Comcast Aktie

You've been at a BofA conference, but we're thrilled to have you. But you've been at Comcast and NBCU for more than 2 decades. You've had a front row seat for the enormous changes across the media industry. Aside from preparing for the separation, which obviously we'll discuss in a few minutes, as you look out over the next 3 to 5 years, can you talk about what your top priorities for NBCUniversal Media Group and what success looks like to you?

Well, first, thank you, Jessica, for inviting me. It's good to see you again. When you take a step back and you look at NBCUniversal's Media Group, we have a really strong portfolio of assets. You've got NBC, Bravo, Peacock, NBC Sports, NBC News, Telemundo, these are assets that truly work better together. NBC, in many ways, is like a megaphone. It has tremendous reach, tremendous promotion. It was really critical as we were building Peacock. But Peacock also is reaching new viewers and new audiences that we're able to drive back to NBC and Bravo.

And so about 18 months ago, we restructured the media group. It's what I like to call centers of excellence. And so where before we had a streaming division, a broadcast division, we just centralized everything into one programming group, one marketing, one advertising, one product and technology. And it's been very kind of empowering to the teams because it's very much a content first, platform second.

How do we get the maximum reach, the maximum engagement? How do we drive top-line revenue? How do we ensure that we're investing and getting the right return, but at a portfolio level versus looking at it through any one individual asset? And so when you look at how we've been performing this year, we feel really good about the momentum. I mean, if you look at NBC, we were #1 in '25 -- in the '25, '26 season for total viewers.

Earlier this year, we had, as you know, Legendary February, where the Super Bowl was the highest-rated -- Super Bowl is actually the highest-rated live event in NBC's 100-year history. The Milano Cortina Olympics were the highest rated since 2014. This summer, we had the World Cup on Telemundo, which was the highest-rated Spanish-language World Cup in U.S. history.

Peacock had Love Island this summer, which was the #1 streaming show. We had The Five-Star Weekend, which was the #1 scripted original that we've had on Peacock. And so it feels like we're firing on all cylinders. But what's also really interesting is the interplay of the audiences. And so for example, about 40% of those Love Island viewers, were also watching the World Cup. And that is effectively our strategy, which is how do we use sports to drive acquisition? How do we drive engagement and retention using entertainment? And how do we get the maximum value for our content across the portfolio?

Right. So as you plan to separate as -- Comcast announced you're separating in the coming year or so. You have -- well, it's NBCU and Sky, and we'll get to Sky in a second. But what is operating as an independent company allow NBCUniversal and more specifically, NBCUniversal Media Group that you chair, to do differently? Are there areas where you expect greater strategic or financial flexibility?

Well, I don't think being independent changes our overarching strategy. I think what it does is it allows us to move faster. I think it gives us more flexibility. We have an incredibly strong management team led by Mike Cavanagh. There's a few areas that I think just play to our strengths. And so for example, one area is live events and sports. When you look across NBC, Peacock, Telemundo, Sky, we have amassed one of the largest and most valuable sports portfolios in media. That allows us to drive ratings, monetization. It allows us to drive subscriber acquisition for Peacock.

You're also seeing, when we partner with the leagues, the leagues are also looking for how do we drive incremental reach. We check a lot of boxes. We have broadcast cable, digital streaming. We've demonstrated that we can drive audience and grow the addressable audiences for the sports leagues. Look at Sunday Night Football. It's been #1 in prime time for 15 consecutive years in a row. I think that that's an example of how we're able to drive more reach as a portfolio.

I think another example would be talent franchises. IP, that's an area that is an opportunity for investment. Donna Langley and the team have created this unbelievable environment where the best talent wants to work with Universal, whether it's Christopher Nolan or Chris Meledandri or Lorne Michaels or soon to be Taylor Sheridan. And so these franchises, we're able to kind of build and then extend across film, TV streaming and even our theme parks.

And I think because we're independent and we're not a closed ecosystem, we also have the ability to be more flexible when it comes to partnerships. And so for example, we announced a deal this summer with YouTube. I think that's the type of innovation that we're looking to continue driving. And so I wouldn't say that the independence changes how we're looking at media. I think it just gives us more flexibility to move quicker. We're not trying to build a broadcast business sitting next to a streaming business. We're trying to build a digital first new media company where we're trying to get the maximum return for investment across the portfolio.

Such different businesses obviously given yesterday's performance of the parent company, having a separate trading equity, there's obviously a very different -- a big difference in performance. And so having separate currencies I think will be rewarded in different ways.

Yes. I would say internally at NBC, there is genuine excitement. We feel really good about our trajectory and our growth, and I think the independence is going to allow us to move faster. It's like a catalyst for us.

Amazing. So let's -- we're going to go to every piece of that you talked about in terms of assets. So let's start with Peacock. Peacock recently reached quarterly profit. You've continued to add subs. What do you think the biggest drivers of sustainable profit are from here? And what does Peacock at scale ultimately look like to you?

So we launched Peacock in 2020. And so if you go back 6 years, it's pretty remarkable how different the streaming landscape looks now than it did back then. I would say most media companies at the time were focused on ad-free binge viewing, scripted dramas, almost growing subscribers at any cost. We clearly came to the market with a very, very different strategy. We did not see streaming as a separate business. We saw it as an extension of our broadcast business. And so that influenced our strategy in some pretty profound ways.

The first was to really look at Peacock as a dual revenue stream business. Two revenue streams is typically better than one. NBC is a dual revenue stream business. We have obviously a very deep advertising infrastructure led by Mark Marshall. And we truly believe that the advertisers would follow the eyeballs to streaming. And so we anchored Peacock as an ad-supported service. And so when you look at our sub mix, about 80% of our subscribers are on the ad tier, that's been critical as we're driving ARPU to have those 2 revenue streams.

The other important part of the strategy is we really anchored ourselves around live and sports, which at the time was incredibly controversial because the belief was the future is on demand, it's binge viewing, nobody watches live events anymore. But we knew that, that wasn't true, especially given our cable DNA of understanding how people consume media. And so we really started investing in live events and sports. And so I think that there was something about streaming at the time, that to me, felt like a casino. There was no sense of time or place. There was no urgency.

What you want with the streaming service is frequency. How do I get somebody to come to my app every single day? Well, live events is probably the best way to do that. And so that was a very core part of our strategy, but it was also investments we made in the technology because to scale live sports is incredibly difficult. It is not for the faint of heart. And the tolerance of the consumer for pixelation, latency, when the video and audio don't sync, it's 0.

And so for us, we now have a platform that has been proven, whether it's the Olympics or exclusive NFL playoff games. And I think that that's actually an example of investments that we made early on. And so I think that when you look at where we are today, in Q2, we reached 48 million subscribers. We had our first quarter of profitability, which was a great milestone for the team. I think it's the beginning of the validation of our strategy, which we've been very consistent about from the beginning.

And so when we look out for the future, we feel really good about continuing to scale Peacock, both through direct-to-consumer, but also through wholesale partnerships. I think the real growth is going to continue to come from focusing on engagement because of that dual revenue stream and how we're able to monetize the engagement. But we're not measuring our success based on hitting a certain subscriber number. What we're looking for is a healthy subscriber base, continue to drive ARPU, growing revenue and margins faster than the underlying cost basis.

Right. I mean you -- [ subjective 2 cents ] but you were zigging when everyone said you were the only one with an AVOD strategy out of the gate. Absolutely true. Mark Marshall is amazing.

He is fantastic.

He's just done a phenomenal job, so...

Yes. I think that we've been very consistent. We said from the beginning, this is not a sprint, it's a marathon at a sprinter's pace. If you look at the decisions we made in 2020, we have been incredibly consistent, where others, I think, have evolved their strategy, arguably closer to what we've been doing. And so I think because of some of those earlier decisions and bets, we feel very well positioned for continued growth, especially given the fact that we're going to be independent, and we're now managing much more aligned as a portfolio.

Right. So advertising, obviously, one element, live plays into that super well, but you've also taken price while growing Peacock. So what does that tell you about the services pricing power? How do you balance ARPU growth while maintaining a strong consumer value proposition?

So I actually think Peacock is an incredible value in the market. When you look at the service, you've got next-day NBC and Bravo. You've got Universal films, Focus Features films in the most premium Pay-One window. We've got a growing portfolio of originals that we're investing in. And we've talked about sports. We've got NFL, NBA, MLB, Premier League, Big Ten, Olympics. We've got an incredible portfolio of sports.

And so when I compare Peacock to other streaming services in the market, there are some streaming services that are comprised primarily of sports that are double the retail price of Peacock. And so I think we've got the ability to continue to look at rate growth in the future. And as you know, we took a price increase this summer on Peacock.

Now all of that being said, I think you've got to be mindful of consumer share of video wallet. You have to be aware of the macroeconomic environment. And so we've also tried to be surgical around giving consumers choice. And so choice means you can sign up for Peacock through our website or through our app. You can get Peacock through a bundle. You can get Peacock as part of pay television. You can get a discount on Peacock if you purchase an annual plan.

And so you're trying to look for incrementality to continue driving subscribers and growth, but you're also looking at different cohorts and different sales channels to maximize that incrementality. I think the next evolution for us is to start thinking of subscribers more as members. And if you can evolve your subscriber base to a membership base, what you're doing is you're providing more values to drive loyalty and retention.

So the only calculus isn't limited to what's the content offering at that moment, but what are the other benefits that we could be making available as part of Peacock. And so for example, because we're testing this right now, we're -- we've got a membership program, which is primarily based on tenure and engagement levels.

And so what that looks like is if you are a Peacock member, you can get 25% off NBC and Bravo merchandise. If you are a Peacock member and you watch 3 movies in a month, you can earn a free pizza. We have a partnership with Instacart, where Peacock subscribers can get a free annual subscription to Instacart+.

You can imagine, again, now that we're managing much more closely as a portfolio across NBCUniversal, maybe this evolves into something where you get benefits at the theme park or BravoCon or you talked about advertising. How do we take the partnership we have with advertisers to create better values and discounts and activations for our subscribers. And so this is an area that we are starting to lean more aggressively into.

But I think it changes the aperture of how you think about future rate increases because the more value we can provide into the subscription in addition to video, I think the more opportunity we're going to have to continue to also improve retention and drive down churn and loyalty overall.

Right. Obviously, the joy of engagement and usage of the app, et cetera, et cetera. So the theme park connection is very interesting. So I guess moving on to the content piece of it. As you think about, you've obviously beefed up sports in a very big way. You have tons of great movies. You mentioned Taylor Sheridan is coming, which is incredible. Is that in 2 years?

Well, we have a relationship with 101 Studios and Taylor Sheridan, I believe it's in 2029.

Okay. So just over 2 years.

But we also have "Yellowstone". We have the rights as I think you know, to "Yellowstone" exclusively for streaming on Peacock. And so we know the power of Taylor Sheridan, which is why we're incredibly excited about this relationship. And I think it's only going to help continue to fuel our strategy about driving additional engagement, but also new franchises and possibly new IP for the portfolio.

If there was a knock on Peacock, it would be the originals like how quickly -- well, not quickly, you've ramped up originals. But as you think about your incremental dollar of content spend, could you just walk us through how you think about like where does the money go? Sports, originals entertainment, library, syndicated content or something else like it? How do you know that investment is working? Like what are you looking for?

So that -- the answer to that question actually changes depending on where you are in the life cycle of your business. And so when we were building streaming with Peacock, we were very focused on acquisition. And so the content that tends to drive acquisition, sports is one, and you can analyze what's the addressable audience for sport. What is the conversion of subscribers you would need against that addressable audience based on the CLV to then justify the level of investment. And so we have been very surgical and I would say, disciplined in how we have evaluated the different sports and live events that we've been acquiring because they become mechanisms for how we've been able to grow acquisition.

Originals are another way to drive acquisition. All Her Fault was a very popular show for us. The Five-Star Weekend was a very popular show for us. Love Island was the #1 show for the summer. So we are able to drive acquisition through originals, and Donna Langley and the team are really leaning in and doing a great job at continuing to build the originals machine for us.

I think that movies, especially in that early Pay-One window, consumers understand the value of premium movies in that earlier window. And so when you have a movie like Obsession or Super Mario Galaxy or in the coming months, The Odyssey, people will part money to get access to those movies as part of a subscription. Now if you manage a subscription business, and I've been in this business for a very long time, if you don't get the mix right, you'll have a leaky bucket because the content that drives acquisition doesn't necessarily drive retention and engagement. And so this is where you also need to be very focused on investing in content that drives that retention.

And that also plays to our strengths because what we have found is that, that type of programming is typically library TV and movies. Like a show like The Office or Brooklyn Nine-Nine. It's unscripted programming, it's news content, it's Telemundo, it's next day NBC. And so in a way, what we're doing is almost like we're managing a mutual fund. You're investing in different content that has different values, but you're trying to extract a return at a portfolio level. So we're investing in content that drives acquisition, engagement, frequency. Some content might even be a loss leader, but it's adding value across the entire portfolio.

And so I feel like when we look out to the next several years, we feel really good about the growth of Peacock through direct-to-consumer and through partnership. And so I think, naturally, what that does is it starts to shift your investment profile more towards content that drives engagement and retention. And so a good example of this is Bravo. So Bravo -- the Bravo is a fandom. I mean, if you watch Bravo, if you've ever gone to BravoCon, I mean this is a ravenous passionate, is probably the word I would use. A passionate base of users.

And so they watch, on average, 75 episodes a month. They typically have 33% lower churn than the average. And so when I was mentioning earlier about the originals, there is a corollary because shows like All Her Fault and The Five-Star Weekend, which went on to become our #1 scripted show, it was the Bravo audience that drove that engagement.

And so when we look out over the next few years, we're really focusing on how do we super serve our fandoms, which we've sized. How do we continue investing in building the reach of those fans but also the engagement of those fans. And that's where we think we're going to unlock more retention, more engagement, better monetization.

You have super fandom there, obviously. So moving on to -- you mentioned the YouTube relationship. And we're seeing the relationship between media companies and large tech platforms continuing to evolve. So as you move towards -- the whole industry moves more towards rebundling, aggregation, can you talk about what drove the decision to partner with a platform like YouTube?

