2024: The Year Legacy Media Gave Up on Cable
In 2024, legacy media giants like Disney and NBCUniversal finally had enough with cable — and started making their own off-ramps.
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If you don’t get it yet, traditional linear TV is an albatross.
In 2024, legacy media giants finally had enough — and started making their own off-ramps.
Tuning Out
The overall subscriber base for pay-TV services — which includes cable, satellite, and internet services like YouTube TV — is collapsing. According to industry analysts at MoffettNathanson, the first quarter of the year saw 2.37 million customers unsubscribe from their pay-TV services, the worst quarterly drop ever, followed by another 1.6 million drop in Q2 (MoffettNathanson’s third-quarter figures are expected next month).
For legacy media players like Disney, Warner Bros. Discovery, and NBCUniversal — which have long maintained major assets across broadcast and cable TV — it’s clearer than ever that they are aboard the Titanic.
In response, they started making their own lifeboats in 2024:
- In November, NBCUniversal parent Comcast announced a spin-off of most of its cable assets, which would become a new publicly-traded company majority-owned by Comcast and comprised of cable assets like MSNBC, USA, and E!. Notably, reality TV powerhouse Bravo, Spanish-language network Telemundo, broadcast giant NBC, and streamer Peacock are all staying with the mothership.
- WBD execs must’ve liked what they saw. Earlier this month, the ailing giant announced a restructuring of its business to place linear assets and streaming assets into two distinct business units (though HBO, notably, is paired with streamer Max), possibly setting up a future spin-off or sale of the linear assets and sparking a much needed share-price surge of 15% the day the news was announced.
Company Town: Disney may be contemplating a parallel path. CEO Bob Iger has publicly floated similar plans, including even a sale of broadcast giant ABC (though he’s since backed off). More consequently, the company has grown less militant about making cable providers bundle (and therefore charge customers for) all of its various linear TV products this year, long a negotiating tactic for the storied firm.
