Cavanagh In For The Long-Haul At NBCU

Chairman-CEO Brian Roberts kicked off Comcast’s quarterly conference Thursday morning call by addressing the elephant in the room — the abrupt departure of NBCUniversal CEO Jeff Shell — although he never mentioned Shell by name.

“Obviously a tough moment. But we are so fortunate to have a fabulous, tenured leadership team at NBCUniversal,” Roberts, adding that many of the execs have been leading their units of NBCU for at least 10 years and he called them “the best in the business.”

With Comcast President Mike Cavanagh now directly overseeing NBCU, Bank of America analyst Jessica Reif Ehrlich asked during Q&A whether his dual role should be viewed as a permanent solution.

“The short answer to the question is me stepping in to oversee NBC is quite sustainable. Why I say that is as president [of Comcast] I was already overseeing all of this and close to the people that run the NBC businesses and the cable businesses in the corporate areas. And I think what’s really important to understand is that we’ve got high quality operators and leaders in all of the seats around the company—in Philadelphia, Los Angeles, New York, Orlando and so forth.

“So, while I’ll have to work a little harder, and frankly I’m energized to do so, I look forward actually to spending time getting closer to the NBCU businesses and spending more time deeper in them, and with the leaders there, frankly, since I’m gonna be here a long time, I actually think that’s good for me and good for the company over the long term,” Cavanagh said.

“I’d put no timetable at all, no time pressure to do anything other than to make sure the businesses hum, which that’s what they’re doing right now and that’s what I see continuing,” he added. “And maybe someday we’ll think there’s a better way to approach it, but I’ll never be moving far away from the businesses no matter what the outcome or any way it turns out. So, think of me as being in there for a while.”

New Comcast CFO Jason Armstrong elaborated on first quarter results, which saw total company revenues decline 4.3% to $29.7 billion.

“Media revenues decreased 21% [to $6.2 billion] on an as-reported basis and 2% excluding the Olympics, primarily due to a 6% decline in domestic advertising, reflecting softness in the overall ad market — which appears to have stabilized — offset somewhat by strong growth in Peacock’s advertising revenue. When you exclude Olympics and Super Bowl, Peacock’s advertising increased an impressive 90%,” the CFO said.