So I've been in media most of my career, both pay television as well as just the broader media business. And I think if you've been in this industry long enough, you see trends. And so for me, I see a lot of similarity with the streaming market with what I saw with pay television. It feels like back into the future. And so if you rewind the clock, go back 10 years, people were cutting the cord, and they were subscribing to streaming services with the belief that they were going to save money.

And so you sign up for a streaming service, but then you quickly realize one streaming service is not going to give you the video calories because the average consumer watches 5 to 6 hours of media a day. So you subscribe to 3, 4 or 5 streaming services. The cost of content has not gone down. It's only gone up. Sports rights have only gone up. And so it was inevitable that retail prices for streaming services would have to go up. That would likely move the market to bundling. The more you get, the better the price.

I actually spoke about this back in 2019 where -- before we even launched Peacock, where I said the great unbundling of pay television is likely just going to give rise to the great rebundling of streaming. I think we're in that moment right now. So when we were building Peacock, we were very intentional because doing bundle deals is actually not very complicated. Doing bundling deals where you're getting the right wholesale economics is actually much more difficult because if you don't thread the needle right, then you could be cannibalizing high-ARPU direct-to-consumer subs for what I would say are low-calorie bundled subs.

And so we were not going to do that. And so we had spent years really focused on building what I would describe as a healthy base of subscribers on Peacock, taking maximum share of video wallet out of the market by really focusing on our direct-to-consumer business. And we are still focused on growing the direct-to-consumer business. We also wanted to give ourselves time to build our portfolio of content.

The one thing that I feel always held the cable bundle together was sports. And so if you're trying to extract maximum wholesale economics through bundling, sports is typically one of the best levers for you to do that. And so 12 months ago, we hit an inflection point on our growth where we activated the second phase of our strategy, which was to start leaning more into strategic wholesale bundles, and we did a deal with Apple. We did the deal with Walmart. We started leaning into channel arrangements, primarily for the ad-free version of Peacock because there's not -- it's only 20% of our subscriber base.

And so what you're looking for is incrementality. How do I continue to drive incrementality in a way that also generates positive consumer lifetime value. I think the -- excuse me, I think the YouTube deal is just a manifestation of where we are in this phase of our growth. What was attractive about YouTube is that so much of our content is consumed on YouTube as clips.

So you've got viewers that are familiar with our IP, whether it's SNL or whether it's Late Night, but they don't necessarily subscribe to Peacock. So we saw YouTube as an opportunity to partner, to grow the engagement, grow incremental subscribers. This is a way for us to, I think, continue to scale Peacock, but do it in a way that I think is going to be a win-win because YouTube is also a platform that's continuing to grow engagement. And as I said earlier, we're continuing to focus on how do we grow engagement. And so partnering with YouTube, I think, is going to be a mechanism for how we could do that.

There's a couple of pieces to the deal that are kind of just worth unpacking at a very high level. The first is this partnership is going to take Peacock Premium, which is the ad tier of Peacock, and it's bundling it with one of the tiers of YouTube Premium. But that is going to add millions of subscribers to Peacock. This could make Peacock one of the top domestic streamers once we launch this with YouTube.

The second piece of the deal was to extend the cable and broadcast linear portfolio with YouTube TV. This was critical to us because YouTube TV is the fastest-growing pay TV provider. And by extending the linear portfolio, we're providing stability into the future for the continued growth and health of NBC and Bravo and our cable networks.

The third piece was to expand the relationship around advertising with YouTube, both on data as well as deeper integrations with FreeWheel. If we want to monetize our advertising inventory better, this was a critical piece, and we feel really good that the partnership with YouTube is going to allow us to monetize our advertising in a way that's consistent with how we've been going to market with Peacock and NBC to date.

And then the fourth is that it provides us a path to continued growth internationally. We have a few smaller streaming services, which we don't talk a lot about publicly. One of them is Hayu, which is predominantly the Bravo unscripted programming which we distribute internationally as a subscription service, and the other is a service called Universal Plus, which is predominantly in LatAm and soon will be in parts of Asia, which is primarily comprised of library, Universal film and TV.

And so this partnership allows for bundling of those services with YouTube Premium internationally in select markets, which is going to give us another path for growth. And so we feel excited about this deal. We think YouTube is going to be a great partner. But at the same time, kind of back to where I started, I think as an independent company, we are, I think, able to be more innovative in how we could structure deals. And so what we've done with YouTube, I think, is an example of the type of deals that we would like to do with others as we're looking at continued growth and opportunities into the future.

There's so many aspects of this. I'd love to dive deeper but we don't have the time. I mean the Walmart relationship, there's just so many -- so much to unpack there, but thank you for that.

Well, the thing that's critical about it, Jessica, is that the YouTube agreement doesn't change any of the deals we've done in the market. We're still doing bundled deals. We're still doing various wholesale arrangements. We still have channel arrangements. We're obviously still going to aggressively lean into direct-to-consumer. I think that's one of the elegant aspects of this relationship is that it allows us to build off of what we've done in a material way, but it also allows us to continue to evaluate and look for additional partnerships in the future as well.

No, no. Obviously, it's a massive scaling up of existing assets. But you mentioned the international component. So maybe we can talk a little bit about, Sky is now becoming part of the independent NBCUniversal. How do you think about the international opportunity? Sky was always felt like a little bit of a stepchild, like no attention, but now where does it fit in the NBCU portfolio?

I think Sky, under Dana Strong, I think it represents a really big opportunity for the new NBCUniversal. It gives us more optionality. When you look at NBCUniversal, I think this is stating the obvious, but we are a global company. I mean, NBCUniversal distributes its films internationally, our theme parks are global. We license our content in every major market around the world. We've got linear cable networks that we distribute globally.

I just talked about some of our smaller streaming services with Hayu and Universal+. I think Sky becoming part of our portfolio just expand the aperture of opportunity. They have a strong brand. They have deep customer relationships. They've got local expertise. They've got production expertise in sports and news. There's a lot of similarities with NBCUniversal in the Media Group, and what Sky is doing that I think is just going to allow us to be more opportunistic.

What I sometimes gets lost is that when you look at the relationship with Sky through the lens of technology and product, the tech stack that we've built for Peacock is the same tech stack and product that Sky uses for the distribution of their streaming service, NOW TV. It's the same tech stack that we've actually scaled in dozens of other countries around the world.

And so when Sky does an acquisition with ITV, which we think is going to add significant scale and additional reach digitally for Sky, it also provides different opportunities when how we look at technology and how do we continue driving investment in technology, but get the economies of scale and the benefit.

And so when you kind of project out into the future, I feel like we're really well positioned to continue to leverage the playbook that we have in the market. If we believe licensing is going to give us a better return, we're going to lean into licensing on a market-by-market basis. If we think there's opportunity to build streaming, then we're going to lean into doing that, just like I talked about with YouTube. And if we see opportunities for partnership or acquisition like Sky is doing with ITV, then we're going to lean into that. And so maybe this is another example where we've zigged while others have zagged. But make no mistake about it, like our focus is we're looking at this through the lens of getting the best return for our content. And I think we've been very disciplined. We feel good about how we've been able to monetize our content on an international level.

So a couple of areas we need to cover. Sports is one. And you've now had meaningful experience with the NBA on NBC and Peacock. Can you tell us what you've learned so far about the audience advertising demand, subscriber engagement? Are the early results consistent with the assumption you made when you entered into the agreement? Let's start with that.

Well, so we're a year into the NBA partnership, and we couldn't be more excited and happy with the performance. We're pacing ahead of our internal model. The NBA has brought new audiences on to the platform, new advertisers onto the platform. It also filled a very strategic objective of ours, which is we wanted to build continuity for Sunday, right? So we've got NFL, NBA, MLB, we now have a premium lineup throughout the year, which is really critical as you're continuing to build audiences.

I think that when you break down the performance of the NBA, if you look at the regular season, we were averaging about 2.8 million viewers. That's roughly double what the NBA was generating for comparable games prior season. The playoffs were over 7 million viewers. The Western Conference finals were -- across NBC and Peacock were the highest rated in 2 decades. And so I give a lot of credit to our sports team, Rick Cordella, Sam Flood.

The team that I feel brought the premiumness back for the NBA on NBC and for Peacock, and that's, in turn, brought dozens of advertisers onto the platform. 60% are buying across NBC and Peacock because they want that broader reach. And so we feel good about our ability to continue monetizing the deal.

The other aspect of the NBA was the audience. And so the NBA has brought a younger, more diverse audience onto the platform. They're more mobile-centric. 25% are engaging with the product features that we've built for the NBA, which is critical for building that loyalty. About 3/4 of NBA viewers are watching entertainment.

Actually, the majority of their entertainment -- of their consumption is entertainment content. And so when I was talking earlier about the interplay between sports to drive acquisition and monetization and then entertainment driving retention and engagement, that flywheel is effectively what's happening with the NBA partnership. And so we feel good about the continued momentum and our ability to continue to get the right return from that partnership.

All right. And obviously, sports has been critical for you guys, but I have to cover a couple of more topics, advertising. Can you give us an update on what you're seeing in the advertising environment today? Where do you see the biggest opportunity for NBCUniversal to take share as viewing continues to move towards streaming and as we discussed live programming?

So I would say that the advertising market is a bit more cautious this year than what we saw in the prior year, but that's really a result of just the macroeconomic environment that we're all navigating through. I think the team under Mark Marshall has done a fantastic job, and we're actually seeing growth in pharma, in financial services, in technology.

The advertisers still want broad reach. And we don't sell as Peacock or as NBC or as cable. We sell as one platform, and we've been in the market that way for many years. And I think that, that just plays to our strengths. I think the other aspect that we're seeing in advertising is a real premium that's being put at the moment around live and sports. The Winter Olympics was -- The Milano Cortina Winter Olympics was the highest grossing advertising Winter Olympics we've had in our history.

This summer with the World Cup, we had about 120 sponsors that spent double what we saw in 2022. And so we're -- this was probably -- sports and streaming was probably 30% of our advertising business pre-COVID. It's now 60% of our advertising business. So you're going to see us continue to lean into sports and live events is the tip of the spear for where we continue to see growth.

Another area is programmatic. That's a business that didn't exist for NBCUniversal 5 years ago. It's now $1 billion and growing. It's also allowing us to further expand the aperture of sponsors and longer-tail sponsors that we can bring on to the platform. And so we're very bullish on that. And I think the other area I would focus on is AI. How do we use AI to create more contextual and personalized advertising.

And so -- and here would be an example. Imagine you're watching a show and there's a scene where a family is eating pizza for dinner. And we can use AI to scan the content, look at the metadata and then dynamically insert an ad coming into the break for Pizza Hut or for Domino's. Well, now you're blurring the lines between content and advertising in a way that feels very endemic. That, I think, is a better experience for the consumer, but that also could unlock future opportunities for how we can look at premiums around our inventory to drive additional monetization.

Right, right. I just want to -- one last question on advertising a little deeper. You've increasingly partnered with third-party data, technology and commerce companies to improve targeting, measurement and advertising outcomes. So how important are these partnerships to differentiate NBCU's advertising platform? What capabilities do you believe you need to remain -- like that you need to keep to remain proprietary?

So when you look at advertisers today, I mean, they're much more sophisticated. They want independent measurement. They want to understand that the investments in their advertising are yielding the business outcomes. And they want better control around their -- optimization of their campaigns. I think partnering with third parties is critical. Like we partner with various companies like a VideoAmp or an iSpot. This gives us the ability to have additional analytics and data, which is incredibly valuable for our clients.

At the same time, I do think that there are certain aspects that should be proprietary, like our Performance Insights Hub is our platform. And so we take proprietary data, the tools that we've built on our Performance Insights Hub, and then we co-mingle that with the third-party data and insights that we're able to gather. And so now we can provide that to our clients where they can make real-time optimizations to get the best return on their campaigns.

And so I think you have to have a balance where the proprietary technology gives us much more control over the product road map and the tools, which can become differentiators for us versus others. But the third-party relationships allow us to enhance the analytics and the performance to ensure that our clients are getting the maximum return on their investment with us.

Okay. We've time for one last topic, which we have to ask the AI question. So when you're thinking about the next 5 years, do you think of Peacock primarily as a streaming service or something broader? And what roles to areas like AI, personalization, which we really didn't get into that much, but personalization, gaming, interactive experiences play into that evolution.

As we only have a few minutes left. I could spend hours talking to you about this. And so I'll try to be concise, but I'm pretty passionate about that question actually. I think that if you were to look 4 or 5 years into the future, I think we're going to say the definition of streaming is going to feel pretty antiquated. I -- if you look at streaming services today, there's more similarity than differences in the experience. The content is organized in rows, you use artwork.

It's not that different than Blockbuster a couple of decades ago where people would walk around the perimeter of the store trying to find something to watch. And so I think there is a tremendous opportunity to reimagine the experience for streaming. How do you super-serve fans? And I think you look at evolving streaming into becoming more of an entertainment platform. And so here's an example of what I mean.

If you take a show like Love Island, this summer, which was the #1 show, as I mentioned, there are actually certain weeks of the year where the #1 app in the app store was not ChatGPT. It was the Love Island app. I mean this show was a phenomenon. And so what would happen is 6 days a week, people would tune into Peacock at 9:00 Eastern Time, they would watch Love Island. And at the end of an episode, we do what every streaming service does, which is we use an algorithm to say, "Oh, well, you like this show, you might like that show."

But what we found is that at the end of the episode, many of those fans didn't want to watch another show like they wanted to continue engaging with Love Island. So what happens? They leave our platform. They go to social media. They're looking for clips, for games, for podcasts. And that is engagement that we built, but we're not monetizing because we're not really providing that level of experience outside the premiumness of the content.

And so we've started to look at this several years ago around, well, what does it mean to be an entertainment platform. And so if you stick with Love Island as an example, 30% of the engagement of Love Island was on mobile devices. This is a demographic that's very comfortable with vertical video because they're using social media platforms of vertical video. So we built and introduced vertical video 18 months ago. So now you can watch clips in vertical video, live events in vertical video. We're even producing micro dramas for vertical video.

