that's always most important to me. And we're making the right adjustments to our businesses to position us to win, grow and continue to return capital to shareholders.” 

Well, that is what CEOs should be always ready to say. But the marketplace also has a voice as well. Hear those murmurs? Read those consumer tea leaves?

Everyone is ready for love. Entertainment love.