Cable TV is dying — and can still be a very good business.
Versant, a company spun out of Comcast, is managing the decline of its cable TV business while simultaneously investing in new, non-cable ventures. The company is balancing shareholder payouts with a strategy to extract remaining cash from traditional networks while pivoting toward digital platforms.
Why it matters
It highlights the broader industry struggle of legacy media companies attempting to survive the transition from traditional cable to digital-first business models.
Versant CEO Mark Lazarus runs a cable TV business. He wants to turn it into something else. IMF Cable TV is going away. But it's still here now, and many cable TV channels still make money. Versant, a group of cable channels including MS NOW and CNBC, wants to keep operating those channels — while building new, cable-free businesses. It's also taking some of the money those channels make and handing it directly to shareholders — who seem to like that strategy. What do you do if you're a big media company that owns a bunch of cable TV networks? In many cases, you try to get rid of them .
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