And so we're not creating the behavior. We're tapping into the behavior, but we're moving that engagement back to our platform. Gaming is another area where obviously it's exploding because that's where people are spending more of their time. And so we invested in gaming. So you could watch Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy! on Peacock or you can play the game on Peacock.

We even partnered with Wolf Games to produce a game of Law & Order. You could watch Law & Order or you can actually be the detective and try to solve the crime. We're actually introducing something in later in the -- couple of months called the Bravoverse, where we're using AI to scan thousands and thousands of hours of Bravo library to then create personalized playlists based on the shows you like and the Bravo celebrities you like.

And now you can get a new way to experience Bravo and go down the Bravo wormhole, but we can recreate versions of that for SNL or we can create a version of that for The Office, other franchises that have deep catalogs and fandoms. And so you're starting to think differently about ways that you could drive engagement where when you finish an episode, it's not the end, it's the beginning. And then we can introduce more ways for you to engage and give you more things that you love and continue to drive growth and monetization.

There are so many things that you just said, the fandom of -- you have so many titles that have in insane, well intense, however, you wanted to say.

Passionate.

Passionate fans. You have so many titles and then microdramas is the whole area -- another area we didn't even remotely get into. There's just so much opportunity. So anyway, very exciting. Thank you so much for being with us today. Really appreciate it.

Thank you. It's a pleasure.

Thank you.

Great. Well, good morning, everybody. Welcome to the Comcast fireside chat at the Goldman Sachs Communacopia and Technology Conference. My name is Mike Ng. I cover media, cable, telco here at the firm. And it's my privilege to introduce Jason Armstrong, who's the Chief Financial Officer at Comcast. We have about 35 minutes for today's presentation. But first and foremost, thank you so much for being here, Jason.

Mike, thanks for having me.

To start off, Comcast recently announced plans to spin off NBCUniversal and Sky from connectivity and technology. Could you talk a little bit about what drove that decision? How might the strategy at each entity differ after the separation?

Yes. Thanks, Mike. Well, it's great to be here. It's a little bit of a homecoming. I used to be in your seat for several years and understand the amount of work that goes into this conference. So thank you, thank Goldman for hosting this. Thanks for inviting us to come present.

You're right. It's been a busy year at Comcast, in particular, a busy summer. We announced late June an intention to separate into 2 different businesses. And we've spent a decade plus building 2 strong businesses.

More recently, as you look at sort of the competitive dynamics, the end markets, strategic positioning, investment requirements, there's a little bit of a divergence in terms of what these 2 businesses are focused on. And so decision to separate them. I think along with that decision, there's certainly opportunities on the other side, but let me just rewind the clock what went into that decision was sort of us saying we got to answer several questions on the viability of these companies as stand-alone businesses.

So first was, could we put leadership teams in place? I think we've answered that question already. Mike Cavanagh, Michael Angelakis running the 2 -- in position to run the 2 businesses. I've had the pleasure of knowing both of them for a long time.

Mike Angelakis hired me way back then from Goldman, 12 years ago at Comcast. He was the CFO and Vice Chairman at the time, deep operating background on the cable side, sort of always been an infrastructure guy and then had the privilege of working with Mike Cavanagh for over a decade. He deep background at JPMorgan, CFO background.

In this role -- in the roles that they're going to play in the businesses. So NBC, Mike Cavanagh has spent the last period of time as President, Co-CEO of Comcast and really has kind of been running NBC for the last 3 years. So a very natural transition into that role.

Michael Angelakis, a long period of time at Comcast. Before that, Providence Equity, always sort of an infrastructure bend to his investing style. So sort of an operator but with an investor lens. He spent the last several years in private equity as well. So a really interesting lens to bring into the business, but deep operating experience on the cable side.

So that's leadership. If you look at the top level and then we've rounded out the teams sort of around those 2, then you get into how well positioned are these businesses. If you look at the connectivity and sort of technology side, as you mentioned, we're a scaled leader in broadband.

We're a challenger in wireless, fastest-growing sort of scaled wireless company with a long ways to go. We're the only business services company at scale that's growing with a massive amount of room to go, which I'm sure we'll talk about in enterprise, which we're excited about.

And then if you shift over to the content side of the business and you look at sort of the strength of the portfolio there, depth of IP, depth in the Experiences segment, you sort of step back and say it's -- you got a top 3 studio, you got a top 2 global experiences business. You have a streaming business that's mostly domestic focused, but has now made its way to profitability and the future is bright. And so that was an important milestone. And so it sets both businesses up well.

Next question we had to answer was as we separate balance sheets, could you separate them and have strong characteristics around each side, which I think will easily check that box. Our intention is both companies will have strong investment-grade balance sheets. And now it's about the execution phase of that.

So with the leadership teams in place, we're off and running sort of building all the things that we have to put in place to separate. Obviously, we've given a target of sort of middle of next year and don't see any issues with that. We're off and running towards it.

Great. That's a fantastic overview. I'm sure we're going to hit all those topics in our session here. But to start off, let's talk about broadband competition. Cable broadband is certainly seeing some competition at the high end from fiber on the value side from fixed wireless. You have satellite and Starlink becoming a more meaningful part of the market. I was wondering if you could just characterize the competitive dynamics in each of those segments and talk a little bit about how Comcast is doing to -- what Comcast is doing to strengthen its position.

Yes. I think no doubt, it's a competitive environment. I think you're hearing that from everybody. It's competitive in broadband. It's competitive across convergence as well. So as we step back and look at broadband, we're in the fortunate position of we're one of two wires into the home. Our long-term view despite sort of competitive intensity right now has been and continues to be that a wire wins, right?

There's going to -- we think there will be two wires in the vast majority of homes, but wired technologies win. If you think about the ability to increase speeds over time, if you think about lowest latency, if you think about lowest marginal cost to upgrade, all those sort of bring you back to you want to wire in the home.

Saying that, fixed wireless has emerged as a new competitor. They are several years into taking share. Wireless companies have all devoted a set amount of capacity to say we've got excess capacity. How do we soak up that capacity? Let's go put some in the fixed wireless market. And so that continues. I think you're seeing around 1 million subs a quarter or so if you add up the totality of fixed wireless.

I think the leadership position and the composition within that is changing a little bit. You're seeing a couple of decelerate, but then one is accelerating. So the total picture sort of still looks the same. But every one of those companies is in search of a wire into the home and would rather put traffic across a wire than they would fixed wireless. They're telling you that by their actions, right?

And so long term, it sort of validates the strategy for us around wire into the home. But for now, it's competitive. And so fixed wireless continues to be a pressure on subscriber additions. That's no different from the past several years. Satellite looms out there as a potential threat.

I would reiterate what we said on the second quarter call, not really seeing it yet, but there's no complacency around it. I think we'll see it over time. And in particular, in rural and maybe deep suburban markets, it may be a better option as a competitor than we faced historically. So it's -- that's something we're bracing for.

Fiber wouldn't -- certainly not the last category, maybe it should have been the first, but that's the long-term competitor in our view. And so if you look at fiber making its way into our markets, historically, we would see overbuild of kind of 2% to 3% per year. That's accelerated in the last couple of years. It looks more like 4% or 5% at this point. That's nothing new. It's -- I think that's well known probably to this group.

You've seen a lot of fiber competition, a lot of funding into fiber and companies really accelerating that. I think one of the things that is new, we mentioned this on the second quarter call that we were starting to see irrational competition. It popped up a little bit in the second quarter. I would tell you it's continued into the third quarter. So when we see fiber pricing -- stand-alone fiber pricing in the $30 to $40 range for a gig, when we say irrational, that's what we mean by a irrational. That to us is not a rational price point.

When a company like that has to sit in front of this room and say, $1,500 to go build out a household, $2,000 rural markets, substantially more than that. And that's -- the economic case for that is built on ARPU of this and penetration of this, $30 to $40 as a starting point on a gig product, which is your flagship product and higher speed than fixed wireless, is not a rational price point, right?

And so as we look at it, we think we've been incredibly rational in our approach to the market. We think as you look at broadband and wireless and think about the converged opportunity over time, our entry into broadband, we got lucky, quite frankly. We, for 60 years, had plant that was allocated to video and coax cable into a household and could naturally transition that plant from video into broadband and do it in a high-capacity way.

So we're off and running, obviously, on that. We have been for 20-plus years, but more recently, taking that plant to multi-gig symmetrical has been the strategy. But that is a several hundred dollars per household transition. Copper to fiber is a potentially thousands of dollar transition. So point that out because when you see pricing the way we've seen pricing, that's -- you'd really question, I think, returns, especially on a stand-alone basis.

So if you look at that, our intention and our goal and what we think we'll do this year is on a year-over-year basis, we do think full year, we'll improve our broadband subscriber losses. I think quarters are going to look different within that. This particular quarter, I don't think will improve year-over-year.

So the pressure we've seen, in particular with irrational fiber pricing is going to cause that. But as we step back, incredible hand to play, I know we'll get into wireless. We're incredibly bullish on wireless and sort of the hand we have to play there.

Great. And if I could just follow up on the comment as it relates to competitive broadband pricing. What do you think ultimately happens there? Does the industry return to a more rational pricing environment over some period of time? It was interesting to hear that it kind of spilled over into the current quarter.

Yes. I think no crystal ball. But I can tell you what we're doing is, we think, a rational approach to the market. If you look at our approach to broadband, you mentioned this. A year ago, we sort of started on a new journey, right, the pricing and packaging journey and how do we go to market. We were -- it was an honest assessment of where are we good, where are we bad? Because, by the way, fixed wireless has probably taken more share than we thought. We got satellite coming and fiber is encroaching in our territory. And so let's go sort of rewrite the playbook a little bit and organize it into different categories.

So -- and it's through a consumer mindset and a consumer lens. What do they care about? They care about network, product and experience, simple categories. So on the network side, I think we're incredibly well placed, right? We have multi-gig symmetrical. That's the path we're on. DOCSIS 4.0, FDX, a full duplex, and this is a lot of jargon here, but simplistically, multi-gig symmetrical into every home, which matches where fiber is. And by the way, that's with 20% of our plant allocated to data. So 80% allocated to video.

So anybody questioning sort of the viability of our plant longer term and speeds we can ultimately offer. I would tell you, we're not in that camp. We're multi -- we can match fiber already with 20% of our plant allocated to data. So long runway there. I feel completely comfortable in what we're doing on the network side. On the product side, we actually rate incredibly well. We're #1 in our footprint in terms of WiFi reliability, which is if you ask consumers what they care about, that's #1, right? There's sort of price value, et cetera. But the first thing they'll say is I want my WiFi to work. I want the wire to work into the home and then I want coverage inside of the home, I want everywhere covered and want it to be incredibly reliable.

We are ranked #1 there. But on the product side, we sort of said, how can we go extend that, right? And this is largely how we're competing is how can we add more value to the consumer. And so whether that's wireless, where we've got an interesting path in. We've accelerated that with free lines that we do monetize over time. It's not free forever. It's free for a year, but that's an awareness thing.

We're competing more at the high end with our premium unlimited plans. We've just launched the Shield product, which is sort of a relaunch of our home security product, but it will have several different flavors associated with it. And the most basic layer is what you have in your home right now is a gateway that if you opt in as a consumer, which is your choice, but it is a motion control sensor in your home. So if you want some basic level of home security through that, it's not all the bells and whistles, but it's a basic level we can offer for free, right? You just opt into it. Nobody else is matching that.

I think increasingly, you'll see us competing with, here's a free camera, right? And we want to drive you to our app. We want you engaging with our app. We want you seeing what's going on with your home, add that to motion control and you start to add more value into the bundle.

Last category is experience. And that's the one where I think a year ago, we sort of said we need to make improvements here, whether it's the pricing and packaging construct, which the history of this was -- if there were teaser rates and then 2 years later, 1 year later, a pretty big step up. That used to work in the industry when that was the way the industry competed. That's not the way the industry competes at this point.

And so we had to really rewrite the rules around that. And then we had to get into the experience layer and say, okay, where are the deficits? Are we handling calls on time? Are we getting to customer resolution? It's a more competitive environment. Hence, you can't have pain points in the system. And I think that's been a journey for us.

We've invested quite a bit in that. We're, I think, still on that journey. But we -- between internal investments and then externally, we said who's best-in-class out there, and we use external partners. So between Google, Cresta, Sierra, we got a number of them in the system at this point, and it's about how do you get the best IBR possible. Incoming calls into a call center, how do you route them as quickly as possible, get to resolution. How do you take the unassisted and identify that? So customers come in and they actually don't want to talk to somebody. They want to be able to handle a problem pretty quickly and do it on their own. We're doing a lot of work there.

And then for customers that end up talking to an agent, which we still have a lot of agents out there. And to the extent people want to go talk to an agent, we want to get them there as quickly as possible. But how do you identify our own agents, right, and have them really have tools that are better than what they've had before? So we've done a lot through that.

I think I would tell you, as we articulated this journey last year, we said these investments are going to cause sort of temporary pressure on EBITDA. They're going to dilute broadband ARPU a little bit because free wireless lines inside of a bundled construct dilute broadband ARPU and dilutes convergence ARPA a little bit. Convergence ARPA is something we're really focused on at this point. But we'll start to come out of this, right?

And so we said on the second quarter call, I'd reiterate it here, we'd expect to have modest improvements in the EBITDA trajectory starting in the third quarter. We'd expect the same, by the way, on broadband ARPU, expect the same on convergence ARPA as well, where we'll be showing sort of sequential improvement.

So I think as you step back, we're competing rationally. We're competing along the lines of where we think our strongest playbook is. And again, back to the returns point, we enter into the market with strong returns on both sides of the convergence equation because we have a plant that's capable of multi-gig symmetrical that's been in existence forever with cheaper upgrades than anybody else had. And we have a path into wireless that is no towers, no spectrum. It's an incredibly capital-light path. It gives us a lot of flexibility.

