Jeff Shell’s Shocking NBCUniversal Exit Creates Uncertainties for Comcast’s Streaming Wars

Brian Steinberg
·4 min read

After steering NBCUniversal through a global pandemic and a roiling stock market, Jeff Shell in January thought he had some good news for investors: Better times were just around the corner.

“I’m pretty confident that we have a lot of growth ahead in NBCUniversal,” he told Wall Street analysts during a recent conference call. He called for new activity at the company’s amusement parks after a long fallow period caused by the COVID pandemic, as well as a boost to paying subscribers at the company’s Peacock streaming hub.

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Now a different executive will be charged with finding out whether Shell’s projections will come to pass.

Comcast, NBCU’s corporate parent, stunned Wall Street and the entertainment industry Sunday afternoon by announcing that Shell, a media-industry veteran who took NBCU’s reins from previous CEO Steve Burke in 2020, was leaving the company immediately after acknowledging an inappropriate relationship with an employee. Its the latest in-house imbroglio for NBCU, which has grappled with the ousting of “Today” anchor Matt Lauer and former Universal honcho Ron Meyer under similar circumstances. Shell’s exit leaves NBCU without a permanent chief at the helm as the company navigates an increasingly complex set of circumstances, with TV viewers moving to on-demand streaming in such numbers that the economics of the business are eroding faster than executives can work to find new sources of revenue.

Shell’s predecessor, Burke, was a buttoned-down operator who focused intently on financials. He was said to be particularly interested in NBCU’s reach among the audiences most favored by advertisers. However, Shell, according to company insiders, was more mercurial, ready to offer a programming or strategy suggestion in an off-the-cuff manner. It’s Shell, some of these people said, who urged CNBC to take on Shepard Smith, the former Fox News anchor, for a stint on an early-evening general-news program that had little to do with the network’s focus on business topics.

While more spontaneous than other NBCU chiefs, Shell also pushed the company to be more aggressive in the streaming world, realizing that Peacock had much to do to gain the halo of Netflix or HBO Max. In recent months, NBCU has added more live sports to the service, including Sunday-morning Major League Baseball games, as well as many library and contemporary offerings from WWE. The company has clawed back next-day rights for NBC shows like “Saturday Night Live” that had previously been assigned to Hulu, the streaming service that counts Comcast as an investor but is controlled by Walt Disney Co. And under Shell’s aegis, NBCU shut down cable’s NBC Sports Network, realizing that its sports rights could be deployed in more strategic fashion to attract audiences to both Peacock as well as NBC and USA.

There are a handful of executives who might be seen as potential successors. Donna Langley, chairman of the company’s film operations, has presided during an era that has seen the company work to expand some of its flagship properties, including its “Jurassic Park” movies and its “Fast & Furious” franchise. Mark Lazarus, the company’s chairman of TV and streaming, has overseen a massive recalibration of production assets that take into account both traditional and broadband audiences, as well as their unique viewing behaviors.

But Comcast assigned someone else to supervise NBCU for at least an interim period. Mike Cavanaugh, who was elevated to president of Comcast last fall, has been seen as someone who might take up more of CEO Brian Roberts’ duties over time. In recent earnings calls, Cavanaugh has seemed more enmeshed in the nitty gritty of Comcast’s operations, while Roberts talked more about initiatives related to the future. Cavanaugh joined Comcast in 2015 as its CFO. On Sunday, Cavanaugh was said to be calling around to executives who work with NBCU to say he would be stepping in to run operations for a while, according to a person familiar with the matter.

The absence of a regular CEO comes just as NBCU is set to do battle with its rivals on two fronts. The industry is entering its annual “upfront” market, when U.S. media companies try to sell the bulk of their advertising inventory for their next programming cycle. Meanwhile, the sector’s ongoing “streaming wars” are set to expand, with Warner Bros. Discovery launching a new Max service that combines the high-concept shows of HBO with the reality programming of Discovery. Digital players like Roku, Amazon, Netflix and YouTube are also making some of their most aggressive bids for the ad dollars that have typically fueled TV.

If there was any time for NBCU to be sure of the steps it is taking, it is now.

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