By Isabella Simonetti
Versant Media Group reported lower revenue and profit in its first quarter on Thursday, the company's second earnings report since being spun off from Comcast earlier this year.
Versant, which is home to cable networks including CNBC, MS NOW and E!, reported $1.69 billion in revenue, down 1.1% from a year earlier. Net income declined 22% to $286 million. The company's revenue and profit beat expectations of analysts polled by FactSet.
Comcast greenlighted the spinoff of its NBCUniversal cable networks in late 2024, an acknowledgment that it would be better off without a business that was once its crown jewel but which suffered after years of cord-cutting.
Versant became an independent, publicly traded company in January.
Versant said the revenue it receives from pay-TV distributors fell by 7.3% to $1.01 billion, because of subscriber declines, and advertising revenue decreased by 5.2%, to $368 million. The company's stated long-term goal is to become less reliant on the pay-TV business, moving toward a model where half of revenue comes from traditional TV and the other half from digital, subscription and other businesses.
Revenue from the platforms business, which includes review site Rotten Tomatoes, ticketing service Fandango and tee-time marketplace GolfNow, rose by more than 9%, to $192 million.
Versant also said it would repurchase an additional $100 million of shares in the second quarter of 2026. The company repurchased around $100 million of stock in the first quarter.
Write to Isabella Simonetti at isabella.simonetti@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
May 14, 2026 07:04 ET (11:04 GMT)
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