Great. And then maybe just expanding a little bit more on wireless. Obviously, an important part of the connectivity strategy. You talked about some of the free line cohorts maturing into paid lines and premium unlimited. I was just wondering if you could give us a little bit of a postmortem on the wireless strategy and how it's been deepening customer relationships to date.

Yes. Wireless is an enormous opportunity for us. And I think that's -- it's no secret when you hear satellite companies start to talk about how do we get into the wireless market. It's because the addressable market is massive. And that's not just from a revenue perspective, it's from a profitability perspective as well. So we see it the same way. We think we've got an advantaged position of getting in because as we look at it, we have 65 million households. We have 30 million customer relationships. That's really our right to sell into. That's -- we're selling wireless into existing relationships.

We offload at a much higher rate than a traditional wireless company. And we're only selling into our own customers, which gives you an acquisition cost advantage. So you stack that all up and you go through a P&L all the way down to sort of free cash flow, which is what we really care about and where do you have advantages versus disadvantages in wireless. I would say gross margin, probably disadvantage, right? But as you start to get below that, acquisition cost advantage, capital intensity, huge advantage.

So get all the way down, this is a strong return business for us that we really like, but it's also a business where as we stare at different pockets of growth, and we as a company right now, we've really used sort of the separation as a catalyst for both sides. Partially, it's about spinning off NBC and they're going to be launched and off on their own and great things to come say and tell the market. But for the remaining CableCo, this is a -- it's also a forcing function, right?

Let's -- how many things can we go reinvent? Where are the pockets for growth that we can just be more agile, more focused. And so there's a lot of different things out there we're looking at. But the big one that sits right in the middle, the biggest far and away the largest addressable market is wireless. And so when you look at the wireless market, you studied this -- I've studied as an analyst for a long time, too. It's a great market, right? It is 0.8%, 0.9% churn. That's the first stat I would look at, right? It is incredibly sticky customer relationships.

What that usually means in a business is massive back books, right, and overpriced back books. That's a huge opportunity for us. It's not easy to peel customers away. Everyone in this room probably -- if I have to pull you on a family plan, it's tough. Everybody is sort of staggered in terms of handsets and EIPs and when they got on different programs and every family member looks different. But that's not insurmountable, right?

So I think increasingly, we're making our way into that business. If you look at what we've done recently, we've sort of said, we just -- we have to solidify the foundation because our right to sell is a happy broadband customer. That's what we're selling on top of. We have to build awareness. That's what free lines were about, but it's free for a year, right?

And then we're converting you. And so the early progress on that has been -- we're pretty maniacal about we give a free line, does someone activate it and does their usage start to build towards the 12-month mark when they're going to convert into a paying line?

The beauty of when you convert into a paying line is you're converting at a rate that's still a substantial discount to where the market is. So if you like us, there's no reason to leave. So what we've seen so far is 70% plus of customers on free lines are converting into paying lines. At the same time, we've really driven the premium unlimited business of wireless, which is sort of newer to us.

I think a fair critique historically was who can cable companies really go after and whose subscribers are they stealing and I think competitors of ours would have said, hey, they play in the lower end of the market. They definitely play in prepaid. We're fully playing in postpaid at this point.

If you look at full data allotments, handset availability, international roaming plans, there aren't really big differences. And so 40% of our incoming subscribers are now premium unlimited subscribers. That was 30% last quarter. It was substantially lower than that the quarter before. So really starting to make some good progress there.

And converged benefits over time as we look at the total convergence portfolio that we have, we're coming into wireless, they're coming into broadband. We sit there at $85 for a converged ARPA per household that we serve and wireless is up at $150, $160, $170. So to us, there's an enormous amount of room to run there, but we had to get a few things right, which we're starting to make a lot of progress on.

That's exciting. And you certainly don't have your fair share in wireless yet?

Correct. We're 7% penetrated amongst our homes. That's not our fair share.

At the onset, you talked a little bit about some of your excitement around the traction that Comcast is having in business. Comcast acquired Nitel. You signed a business MVNO with T-Mobile. You've been making deeper inroads into enterprise. Could you talk a little bit more about the business strategy? What parts of the story do you think are most underappreciated by investors today? And what should we expect for future growth?

Yes. I think this is one of the biggest ones that's misunderstood and kind of not focused on the right way. It's a -- from scratch, a $10 billion book of business that generates almost $6 billion of EBITDA, right? So we've been at this for a little over a decade. We have really done a great job penetrating the small business market. In many markets, we're actually the incumbent at this point. Small business is a great business for us. We clearly have a right to win. We've got high-capacity pipes. We've got dedicated sales force.

What you're seeing in small business is there's elements of it that are facing the same pressure that's going on in residential. But I would tell you that's sort of the lower end. The protection that you have in small business, which we've experienced because we're growing the small business category is that type of customer values not just connectivity, but they want a management layer that sits on top of it. They want managed WiFi. They increasingly want cybersecurity. And so that means you're a little bit different from some of the competitive forces that are impacting the residential business, at least when you start to get to the mid- to higher tiers of small business.

And so we've done a great job. We're growing that business unlike others. I think the real opportunity over time from here is going to be enterprise. And so in enterprise, you mentioned it, Nitel, Masergy, those have been a couple of great tuck-in deals that were about adding capabilities. But our strategy in enterprise has been get footprint quickly, which was hyper builds and connectivity into office parks, et cetera. We've been at that for 10-plus years, right?

And so connectivity into our footprint then drive customer acquisition and then upsell services. And so that's the journey we've been on Nitel, Masergy, whether it's carrier aggregation, SD-WAN, they brought specific capabilities that sort of the beauty of that is when you start to build a scale base with enterprise, you get a lot of enterprise customers coming back to you saying, I love what you're doing in the following areas. Can you do this, right?

And then it's up to us to say, can we develop that in-house? Or is there some pure-play company that does it better than we are that we can have immediate accretion with by just monetizing that across our entire base. And that's largely what those 2 acquisitions were about. We're staring at a lot of other things that look like that and how can we go accelerate enterprise even more.

I think the exciting thing about enterprise for me is we've really built out the sales force around it, right, which is a huge thing in enterprise. That is you have to get that right. But Comcast business services is the place to work at this point if you're in enterprise sales. If you think about everybody we're competing against at scale, those are declining businesses. They've been at it for 30 to 40 years. They're on legacy technologies. They're seeing their businesses decline. And it just -- it means something different when you're in that type of business versus here's the shiny object over here, it's pure growth. There's categories that they can go after, whether it's different technologies they're layering in different services or new verticals that they're going after by building sales capabilities into it.

So I think there's a real vibe in that business. We're growing high single digits on an already pretty well-established base. But I think a ton of room for continued growth there. And as we pick off verticals, one of the early ones we started with, for instance, was quick service retail, right? At this point, we have 12 of the top 15 quick service retailers. These are thousands of locations across the country where we're sort of the throat to choke in the middle. We're the connectivity layer, but we're also the managed services layer and a really good job, and we'll just continue to go take over verticals.

Great. And I guess a natural follow-up would be, as you become a more meaningful player in enterprise, what proof points should investors watch over the next couple of years as you accelerate growth in larger enterprise customers? Are there any impacts to margins or capital intensity as you move away from SMB -- not move away, mix shift more towards SMB.

Yes. This is the beauty of this model. The things you have to put in place are -- there's a little bit of capital around hyper builds, which we've been at for a while. So I wouldn't tell you there's incremental capital intensity necessarily coming. We have picked our spots around capabilities, right? So to the extent we find the next company X that's delivering a capability that we can go scale it and I could come to you and say this is -- here's the model around this. This is immediately scalable, hence, it's immediately accretive to go scale across our base. We're wide open for business on things like that.

Great. Just on the financials, as you think about the financial profile of C&P, 2026 sounds like an investment year as you absorb the impacts of the new broadband and wireless go-to-market, the customer experience investments. So how do these investments translate into better long-term economics including what are the drivers of ARPU growth? And then talk a little bit about the path from this investment period towards stronger revenue and EBITDA growth.

Yes. I think you articulated exactly right. And what we said at the end of last year was 2026 was going to be an investment year. That's on the customer experience side, that's on pricing and packaging, and that is facilitating, getting more aggressive in wireless. And so all those things are exactly what's played out. We reported what we did in the second quarter and then gave an outlook that we were going to start to have some relief on the critical metrics around ARPU and EBITDA performance.

But I think if you step way up, our simple goal is we passed 65 million households. How do we serve the vast majority of those? How do we sell multiproduct and establish a baseline connectivity layer, then sell wireless, sell home security over time, and then there's other services that we have on the radar as well? And how do we drive the lowest possible churn? So it's sort of a customer lifetime value lens.

How do we compete via that? And as I said, our entry into these different pockets, whether it's broadband where we're capital efficient using a legacy network, wireless where super capital light, home security that we can go relaunch, but use a lot of the existing gateways that we have in homes that just have capabilities that are beyond what we're monetizing right now. So I think huge opportunity.

But then the other big opportunity for us and the separation is, didn't have to be the catalyst, but it's a little bit of a catalyst for this. If you think about the management teams in place, Michael Angelakis, advisory role, but already starting to put his imprint in the company. Steve Croney as President, myself as CFO. We're getting after the cost side in a way that we haven't before. And not to say that we've been aggressive, I think, over the past several years.

We've eliminated divisional structures. We've done a lot of things. But we embarked earlier this month on the largest cost transformation in the company's history. So that's sort of going on right now. This will be billions of dollars of costs that I'd frame it more as a transformation. It's not a budget exercise. It is how do we rewrite the rules in terms of how we do business on the connectivity and technology side.

So you'll -- we'll have more to say about that in the third quarter. I would expect that there's some noise about that in the coming weeks. But nonetheless, transformational, and it is sort of 3 parts. It is eliminate layers to get to much faster decision-making. And there's a huge opportunity there on the cost side. It is how do you facilitate the type of technology transformation we're undergoing to really get systems processes in place, whether it's internal redesign or whether it's external, like partner with Google, Cresta, Sierra, how do we do that even faster?

And then how do we free up even more capacity for growth, right? I talked about wireless. There's more of a role for us to play. That probably means we've got to go invest more there. But there are -- if you think about edge compute, the amount of data we have in sort of our ecosystem, how do you go monetize that? There's a whole lot of things I would point out to you that are exciting, they're growthy, they're going to require some investment. So how do we free up capacity? We don't want to be doing incremental. Instead, we want to say we've got a lot of ways to free up capacity in the organization to repoint towards growth. And so I think you're going to see a lot about this in the coming weeks, but nonetheless, something we're really focused on cost structure.

Great. Thank you for putting that on our radar. In the last few minutes, why don't we get a couple of questions in on Content & Experiences. Maybe starting with Theme Parks. Epic Universe had a very strong initial performance. It sounded like Q2, Orlando and international pressures were present. So could you just give us a little bit of an update on what's happening in Orlando? What gives you the confidence that the softness that we've seen in the second quarter is transient? And how is management balancing pricing and promotional levers with cost efficiencies to manage EBITDA margins?

Theme parks, they're an incredible business. If you think about we're one of sort of 2 globally scaled experiences businesses that sort of look like that. One is a lot bigger than we are, but we're in a category that's not too far away. And if you think about the breadth of IP, the differentiated attractions, I mean you were Epic Universe and it was -- it's just a different experience and super creative, IP to leverage. And then the type of destinations that we have, Osaka, Beijing, Hollywood, just differentiated and incredible places and locations to be.

So our starting point is -- and even if you think about sort of the future, future-proof businesses, AI exposed, experiences category and especially sort of the durability of these assets, the resonance of the IP. This is a business you'd say, how do we invest more in, right? So I would say that at the broad level, that's how we feel about theme parks.

As you get down into performance, you're right, we started to see in the second quarter, something that we flagged in the second quarter call. But if you step back and sort of say, what's the last couple of years journey then in theme parks, we launched Epic, did incredibly well. It sort of lifted all of Orlando. It a little bit masked what was going on with international for the past kind of 3 quarters.

Our international parks, the biggest ones are #1, Japan, #2, Beijing. In Japan, we're in Osaka, geopolitical impacts. So Chinese visitation in Japan has dropped off a cliff. That impacts our Osaka park. We've been feeling that for 3 quarters. We've articulated that the entire way. The Beijing park has seen a little bit in terms of macroeconomic softness. If you look at the Chinese consumer, that's impacted us.

And so what we saw for a couple of quarters was weakness in international, exactly how we were articulating it, more than offset by strength in domestic, in particular, Orlando, right? So Epic did incredibly well. That sort of lifted all boats in the Orlando market for us, the North campus, so the legacy parks. So it did incredibly well there. What we started to see in June was softness in Orlando. And we articulated that on the call. That's the reason we drifted a little bit in the second quarter in terms of performance.

As we move through the quarter, I would tell you, I don't think anything has changed. We're continuing to see softness in that market. And so it's sort of equal parts, a little bit macro, gas prices, airfare, that's impacting the market a little bit. But also, it's -- there clearly was a pull forward. You've seen the park.

Epic is a fantastic park. There was a ton of pent-up demand that actually lifted the entire Orlando market for us. You saw that come out of competitors. Obviously, if you rewind the clock a year ago, that was sort of the discussion. Here we are a year later comping against that. And so I think that's playing a little bit of a role now.

But if you step way back, you asked the question is how does that inform future investing? And I would take the lens into Epic was that is a good thing or a bad thing? Are we still confident that was the right investment given what we're seeing right now. The answer is absolutely yes. If you look at a -- put my analyst hat back on, I look at a 2-year stack, how are we doing versus 2 years ago because the pull-forward aspect was what it was.

In the Orlando market versus 2 years ago, we are up materially in every metric, right? So that's attendance, that's per caps, overall financial performance, and we're rating really well in guest satisfaction. So to me, those are the indicators of future performance. That's what we're focused on. So incredibly bullish on the parks over the long term, but you're not wrong. We do have some near-term headwinds.

Great. And then in the last minute as we wrap up, could you just step back and talk about capital allocation from here? The buyback has paused as you work through the separation. How are you balancing investing in the business, making sure the balance sheet is strong and shareholder returns? And then what's the capital allocation framework that you would expect for both companies post spin?

