Comcast is exploring a separation of its cable networks enterprise, President Mike Cavanagh mentioned Thursday.

In the course of the firm’s third-quarter earnings name with buyers, Cavanagh mentioned the corporate is exploring creating “a brand new, well-capitalized firm owned by our shareholders and comprised of our robust portfolio of cable networks.”

The attainable separation wouldn’t embody broadcast community NBC nor streaming service Peacock, he added. NBCUniversal’s cable networks portfolio contains Bravo, E!, Syfy, Oxygen True Crime and USA Community, in addition to information networks MSNBC and CNBC.

The feedback come as hundreds of thousands of shoppers proceed to flee the normal pay TV bundle in favor of streaming. Comcast has been beefing up its streaming service Peacock, which obtained a lift in the course of the third quarter when it solely aired the Summer time Olympics in Paris. Peacock ended the quarter with 36 million subscribers, up 3 million from final quarter.

Shares of Comcast had been up greater than 3% in noon buying and selling Thursday.

Regardless of twine reducing, conventional TV networks are nonetheless money cows for media companies, whereas streaming has racked up losses. On Thursday, Comcast mentioned third-quarter income for the media section – primarily comprised of NBCUniversal’s TV networks – was up practically 37% to $8.23 billion, largely because of the Olympics. Nonetheless, excluding the Summer time Video games, income was up virtually 5%.

Cavanagh burdened to buyers that the method of learning a separation is on the very early levels, and the potential consequence was nonetheless undetermined. Comcast determined to announce it was contemplating the information in order that it may discover the concept with out having to fret about leaks or confusion, in accordance with folks accustomed to the corporate’s pondering. The analysis will embody folks inside and out of doors of NBCUniversal, mentioned the folks, who requested to not be named as a result of the discussions are non-public.

Past the first query of whether or not to maneuver ahead with a by-product, there’s additionally uncertainty round which networks to incorporate in a attainable separation, together with whether or not MSNBC and CNBC ought to stay with the NBC Information Group, mentioned the folks. Comcast may additionally resolve to develop a cable community monitoring inventory fairly than a full spin, or the belongings might be merged with a peer, the folks mentioned.

“I feel the questions on easy methods to do it are the explanation we’re saying right here that we wish to examine it. There are numerous inquiries to which we do not have solutions,” Cavanagh mentioned Thursday. “And we wish to do the work with transparency round it in order that as rumors fly and the road, we anticipate that.”

The corporate misplaced 365,000 cable TV prospects during the third quarter. Cable subscriber losses have been felt throughout the trade.

Analyst agency MoffettNathanson estimated there have been 4 million conventional pay TV subscriber losses within the first six months of the yr, calling it “a mindboggling whole.” That features 2.37 million losses within the first quarter, thought-about the worst-ever quarter for defections from the bundle.

In August, Warner Bros. Discovery booked a $9.1 billion write-down of its TV networks, triggered by the reevaluation of the guide worth of the section.

“Like a lot of our friends in media, we’re experiencing the results of the transition in our video companies and have been learning one of the best path ahead for these belongings,” Cavanagh mentioned Thursday. “We’re not prepared to speak about any specifics but, however we’ll be again to you as and after we attain agency conclusions.”

Comcast declined to supply a selected timeline as to when it could announce extra particulars on its plans for the NBCUniversal networks.

Cavanagh famous that Comcast had stayed out of the fray earlier this yr throughout a back-and-forth gross sales course of for Paramount Global — the storied media firm that features a movie studio, portfolio of cable networks and streaming companies.

Cavanagh added that the corporate is contemplating streaming partnerships, however because of the sophisticated nature of these offers the corporate is just “open to them” at this level.

A few of these occasions additionally seem on cable channel USA Community, which turned NBCUniversal’s pay TV channel location for a lot of this content material after it shuttered NBC Sports activities Community in 2021.

It is unclear how a separation would have an effect on sports activities rights contracts, if in any respect. However divorcing cable networks from NBC and its sports activities rights may go away them susceptible to getting dropped by pay-TV distributors, mentioned LightShed analyst Wealthy Greenfield. That may doubtless doom any publicly traded entity of the cable networks portfolio from the beginning, Greenfield famous.

“With out marquee sports activities, will NBCUniversal’s cable networks be dropped by distributors and fast-follow [regional sports network group] Diamond Sports activities into bankruptcy?” Greenfield mused in an interview.

Disclosure: Comcast owns NBCUniversal, the father or mother firm of CNBC. NBCUniversal owns NBC Sports activities and NBC Olympics. NBC Olympics is the U.S. broadcast rights holder to all Summer time and Winter Video games via 2032.

Clarification: The headline on this text has been up to date to make clear that Comcast is exploring a separation of its cable networks enterprise.