Yes. I think we'll have a lot more to say about this in the coming ultimately months and quarters as we get closer towards the spin. But one thing that may inform this is we've been incredibly consistent in the capital allocation framework that we've had for the business -- for the overall business. And you got sort of the same personalities in the room one side the other. So it's known quantities. But just as a reminder, priority #1 is and always has been reinvest in the businesses, right?

We've been able to do whether it's theme parks, whether it's new home formation, whether it's hyper builds into enterprises, smaller deals like the Nitels, Masergys, we've had an incredible experience and sort of really consistent philosophy around reinvesting in the business and having that be the primary driver at first call on capital.

Close -- 1A is have an incredibly strong balance sheet, right? And that's -- I think we've been incredibly disciplined in sort of saying, here's what we think is right for this company. It's been historically low 2s leverage. Most recent quarter, I think it was 2.3 turns and have a balance sheet that protects you through investment cycles, protects you through capital cycles, economic cycles, potential pandemics just had the flexibility to continue to invest no matter what the environment is. That's always served us well. So that's been the balance sheet framework.

And then we've had a really strong capital returns framework as well. We bought back, if you look at the last 5, 6 years, 20% reduction in our share count, very strong dividend policy, and we realize how important that is to investors. So we haven't really strayed from that. So I would tell you that overarching framework should inform kind of how we think about life post separation.

Great. Well, Jason, thank you again for participating in the conference. It's a privilege to have you on stage here.

Thank you. Great to be back.

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to Comcast's Second Quarter Earnings Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] Please note this conference call is being recorded. I will now turn the call over to Executive Vice President, Investor Relations, Ms. Marci Ryvicker. Please go ahead, Ms. Ryvicker.

Thank you, operator, and welcome, everyone. Joining us on today's call are Brian Roberts, Mike Cavanagh, Jason Armstrong and Steve Croney. I will now refer you to Slide 2 of the presentation accompanying this call, which can also be found on our Investor Relations website and which contains our safe harbor disclaimer. This conference call may include forward-looking statements subject to certain risks and uncertainties. In addition, during this call, we will refer to certain non-GAAP financial measures. Please see our 8-K and trending schedule issued earlier this morning for the reconciliations of these non-GAAP financial measures to GAAP.

With that, I'll turn the call over to Brian.

Good morning, and thanks, Marci. Before Mike and Jason take you through the quarter, I'd like to spend a few minutes on the separation we announced 3 weeks ago. Since then, we've talked with our key constituencies, employees at every level and most of our key partners, and the reaction has been overwhelmingly positive. I feel more positive and energized today than I was on the day we announced it. What's come through most clearly is renewed conviction in both businesses. There's real excitement about taking 2 exceptional companies and giving each the focus and agility to win in markets that are changing fast. We've also spent time with leaders across media and tech, and we've come away more optimistic than ever about the next wave of innovation.

One thing is clear, AI and the coming generation of technology will demand more data, more bandwidth, lower latency and smarter networks and platforms. They'll bring together connectivity, entertainment and new experiences in ways we are only beginning to see. And that is exactly where Comcast is built to lead. The market is moving to our strengths and winning now is about focus, speed and relentless execution. That's also why this is the right time for Michael Angelakis to return. He's been welcomed back with tremendous enthusiasm and confidence. He has deep relationships across the industry. He knows this company and his return will help accelerate the work Steve and the team already have underway. Wireless is a great proof point of what this team can do.

In the second quarter, we crossed 10 million lines for the first time, a meaningful milestone that's just 7% penetration of the total addressable lines in our footprint and perhaps a new way to look at the wireless opportunity and the significant runway we have ahead. We're building this business on top of a deep customer base, leadership in WiFi, strong wireless partnerships and products that are already in tens of millions of homes and businesses. On the media and entertainment side, with NBCUniversal and Sky, we're equally excited about the next chapter. The strength of these businesses isn't just the world-class assets we own, it's the role we play as a trusted partner to talent, creators, sports leagues and platforms throughout the industry.

In just 6 years, we've built Peacock into a streaming business with real scale in the U.S. We've added 2 million paid subscribers in each of the last 2 quarters, had our biggest viewership month ever in June and reached profitability, all anchored by what NBCUniversal does best, premium entertainment, live sports, news and extraordinary storytelling. With the combined reach of NBC, Peacock, Telemundo, Bravo, Sky and possibly ITV, and the many relationships we've built with partners across tech and streaming, we will be well positioned as an independent media company to drive engagement and growth. And when you look at things like the amazing and recent success of The Odyssey and Christopher Nolan and the strength of our film slate, it underscores that creativity and collaboration with the world's best talent.

And that all remains at the heart of what makes this company so special. That is why I feel so energized. We spent years investing to build these 2 great companies, each with distinct world-class assets and leaders I trust deeply. This structure gives both companies the freedom to pursue the priorities that matter most to their futures. There's a lot of work ahead, and we're moving with real urgency.

With that, I'll turn it over to Mike.

Thanks, Brian. I'll just add a few additional comments on the separation before turning to some highlights of the quarter. When we made the announcement, we were clear about the core assets that would sit within each company. With that foundation in place, we are off and running on the work to finalize the remaining details and move towards execution with the goal of completing the separation in approximately 1 year. Over the next several months, our teams will continue working through the items that naturally come with a transaction of this scale. A key part of our work is on the balance sheet and capital structure as our intention is to set both companies up with strong investment-grade profiles and the financial strength and flexibility to pursue their respective growth strategies.

With that, I'll turn to highlights of the second quarter, starting with Connectivity & Platforms, where results were broadly in line with our prior commentary. We are well into the deliberate broadband pivot that began almost a year ago. That pivot has included significant changes in pricing and packaging to make our value proposition clearer and more predictable, continued investment in a simpler, more seamless customer experience and a more aggressive push into wireless, both through free lines to build awareness in the market and through the launch of our premium unlimited plans. These actions are intended to address the areas we need to improve, while leaning on the structural advantages we already have, a scaled network, industry-leading WiFi and a capital-efficient mobile platform.

While this pivot comes with investment that is weighing on financial results in the near term, we are making real progress against the objectives we set out, which are to build a durable converged customer base, deepen our relationships and transform the experience so as to position this business for long-term growth, and we are pleased with the progress we are making. Broadband subscriber losses in the second quarter improved year-over-year. We also continue to see year-over-year gains in our Net Promoter Scores, which is an important signal that our moves in pricing, packaging and experience are resonating with customers. Wireless is becoming a more meaningful growth engine for us. We just had our best quarter ever with 448,000 net line additions, our second consecutive record quarter, supported by stronger gross additions and improved churn, even as the initial cohort of free lines began rolling into the paid base.

Year-to-date, net line additions are up 25%. And importantly, we are seeing positive early traction converting those free lines into paid wireless relationships, which reinforces the value customers are seeing in our products and which will support better monetization as we move through the year. We are also extending that same convergence opportunity into business services. This quarter, we went live with our T-Mobile MVNO partnership for business customers and the early signs are encouraging. We expect activity to ramp as we move into the latter part of the year.

Separately, we continue to win significant new contracts in enterprise, which reinforces the strength of our position as the fastest-growing enterprise provider in the market. So while the environment remains highly competitive, we like the progress we are making on the things we can control. Wireless is scaling quickly, Enterprise continues to gain momentum and the work underway across pricing and the overall experience is strengthening the foundation for a converged valuable customer base over time.

Turning to Content & Experiences. The Media segment had a strong quarter, generating mid-single-digit EBITDA growth with Peacock delivering meaningful profitability for the first time even as we absorbed the final quarter of the first full year of our NBA contract. That performance reinforces the value of NBC, Telemundo, Bravo and Peacock together as one integrated Media business with continued opportunity to drive stronger engagement, advertising and profitability into the future. Peacock added another 2 million paid subscribers in this quarter, bringing us to 48 million paid subscribers and have its biggest viewership month ever in June, fueled by the World Cup and Love Island. That builds on the 2 million subscribers added in the first quarter around legendary February and is important evidence that we are managing event-driven churn effectively by bringing users in around major moments and keeping them engaged with the broader content slate.

The NBA, Love Island and the World Cup are all contributing to strong engagement and robust ad sales across both linear and streaming. The World Cup has been terrific for us, delivering the biggest Spanish language sporting event in U.S. media history and record engagement for Telemundo and Peacock. And Love Island has been the #1 overall streaming title in the U.S. this summer. Our Studios business is having a great year with momentum across franchises, animation, originals and specialty titles.

In the second quarter, Super Mario Galaxy and Minions & Monsters extended the strength of our animation slate with Minions & Monsters taking the Minions franchise to $6 billion globally and further extending its position as the highest grossing animated franchise of all time.

Focus had a standout performance with Obsession, which crossed $400 million worldwide and became its top-performing film ever, while Disclosure Day delivered Steven Spielberg's biggest original opening to date. And just last week, The Odyssey became one of the defining theatrical events of the year, reinforcing the power of our creative partnerships and ambitious storytelling with the Odyssey becoming Nolan's biggest global opening of all time.

Turning to Parks. The operating environment has softened more than we anticipated. Unpacking this by geography, in Orlando, Epic Universe continues to perform well and is delivering the strong guest response we expected. At the same time, attendance across the broader Orlando market began to soften in June, and that trend has continued into the third quarter. We believe there are some temporary factors at work, including higher fuel prices and weaker consumer sentiment, but we are watching these trends closely. Internationally, Osaka continues to be affected by China-related travel restrictions, while Beijing is operating against a challenging macroeconomic backdrop. Despite these near-term pressures, our outlook for the long-term opportunity in Parks is unchanged. We have great brands, great locations and a proven playbook for investing behind attractions and experiences that create real consumer demand and strong returns.

With Universal Kids Resort now open in Frisco and our U.K. Park moving toward construction, we continue to see a long runway for growth. Before I hand it over to Jason, I want to touch on Sky's proposed acquisition of ITV's media and entertainment business, which will strengthen Sky's long-term position in the U.K. The transaction brings together 2 of the U.K.'s most trusted media businesses, pairing Sky's premium content, connectivity and sports leadership with ITV, which reaches 40 million people in the U.K. every week and serves more than 16.5 million digital users. The transaction will enhance Sky's streaming and advertising capabilities, create meaningful operating efficiencies and broaden the opportunities to grow customer relationships.

So with that, let me turn it over to Jason to go through the financial results in more detail.

Thanks, Mike, and good morning, everyone. Let me start with a high-level overview of our consolidated results and then get into more detail on our businesses. Before I begin, I want to note this morning, we issued updated pro forma trending schedules to reflect the removal of Sky Germany from our consolidated results following the sale of that business on May 31. For context, Sky Germany generated over $2 billion in annual revenue, but had an immaterial EBITDA contribution and had previously been reflected within Corporate and Other. As a result, all year-over-year comparisons in my remarks today will be presented on a pro forma basis. In the second quarter, revenue increased 5%, in part benefiting from Telemundo and Peacock's successful airing of the FIFA World Cup.

Adjusted EBITDA declined 5%, reflecting pressure from 2 areas. In Connectivity & Platforms, as we have discussed, we are investing behind the go-to-market pivot we began last year with a focus on simpler pricing and packaging and an improved customer experience. And in Content & Experiences, we are still in the first year of the NBA right cycle and absorbing the full cost of that contract, while the revenue opportunity builds over time. Adjusted earnings per share were $1.04, and we generated $4.6 billion of free cash flow in the quarter, of which we returned $2.1 billion to shareholders, including $900 million in share repurchases.

Now turning to our businesses, starting with Connectivity & Platforms. We are almost a year into this go-to-market transition. So let me start with where we stand before moving to this quarter's specific results. The broadband market remains highly competitive. Fiber continues to expand, fixed wireless remains aggressive, satellite is emerging as another alternative and convergence-based promotional activity remains elevated across the industry. We are operating under the assumption that the market will remain intensely competitive. Against that backdrop, at the end of the second quarter of last year, we made a deliberate shift in how we go to market to compete more effectively in a competitive environment increasingly defined by convergence. Since then, we have focused on simplifying pricing, improving transparency, streamlining the customer experience, investing in our best-in-class network and products and leaning further into wireless, including through our free wireless offer.

We continue to see encouraging signs from these actions. Broadband losses improved versus last year. Customers continue to migrate to higher tier plans with about 45% of our base now on gig plus tiers. Wireless net additions reached a new record and NPS improved again year-over-year, reflecting better customer perception of our service experience. At the same time, we have been transparent that this pivot comes with investment. We made several deliberate choices this year to reposition the business for stronger long-term performance. We did not take a broadband rate increase, and we've been migrating customers into simplified pricing with lower everyday price points. At the same time, we continue to see strong adoption of free wireless lines, which is initially dilutive to broadband ARPU. As a result, broadband ARPU declined 3.8% in the quarter.

Additionally, we continue to invest in the customer experience and go-to-market capabilities needed to support this broader shift, which contributed to a 5.8% decline in Connectivity & Platforms EBITDA. These results are consistent with our remarks on last quarter's earnings call, where we previewed incremental pressure on both ARPU and EBITDA growth. At the same time, we indicated that trends should improve beyond the second quarter as we lap the initial go-to-market investments and as free wireless lines convert into paying relationships in greater volumes. That remains our expectation, and we expect modest improvements starting in the third quarter.

Looking ahead, and as we have highlighted before, consumers are increasingly choosing converged broadband and wireless offerings. We believe we have a strong position to compete in convergence. We have the largest converged footprint offering gig plus broadband and wireless ubiquitously, and our product experience continues to receive external validation. Opensignal has consistently ranked our WiFi #1 in our footprint. And in its first U.S. converged experience report, Xfinity ranked #1 nationally in 2 of 3 categories measured: converged consistent quality, which assesses reliability across the combined network and converged download speed. This reinforces why convergence ARPA is an important metric for how we think about running the business.

Broadband remains the anchor product, but the value of the relationship expands meaningfully when we add wireless. At roughly $85, our convergence ARPA remains well below levels reported by telecom competitors, which highlights the long runway and opportunity we have ahead of us, particularly as we stabilize broadband and continue to scale wireless.

With that outline of strategic priorities, let's get into more detail of the quarter, starting with broadband. Broadband subscriber losses improved by 34,000 year-over-year to a loss of 167,000. That improvement reflects continued traction from our new go-to-market strategy even as we continue to operate in a highly competitive environment across our footprint. Broadband ARPU declined 3.8%. As I said earlier, we expect to see modest improvement as we anniversary the launch of the go-to-market strategy and as free wireless lines begin converting into paid relationships in greater volume as we exit this year.

Turning to convergence. Convergence revenue declined 3.2% and convergence ARPA declined 1.5%, reflecting the pressure on broadband revenue, partially offset by 14% growth in wireless service revenue. Wireless had another very strong quarter. We added 448,000 net lines. That's our best quarter on record with roughly half of our residential postpaid phone connects coming from customers taking a free line. We are actively leaning into this opportunity. The free line offer is doing what we intended. It's building awareness, it's driving attachment and it's expanding the base of customers we can convert into paying wireless relationships over time. Most importantly, this is a product that provides real value across a range of customer segments. We compete effectively in value-oriented segments with substantial savings offered relative to competitor offerings, and we are also gaining traction in the higher value segment of the wireless market.

In fact, premium unlimited plans accounted for roughly 30% of postpaid phone connects, demonstrating that we are now competing very effectively in a segment of the market that carries higher expectations around network quality and data allotments as well as handset availability and refreshment. We ended the quarter with 10.2 million total lines, representing 17% penetration of our domestic residential broadband customer base, but only 7% penetration of the total wireless line opportunity in our footprint. Looking ahead, as free wireless lines come up for monetization, we are managing those customers with a clear life cycle approach focused on usage, engagement, retention and the overall product experience.

Early free line conversion cohorts are tracking in line with our expectations, and we continue to expect a significant majority of these customers to convert to paid relationships as roll-offs accelerate in the second half of the year. Over time, that should provide a real tailwind to convergence revenue and ARPA growth.

Turning to Business Services. Revenue grew 3.7% and EBITDA increased 5%. Both benefited from a nonrecurring item related to a long-term fiber lease renewal. Excluding that benefit, underlying growth in both revenue and EBITDA was just under 3%. That's consistent with the trend we have seen over the past year after adjusting for the Nitel acquisition, which we have now lapped. Growth continues to be driven by strong momentum in Enterprise Solutions, where we are seeing demand from larger customers with more complex connectivity, security and managed services needs. Importantly, the mix shift towards advanced solutions continues to scale. 3 years ago, for every dollar of connectivity we sold, we sold about $0.20 of advanced solutions.

Today, that figure is closer to $0.70, underscoring the increasing value we are delivering to customers. At SMB, competition remains elevated, but we continue to drive ARPU growth by deepening relationships through a strong mix of advanced solutions. We also recently launched our T-Mobile MVNO, adding expanded business mobile capabilities and another differentiated product to the portfolio as we compete for business customers across every segment of the market.

Moving to Content & Experiences. There are a few items I'd like to highlight. At Theme Parks, revenue increased 3%, while EBITDA declined 5%. The EBITDA decline was primarily driven by continued pressure at our Osaka park, where China-related travel restrictions are still impacting attendance. That pressure was partially offset by growth at our U.S. parks. In Orlando, revenue and EBITDA grew as we compared to the partial opening period of Epic in last year's second quarter. That said, growth in Orlando came in below our expectations as attendance began to soften in June and has remained pressured into the third quarter. And at Hollywood, results improved as we began to lap the initial pressure we experienced last year, though we do not expect a more meaningful improvement until the new Fast & Furious roller coaster opens later this year.

Turning to Media. We achieved an important milestone as Peacock reached profitability for the first time, generating $189 million of EBITDA in the quarter. This reflects the strategy we have been executing for several years, building Peacock around a dual revenue model supported by a broad content mix across sports, next-day NBC and Bravo, film, originals, news, library and major events. Peacock was also a primary driver of overall media results with Media revenue increasing 25% and EBITDA increasing 4%, even as we absorbed first year NBA rights costs. Digging into Peacock specifically, revenue increased 54%, driven by strong growth in both distribution and advertising revenue. Distribution revenue grew over 50% with paid subscribers up 7 million year-over-year and 2 million sequentially, reaching 48 million.

And advertising revenue increased nearly 70%, fueled by multiple drivers with notable call-outs, including the simulcast of Telemundo's FIFA World Cup, the NBA playoffs and the latest season of Love Island. At Studios, we had another strong quarter with revenue increasing 25% and EBITDA increasing $141 million year-over-year. Results were driven by recent theatrical releases, including the Super Mario Galaxy movie, Obsession and the international distribution of Michael. As always, Studios will have some quarter-to-quarter volatility based on theatrical release timing and licensing activity. But this quarter was another good example of the breadth of the portfolio with strength across franchise animation, specialty titles, filmmaker-driven projects and international distribution.

Now let me wrap up with free cash flow and capital allocation. In the second quarter, we generated $4.6 billion of free cash flow, underscoring the strength of our businesses even as we make meaningful investments that I've highlighted. This quarter, we returned $2.1 billion to shareholders, including $900 million in share repurchases. As we recently announced on our separation call, we did pause share repurchases as of July 1 and expect to remain paused through our separation. Our priority is to ensure both businesses are well capitalized with favorable investment-grade ratings to provide both the financial foundation to pursue their respective growth strategies.

Now I'll turn it over to Marci, who will moderate the questions we collected from the analyst community in advance of today's call. Marci?

Thanks, Jason. We're going to start with broadband. The first question comes from John Hodulik of UBS. Can you discuss the competitive dynamics in the broadband market?

Perfect. John, I appreciate the question. Competition remains intense, and we are operating under the assumption that the market will become increasingly competitive. And that's through continued fiber expansion, aggressiveness will remain in fixed wireless. And although not meaningful to us now, satellite is emerging as another competitor in that space. We've also seen the promotional intensity increase in some markets and some of the behavior has been irrational. But 6 months in, so I'm really focused on transforming the company and a testament to the team, we're doing a great job. We're off to a great start. We have a long way to go.

But foundationally, nothing beats a wire into the home with differentiated reliable WiFi and great customer experience. And our recent organizational changes have streamlined our structure. Our national pricing and packaging construct has simplified our go-to-market approach, and we're more effectively using our data and analytics to improve our effectiveness as well. And what that's enabled is greater agility. It's improved our time to market and our reaction time to competitive changes and enable us to respond in much more targeted ways, maintaining our discipline. Most importantly, though, we remain focused on the end state, and that's 2 multi-gig scaled competitors or 2 multi-gig scaled pipes to the home, and we are one of those. Additionally, fixed wireless and satellite will remain competitive as well in that space. But we feel real good in that marketplace.

Our converged offerings provide a significant advantage, and we really like our challenger position when it comes to that. We recently crossed the 10 million mark, and we like -- and we also had record-setting mobile line net adds in the quarter. With the 7% penetration overall, we feel really good. We have a converged ARPA of $85, which is significantly below the competition, and this provides a long runway for us ahead.

We got a bunch on satellite and specifically Starlink. So there's a 2-parter. The first from Craig Moffett at MoffettNathanson. There is a robust debate as to whether Starlink broadband is purely a rural solution or whether it's fixed wireless 2.0. How do you see it? And then the second part comes from Vikash at New Street. There's been a lot of chatter around Starlink exploring potential partnerships with both broadband and wireless operators. Is that something you would be interested in?

So it's Jason. Let me take that one, and thanks, Craig and Vikash, for the questions. I know this has certainly been topical in particular, since the IPO in the last couple of months. So on Starlink specifically, I would say right now, we currently are not seeing them as a meaningful competitive factor in our markets. But saying that we don't take any comfort in that. We're not complacent. We fully expect to see them as more of a competitor over time. I think if you look at their trajectory in terms of capacity that they're bringing online, which is I think everybody is pretty well versed in at this point, they're going to have significant capacity increases in the coming years, particularly expect to see them more in rural and underserved areas.

I think that's a core target market for them. And I think that's realistic that we're going to see them as more of a competitor in those markets. I think as we step back, how effective they are or anyone else is in taking share from us, we have a good degree of control over. There's a new competitive category. It used to be fiber, and now it's become fixed wireless and in parts of our market, it will increasingly become satellite. So the question is how do we position for that? How do we address any vulnerabilities that we have from a competitive standpoint.

And as we stack up the sort of network product and experience categories that we've talked about before, let me start with network. Our starting point is a terrific one on network. Nothing beats a wire into the home. That's exactly what Steve just said. That's firmly what we believe here. We're going to be 1 of 2 wires into the home. If you look at the long-term end state, our path on that wire is a multi-gig symmetrical path. Our network is an active network all the way into the home. There's some debate about this as to whether that's more costly to run. I would tell you it's a little bit more costly to run. We actually love the fact that it's active all the way into the home in an AI-driven world, having active components from head end to node to amps all the way into customer premise equipment, we actually think will be a big advantage in the long term.

So we're very comfortable with where we are in network. On product, we consistently rate really strong WiFi reliability, which is a core metric around product, how do your devices do once they're in the home connected to a great network. WiFi reliability, we're at the top in our footprint. And so I would say that's an advantage. We actually think we can press as we take a look at the pipeline of what we can go attach to our product in the home, exciting things coming down the map and a great position to sort of build from. The opening that we've seen for competitors, this is true largely a fixed wireless has been around our experience.

I think we've been very transparent. Steve, this is sort of mission #1 for him is how do you go attack and address any of the gaps we've seen on the customer experience side. That's been lack of pricing transparency. It's been customer service that hasn't been a strong suit of ours and things that we've been just maniacal in the last 6 to 12 months of being very honest with ourselves about and getting after. So I would step back and say, whether it's fixed wireless, fiber, satellite, all these are in a sort of a new-ish competitive category. The priority for us is the same. And that's how do you create an experience sort of holistically across network, product and customer service that best insulates you. And that's fully within our control. It's why we're making the investments we're making.

Vikash, I could just get to your question quickly on potential partnerships. You mentioned Starlink. I would also broaden that one out, though. We've got a long history in the connectivity business of partnerships, whether that's multiple MVNOs at this point, deep syndication relationships across the cable industry, and that's a global cable industry. We've got companies that syndicate our products all over the globe. So a deep history here. So we'll certainly explore ways to create value, whether that's Starlink or others, where we can serve our customers better and differently. By the way, I'd also point out, we actually already do work with Starlink. We have a partnership within Comcast Business, combining our managed connectivity portfolio with their satellite capabilities for enterprise customers.

Great. We're going to move to wireless. We got a bunch of questions. We're going to take one from Peter Supino at Wolfe Research. Can you talk about your mobile strategy as it relates to converting paid lines and driving premium uptake in the second half of 2026?

Got it. So wireless remains a major growth opportunity for us. And as I mentioned, about 7% penetration to the overall addressable market, and we're well positioned to take advantage of the opportunity. Our competitive strengths include 2 strong MVNOs, one residential, one in business, and we're just activating the business MVNO now. We have 65 million converged passings that enable both 1 gig plus speeds as well as a mobile service. We have the nation's largest Wi-Fi network. We're currently offloading about 90% of our traffic. And that, along with our lower acquisition costs has provided a great cost structure, and we've been able to offer our customers a great value proposition that significantly undercuts the competition. And we've rallied the organization around convergence.

And in turn, we have seen increased mobile attach rate, both to new customers as well as to our base. And the free line offer strategy is working exceptionally well. We're driving awareness, and we're enabling our customers to trial the product. In parallel, we've significantly improved our customer life cycle management, and that begins with the activation process through usage, through device upgrades, additional mobile line attach and premium sell-in. And what we've seen is in this quarter, about 1/3 of our mobile line connects came from existing mobile customers adding an additional line. Additionally, our premium mobile adoption continues to strengthen, and we're now exceeding 30% sell-in.

And as a result, the significant majority of our free line roll-off customers are converting from free to paid as expected. And a few of those characteristics of the customers is usage is consistent as customers convert to paid. We see porting is comparable to customers who paid from day 1. And our overall churn rate in mobile is down even though we're rolling and accelerating the free line roll-off. So the free line offering is strengthening our customer relationships, supporting the long-term value of our converged strategy.

Great. We got a bunch on the C&P financials. So we'll take one from Steve Cahall of Wells Fargo. Prior communication has been for broadband ARPU and C&P EBITDA pressure to begin to abate by the second half of this year. This is due to comping both free mobile lines that roll to pay as well as heavier marketing spend. Is this still the outlook?

Yes. Thanks, Steve. This is Jason. So let me just step back and what led us down a path that would have created EBITDA declines as you saw this quarter, just as a reminder and then help that frame sort of the path forward. A year ago, we obviously started to prioritize new go-to-market, simple and transparent pricing. Along with that, we sort of made the determination to be much more aggressive in wireless, both to build awareness in the value segment and then on the higher end with the premium unlimited plans that Steve mentioned. So really getting after it from a pricing perspective, that's caused obviously some dilution on broadband ARPU.

The second was investing in both current and future customer experience, as Steve has mentioned, and then doubling down to ensure both our network and product offerings remain best-in-class. So those all created a little bit of pressure, obviously, as you've seen, stemming from broadband ARPU and ultimately manifesting into declining EBITDA, which you saw this quarter at 5.8%. I think from here, if you use those same factors and say, what improves, what gives us confidence in saying modest improvement in the third quarter, you take each one of those. We decided last year, obviously, on free wireless, we're going to start to monetize those lines.

And as Steve mentioned, we're seeing really good progress on conversion of free line into pay line. And that was a year's journey with the customer, making sure they were activating, making sure they were engaging, making sure usage was driven higher, and there was a seamless handoff where a customer actually saw value in the wireless plan. And so I think we're early stages of having early cohorts roll off and into paying relationships, but we like what we're seeing because the vast majority are actually converting. So I think that's one thing that starts to create a tailwind. The second thing is just we're going to start to lap some of the early investments in customer experience. That's not to say we're all the way there. We're certainly not. We've got more investments to make, but we will start to lap some of the early costs.

But I think those 2 things help out. I think -- but getting away from quarter-to-quarter, our focus is how can we return the business to growth over the longer term. And as we step back and look at some of the broader secular factors, a, traffic demand on broadband continues to grow at a rapid pace. The secular is sort of in your favor. Wireless, we continue to think we have a big right to play. As we said early on, 7% penetrated across our homes passed with an incredible product offering that's a great value for the customer. So that's the largest end market of anything around us, and we've got an incredible right to play there. And then I just finally mentioned business services, which hasn't come up yet, but growing at a roughly 3% rate with an enormous amount of room to run in particular, in enterprise and being the fastest-growing provider right now, all gives us optimism on the longer-term question about how you rebound to growth.

This is Brian. Let me just jump in speaking of longer term. If you look even longer than just a couple of quarters of what's actually happening from the consumer with their broadband and what is likely to be the most likely scenario for future. I come away encouraged. I think we're going to be well positioned. This quarter, broadband downstream traffic was up same as in the past couple of quarters, about 10%. But the upstream traffic was 2.5x that volume growth. And that's being driven, I think, by rapidly changing AI queries.

And if you roll that forward and with the innovation, the speed of change and all the different applications that are going to bolt on to this new capability in society, our road map, which is baked into our plans is to have multi-gig symmetrical, low latency network, which Steve talked about, with intelligence in that network that improves the experience and differentiates us from every other network. And I think we will be one of the winners in this new world being driven by this rapid technological change. So our network is robust and ready for the next generation, and that gives me greater confidence and excitement.

Great. Now I'm going to move to C&E. We have a general one from Jessica Reif Ehrlich of Bank of America. You clearly have an extremely valuable collection of assets at NBCUniversal at a time the media industry continues to consolidate as it competes against larger global platforms. Do you believe NBCU has sufficient scale to compete and grow on its own? Or is part of the rationale for separation to give it the currency and flexibility to participate in further consolidation?

Thanks, Jessica. It's Mike. I love the way you asked the question or framed it. We agree. This is an extremely valuable collection of assets at NBC. And we think that separating the business, setting it up on its own is going to give it the focus and opportunity and platform to invest behind the growth opportunities that it has in its own businesses and the spaces around these businesses that offer growth and where the business has the right to play. I think larger consolidation and the implications of that, we've been competing against these players -- all these players in these businesses for many years.

And when you really look at what the business as it stands today has accomplished, I do believe that NBCUniversal and Sky do have the heft and the relationships and the operational capabilities to continue to be a major player as an independent, as Brian talked about earlier, player in the media space that's in a great position to partner with others. When you really go down to a little more detail on why that is, it is the strength of this portfolio. We've got NBC and Telemundo on the broadcast side, incredible reach provided by those assets. Peacock will spend more time talking about that, but it's in 6 years, as Brian said, has gotten to an incredible scale at a pace that we're very proud of and very much dovetails with the strategy for how we build and program NBC itself.

Bravo, NBC Sports, NBC News, Universal Film, where we talked about the great success of this year-to-date and the years of the recent past, along with the TV studios. And then finally, parks, destinations and experiences where we're 1 of 2 of the scale and scope in a great business. And finally, Sky. And we really look at them, each of them are competing really well against their natural competitors and produce great results. NBC, we talk about it all the time, reaches over 100 million households per quarter with linear and Peacock. That's 80% of the U.S. Legendary February, you remember, we reached 225 million Americans across the Olympics, Super Bowl, NBA, All-Star. We're the most watched primetime broadcast network for the 2025, 2026 season and on and on in film studios and the like.

So I think we do definitely have the scale that is needed to compete. I'll go back to sports for a second or go to sports. There, I think it's a good evidence of what it means to have the capability set that our teams have, which is just a microcosm of what is true across all of our premium content creation, not just sports, it's relationships with the creators. So in that case, our relationships with our leagues go way beyond our financial terms of our deals. We've built very long-standing relationships that are growing their audiences, elevate the presentation of their sports for the long term and expand the value of their rights, frankly. And then we do that through the world-class production that we're known for, great distribution across both broadcast and streaming and the ability to reach fans at scale.

We've had partnerships that go 40 years with the Olympics, long-standing relationships with the Premier League, Sunday Night Football, the best show on television, et cetera, et cetera. So I think the point is that we do feel really good about the business that we have. We do think that these assets are incredibly valuable. We love the fact that they operate well together. Studios creating IP that then feeds Peacock and Parks, extending the reach of content for the -- or the reach of Peacock and NBC and back and forth. So it's a great virtuous circle in parts of this business. And I think one thing to add that Brian may want to pile on, I think as an independent, we take all these great assets and we are willing to partner with others.

So other strategies are a little more walled gardens. Our approach is to build great businesses that serve our own platforms, but look for opportunities to partner, bundle and exhibit other people's IP in our parks and create IP in our studios that go to other platforms. I think that's a good strategy for the collection of assets we have, and I think presents a path for growth in this business over time. So we're excited about what we have ahead.

Look, Mike, Brian here. I think you perfectly covered why there's so much excitement both in the company and from people to partner with us. And we're unique in being independent, we don't have any other agenda other than to do the things you just laid out perfectly, which is partner well and to bring to life people's dreams and content and sporting events and the like. And so we just came from one of the conferences, and there's just great ideas, and I'm excited about the road ahead to expand the partnerships we've already got.

I have a multiparter on Parks. This is a combination of Mike Ng from Goldman Sachs and Kutgun Maral from Evercore. Can you expand on the domestic softness you saw in June? What drove the shift in consumer behavior? And what read do you have on third quarter trends? How much of the softness was attendance versus per cap spending? And can you separate the trends at Epic from those of the other Orlando parks? And then a follow-up from John Hodulik of UBS. In your view, how would you characterize the underlying value drivers in the overall parks business?

Sure. Thanks. It's a lot there. Thanks to all 3 of you for the questions. So in Orlando, really, the softness that we're seeing affecting this quarter that continues as we look into June is essentially weakness in attendance. And that, we believe, is driven by some weakness in consumer sentiment and higher travel costs affecting demand. Not something that we think is a -- while we see it continuing into the third quarter, not something that we think is a permanent change in the outlook at all because we continue to see continued consumer appeal and satisfaction in all the things we look at as it relates to the excitement that people have about our parks.

And we've seen some of this before. So when you have a great product like we have, we fully expect that once economic conditions and consumer demand stabilizes for us that we'll be getting that attendance back and thrilling our fans in these parks because they are such good businesses and good experiences, and we're proud of the product.

Specifically on Epic, we continue to see it doing what we wanted it to do. It's delivering against our expectations. Guest response continues to be strong. It's driving higher per capita spend and strengthening broader Orlando as making it a true multi-destination resort. So we're not seeing anything that causes us to feel at all disappointed in the performance of Epic. It's an overall demand drop that's hitting Orlando broadly. So that's the point on Epic.

And then, John, to your question, we think that this is -- and I said it in the earlier question, we're in a unique position with the capabilities and experience of the leadership team of Mark Woodbury and others creating these parks over the last quarter century and more. It is a long-cycle business. We're, again, 1 of 2 players. We feel very confident that in the long-term opportunity and the fact that we have a great road map over the long term to continue investing behind this team and in future opportunities like the U.K. parks and other things that are down the road for us. So when we look at that, we're obviously looking at long-term expectations for demand, what consumers are looking for, and we learned from the investments we've made and the great technological advances we've made as we release new parks like Epic, we bring that into the future and continue to build this business as a very long cycle but special business for us and have a lot of confidence in it.

So with that, I'll turn it back to you, Marci.

Great. Next is Peacock. This question is coming from Kutgun Maral of Evercore. Peacock reaching profitability was an important milestone this quarter. Does that represent a durable profitability inflection? Or could seasonality and event timing push Peacock back into losses during the second half or in future periods?

So thanks, Kutgun. I mean I think it is a very -- it's a milestone event. We feel great about -- we talked about approaching profitability this quarter. And then for all the reasons mentioned earlier, it was strongly profitable, nearly $200 million of profits in Peacock for the quarter. And it does reflect the progress we've made in scaling the business. We talked earlier about adding the subscribers in the earlier part of the year with Legendary February and yet holding on and doing a good job exposing people to other content and then adding more as we hit the season with World Cup on Telemundo, Spanish language and Love Island.

So we think the -- we're achieving the scale and the service that we'd hope to achieve and good work by the team over the last 6 years. The drivers we talked about are pretty broad-based. It was a strong content calendar. We had the playoffs -- NBA playoffs first time, great post-season, which we benefited from. Again, Love Island, World Cup, next-day NBC and Bravo programming and the rest that's in there help really support strong engagement, really good subscriber trends, great advertising demand and thus overall monetization. So I think that the factors at work and managing the Peacock business alongside the other assets in the Media segment, which we've long talked about as being the real objective, not Peacock profitability unto itself, are paying off.

And as to Peacock profitability itself, we do expect it to continue to improve on an annual basis, but profitability is going to vary quarter-by-quarter just based on the timing of sports schedules and other content hitting one quarter versus another. But I think of it more of as an annual -- think of it on an annual basis rather than the lumpiness quarter-by-quarter, and it's been improving steadily, and we see that continuing to be the case. Thanks for the question.

Great. Now this last question is on the separation. It comes from Sebastiano Petti from JPMorgan. Can you provide more detail on target leverage and dividend policy for each of the 2 stand-alone companies and when investors should expect an exchange ratio and updated capital return framework?

It's Jason. Thanks, Sebastiano. So nothing to add relative to what we said 3 weeks ago upon announcement, which is we will take the coming months, obviously, to work through capital allocation, capital structure policies. But stepping back, the clear goal here was to create 2 scaled and focused industry leaders to put strong leadership in place to create the 2 with strong investment-grade balance sheets and really the ability to go invest and pursue growth agendas. So nothing to add from that.

It's Mike. I think I'll just wrap it up. Thanks for the call today. And just going back to some of the points Brian made at the beginning, we feel the separation, there's a lot of excitement about creating 2 exceptional companies with the great leadership teams that we have across the 2 businesses, giving focus and agility to win in markets that are changing fast. So that's how we feel sitting here today. As you look at the quarter, really proud of the progress we're making on the strategic pivot in broadband that Steve spoke about. It's gaining traction, and we're happy there. Quite happy with the significant growth in wireless, best quarter on record as again, Brian and Steve covered.

And then enterprise, again, another star in the connectivity business that's really performing well for us. Integrated Media strategy I just talked about, mid-single-digit EBITDA growth overall, even with the quarter -- the last quarter of the first year of the NBA and Peacock continuing to scale. Studios, an absolutely great year with Super Mario Galaxy, Minions & Monsters and Obsession and of course, Odyssey. And then finally, parks, our view that the softness we're seeing is not something that dims our view of the long-term health of the business. So I think that's a good wrap-up of what we've seen this quarter. Thanks, everybody, for calling in, and we look forward to talking to you soon.

Thank you all for joining us.

Thank you. That concludes the question-and-answer session and today's conference call. A replay of the call will be available starting at 11:30 a.m. Eastern Time today on Comcast Investor Relations website. Thank you for participating. You may all disconnect.

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the call to discuss Comcast's announced plans to separate media and technology businesses into 2 leading public companies. [Operator Instructions] Please note this conference call is being recorded.

I will now turn the call over to Executive Vice President, Investor Relations, Ms. Marci Ryvicker. Please go ahead, Ms. Ryvicker.

Good morning, and thank you for joining us on such short notice. Earlier today, Comcast announced plans to separate into 2 independent publicly traded companies through a tax-free spin-off NBCUniversal and Sky together. You can find more information in the press release and related materials on our Investor Relations website at www.cmcsa.com.

Joining us today are Brian Roberts and Mike Cavanagh, who will begin with prepared remarks. Jason Armstrong will then take us through key questions submitted by the analyst community before the call. Michael Angelakis and Steve Croney are also with us today.

Before we begin, please note that today's discussion may include forward-looking statements, which are subject to risks and uncertainties, and therefore, actual results could differ materially. We refer you to the cautionary statements included in today's press release and Comcast's SEC filings.

With that, I'll turn it over to Brian.

Thanks, Marci, and good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining us. Today is an exciting day for Comcast and for everyone who has helped build this company over the years. Comcast began more than 6 decades ago with just 1,200 television customers in Tupelo, Mississippi. Since then, we have continually evolved alongside our customers, our industries and the broader marketplace. We built one of the nation's leading technology businesses, expanded into wireless and business services and grew NBCUniversal into a premier media and entertainment company with extraordinary brands, creative talent with sports and news and streaming studios and theme parks and more.

One of the defining characteristics of this company has always been our willingness to look ahead, embrace change and position ourselves for the future. And today's announcement is very much in that tradition. The world is changing faster than ever. Technology, consumer behavior, competition, capital requirements are all evolving at an unprecedented pace.

As we look ahead, it has become clear that our technology and media businesses each have compelling opportunities in front of them that are distinct in nature and best pursued with dedicated focus, strategic flexibility and tailored investment priorities. That is why today, we announced an important next step in Comcast's evolution, our plan to create 2 separate companies, Comcast and NBCUniversal. This is not about separating what we built together. It's about positioning 2 exceptional businesses to move forward with greater focus, agility and the ability to fully capitalize on the opportunities ahead, enabled by the strength of our balance sheet and cash flows, which has been a hallmark of our company since its existence.

When we acquired NBCUniversal more than 15 years ago, the industry looked very different. At that time, the cable networks were widely viewed as the center of value creation and represented a strong strategic fit with our existing business. At the same time, we saw the potential of a broader media and entertainment platform and invested accordingly, expanding our studios, theme parks, sports, news and international businesses, including Sky. Those investments transformed NBCUniversal into a uniquely diversified global media and entertainment company and importantly, positioned us in many of the areas driving growth today. As an independent company, NBCUniversal will have even greater flexibility to invest behind its strongest opportunities, expand partnerships and compete with greater agility in a rapidly changing media landscape.

We're equally excited about the future of Comcast. What began as a community antenna business has evolved into a technology company with leading positions in broadband, business services, wireless and advanced connectivity solutions. The demand for connectivity has never been greater and the role our networks play in people's lives, businesses and the broader economy continues to expand. As a stand-alone company, Comcast will be singularly focused on capitalizing on those priorities.

We have one of the most advanced network platforms in the country, a rapidly growing mobile business, a strong and expanding business services franchise, deep customer relationships and a culture of innovation that has repeatedly enabled us to adapt and lead through periods of technological change. By combining the best products and networks with a competitive cost structure and a relentless focus on innovation and execution, we believe Comcast is exceptionally well positioned to be one of the long-term winners in this evolving marketplace. That conviction is a key reason we are taking this step today.

This is also an exciting day because of the leadership we are putting in place and the continuity we will have for each company. Mike Cavanagh will become CEO of NBCUniversal. Over the past several years, Mike has been an extraordinary partner to me and to the leadership and the entire leadership team. He knows the businesses well, has earned the trust of our creative and operating leaders and brings the right mix of strategic judgment, financial discipline and ambition for what NBCUniversal can become as a stand-alone company. Mike will be leading a company with real scale, exceptional brands, valuable intellectual property, deep creative talent and a global platform, anchored by our theme parks, film and television studios, NBC, Telemundo, Peacock, Sports, News and Sky.

At Comcast, I'm so pleased that Michael Angelakis is returning to the company first as a strategic adviser and then will become CEO of Comcast following completion of the separation. Michael helped shape Comcast over many years as our talented CFO, and he understands the company at a very deep level, our culture, our assets, our people and our opportunities. He also has a great instinct for technology, capital allocation and building businesses for the long term.

Michael will partner closely with Steve Croney, who has done an exceptional job driving our connectivity business and positioning it for future growth, along with Jason Armstrong and the broader Comcast management team. Together, they will build on the momentum already underway, simplifying the customer experience, improving execution, deepening wireless attachment, strengthening business services and continuing to invest in our advanced network and technology platforms.

I will remain actively involved with both Comcast and NBCUniversal, working closely with Michael and Mike as each company moves into this exciting next chapter. We have the right leaders, the right assets and a clear path forward for both companies.

With that, let me turn it over to you, Mike.

Thanks, Brian. I think you captured the logic perfectly, and I couldn't be more excited about today for the reasons you just spelled out. Before we move to analyst questions, let me review some of the key elements of the transaction.

We expect the separation to be completed through a tax-free spin-off to Comcast shareholders in approximately 1 year, subject to customary conditions, including final Board approval, tax opinions, regulatory approvals and completion of financing arrangements. Upon completion, Comcast shareholders will own shares in both companies. Comcast also expects to retain up to a 19.9% ownership stake in NBCUniversal for up to 1 year following the spin. We intend to monetize that stake in a tax-efficient manner over time, enhancing deleveraging at Comcast.

From a capital structure standpoint, we intend to establish a strong investment-grade balance sheet for each business, providing both the financial foundation to pursue their respective growth strategies. As we work through the separation, maintaining financial flexibility will be important. For that reason, we will pause share repurchases through the separation process. At the same time, the dividend remains a core part of our capital allocation approach, and we understand how important it is to our investors. We will provide more detail on dividend policy for each company before completion of the separation.

There are still important details to finalize, and we will provide those updates as we move forward. As with any separation, the work ahead is significant, and I want to thank the teams across Comcast, NBCUniversal and Sky, who will be leading this effort. Our focus is to maintain continuity for customers, partners, employees and shareholders while moving with urgency and discipline. We feel very good about the path ahead.

And with that, I'll turn it over to Jason.

Thanks, Mike, and good morning, everybody. We've received a number of questions this morning from the analyst community, so I will take them by topic. First topic is around timing and what led you to the decision to separate the company? And why is now the right time to do it?

This is Brian. So as we consider this possibility, we asked ourselves 3 basic questions. One, can these businesses stand alone and have the heft to stand alone as separate companies? Two, do they have clear and viable capital allocation path to invest? And three, is now the right time?

And the answer we came back with was yes to all accounts, and let me explain that. These are 2 exceptional businesses, each with scale in their own right. They have the right assets. You've heard about the leadership and strategic focus and the financial strength that we hope to have to succeed as stand-alone companies. We really believe that we're set up for that to happen. Our philosophy has always been to invest for growth. And we've done that over many years, and it's really strengthened these businesses and created tremendous value.

At Comcast, we have the largest converged network in the U.S., reaching more than 65 million homes and businesses, deep relationships with over 30 million residential and business customers, intelligent network architecture backed by technology platforms that are syndicated globally and one of the nation's fastest-growing wireless businesses, fastest-growing business services platform and a substantial free cash flow generation.

At NBCUniversal, we have the premier global media and entertainment company with a portfolio of world-class assets and IP across theme parks, film, television and streaming, sports, entertainment and news. Top film and television studios, one of the top 2 parks and destinations businesses, unmatched and enviable sports portfolio, #1 ranked broadcast network and scaled streaming business with Peacock that I'm happy to say will hit profitability in less than 6 years.

It's Mike. I'll just jump in. And so I'd say it's to this question, there's no surprise that both the media and telecom landscapes have become increasingly competitive, and that pace of change continues to accelerate. And so we simply don't see these conditions changing anytime soon. So where we previously believe that scale and the diversification benefits warranted operating these businesses as one company, we've now simply changed our mind about that. We've now concluded that future success for each of our businesses will depend on focus, speed and strategic flexibility that this separation will unlock.

And I think what's special about this moment is that we have a strong balance sheet and significant financial resources, and that's going to allow us to set up both companies with their own strong investment-grade balance sheets, enabling their pursuit of future growth and value creation that we see for each new company.

Thanks, Mike. So next topic is, should investors view this separation as a step towards potential strategic transactions for either company over time?

Absolutely not. This is the right move to put each company in the strongest position to create value, fully monetize its assets and aggressively pursue its own organic growth strategies. Let me turn it over to Mike and Michael as to why they're each excited to do that.

Yes. For me, I'm Mike, on the NBCUniversal side and Sky, definitely not. Our plan for NBCUniversal and Sky is to build and invest for growth. We have the ambition that's big to pursue opportunities that keep us ahead of evolving consumer behavior and audience demands. And we have the freedom now to explore adjacent businesses where we have the right to play, and that's thanks to the stability of our company and management team and like I said, a strong balance sheet. And we will continue to build these businesses from what we believe is a position of strength.

It's Michael. Let me just take a step back. This place was my home for many years. It's great to be here. It feels familiar and exciting at the same time. Comcast is a wonderful technology company. It has an advanced network and platform that serves over 30 million customers in 16 of the largest 20 markets in the U.S. It is highly valued and important products. It has an established innovation engine, meaningful free cash flow and world-class leaders who are ambitious, entrepreneurial and determined to win. These characteristics are a terrific foundation for us to compete effectively and build for the future. So I'm excited to be here and look forward to working with all my new colleagues.

Thanks, Michael. So next topic is what does this mean for the broadband business and the transition you're currently going through. Before I hand it over to the team, I do want to make sure that it's clear that this is not about something we've seen in the quarter. We'll be reporting in about 3 weeks, and you won't see much by way of surprise. We broadly expect financial and operating metrics to be within expectations.

Thanks, Jason. Also, it would be nice to work with you again, Jason. I have a lot to learn, but my initial focus is going to be on operational excellence and to partner with Steve Croney, who I've known for many years and is right here. I want to build on the team's progress with an intense focus on our customers and their experience as well as on our innovation related to their experience and to invest in new growth initiatives that are profitable and durable. As we all know and as Mike said, the ecosystem is evolving rapidly, but I'm confident we have the scale, opportunity and resources to adapt and lead.

Thanks. Next topic, and Mike mentioned this earlier on Sky. Can you help us understand the strategic rationale for placing Sky with NBCUniversal rather than Comcast given its connectivity assets and customer relationships in Europe?

Sure. I mean let me simply say I think Sky is a natural fit with NBCUniversal, and let me go deeper on that and explain a bit. At its core, Sky is a premium media and entertainment business with one of the most powerful consumer brands, leading news, entertainment and sports and strong positions in attractive European markets. Bringing Sky together with NBCUniversal enhances the scale and global profile of the media and entertainment company. creates more opportunities to invest behind entertainment, sports and news content, enables the sharing of innovation and technological advantages that we see all the time and increases the ways in which we can partner with other players in the global media ecosystem. So I think it's going to be a great fit and look forward to working with Dana and the team at Sky.

So final topic comes back to the question of scale. As you think about the separation, how confident are you that both companies will retain the scale and leverage they need with content partners, with distributors and other key relationships?

So we spend a lot of time on that question and because really relationships matter in both of these businesses, and we would not be doing this if we thought either company would be disadvantaged with distributors, content partners, technology partners, advertisers or consumers. The conclusion we reached is that both businesses have ample scale where it matters most and will remain the premier partners in their respective industries. Our core businesses will become stronger versions of what they are today and the characteristics of the leverage we have in the marketplace doesn't change simply by separating.

Comcast will continue to have a very large customer base, as Michael just said, national scale, network footprint, deep product and technology capabilities, growing wireless business and a substantial commercial business. NBCUniversal will continue to have must-have content, leading sports and news, a scaled studio, Peacock, theme parks and strong consumer brands. Those are the things that matter in the marketplace, and those strengths do not go away because the companies are now separate. Mike?

Yes, I'd just emphasize that. Scale is important, but it's not just about consolidated size at the parent company level. It's about whether each business has the assets, relevance, financial capacity and operating flexibility to compete in its own market, and we believe that both companies will have just that. The separation that we announced today gives each team a clearer mandate, a more focused capital allocation framework and the ability to move faster with partners who are specific to their business.

And we're also going to be thoughtful about preserving commercial relationships between the 2 companies where they can create value. So we feel very good that both companies will have the scale they need and more importantly, the focus and flexibility to use that scale effectively.

That concludes our call today. Thanks, everyone, for joining us. A recording will be available on our Investor Relations website. I appreciate everybody's attention on short notice. Thank you.

Ladies and gentlemen, that does conclude today's call. A replay of the call will be available today starting at 11:30 a.m. Eastern Time today on Comcast Investor Relations website. Thank you for participating. You may all disconnect.

All right Welcome, everybody. My name is Kutgun Maral, [indiscernible] telco analyst at Evercore ISI. And we're very pleased today to welcome Matt Strauss from Comcast with us. Matt is, of course, the Chairman of NBCUniversal Media Group. Matt, thanks so much for being here.

Thank you for having me.

Yes, absolutely. So you've been at Comcast for more than 2 decades. In 2019, you moved over to NBCUniversal to help lead the launch of Peacock. Today, you lead NBC Use Media Group, which looks very different today than it did just a few years ago. The portfolio is more focused after VERSANT. Peacock is scaling with its losses narrowing, and the NBA is now part of the company's broader sports strategy. So let's start with the big picture. What is the NBCUniversal Media business that you're trying to build to over the next 3 to 5 years, and what that success look like?

Yes. Well, when you take a step back, I mean, NBCUniversal obviously is made up of our Film group, our Programming Television group, our Theme Parks and the Media group. And the Media Group is really made up of NBC, Bravo, Peacock, NBC Sports, NBC News, Telemundo and our local stations. And one of the things when we spun off VERSANT and some of those cable networks, it really gave us an opportunity to evaluate how to operate those media assets more like a portfolio. There's a reason why we have these assets inside of NBCUniversal. NBC specifically has been so critical to how we built Peacock. It's like a megaphone when you're trying to drive scale. Peacock is also reaching new viewers, which allows us to drive more sampling where we can then drive people back to NBC or back to Bravo. And so operating as a portfolio, is really where we see the big opportunity. But that required us to think differently about the org structure. And so a few months ago, we literally restructured the Media Group into what I like to call centers of excellence. And so a center of excellence would be instead of having a programming team that was managing streaming and a programming team that was managing broadcast, it's one programming team, one marketing team, one advertising team, one1 decision sciences and research team. And what that has allowed us to do is to essentially think content-first platform second, and how do we get the broadest reach, the highest engagement, the best monetization for the overall portfolio? When you try to evaluate that, what we look for is, well, how are we doing with viewership, how are we doing with engagement since we've kind of effectuated that approach. And there's some real signs that are kind of encouraging us that we are on the right track. And so for example, NBC was ranked #1 in total viewers for the season, which is obviously a nice milestone. But there's something else that's happening, which is a little counterintuitive because in a world of cord cutting and declines in pay television and shifting viewing cabets towards more on-demand and streaming, we're actually seeing a renaissance in live viewing. And so if you watch the NBA playoff games, like we had 16 million viewers watch that Game 7. That conference for us is the highest ratings that the MBA has seen in decades. Take franchises like the Kentucky Derby or the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, we are seeing the highest ratings for these events in their history. The Macy's Day parade with the highest rating in 99 years. Bravo, when you look at the total hours consumed Bravo in Q1 versus Q1 prior year across linear and streaming, we're seeing an increase in hours. And so probably the best example of what I'm describing is legendary February. And so like that is probably the best example of what it means to manage at a portfolio level because you had the Super Bowl, the Milan Cortina Olympics and the NBA All-Star Game. And within a 17-day window, we drove over 225 million viewers, generating nearly $2 billion of revenue. The Super Bowl was the -- actually, the most viewed live event in NBC's 100-year history. But then what we also do since we're managing now is this portfolio approach is, we shift these audiences to drive other values. And so we drive viewers to sample a new Peacock original the burbs, which went on to be the #1 original for Peacock or will drive more viewers to promote the theme parks, or we drive more viewers into late night or news. And so this approach of really trying to manage as a portfolio is really core to the strategy, drive maximum reach, maximum engagement, top line revenue and EBITDA, but giving the teams this flexibility is where we see long-term growth and sustainability going forward.

That's fantastic. Lots to unpack over there, but maybe let's focus a little bit on Peacock. You've now reached meaningful scale with 46 million paid subscribers a lot of excitement around the approach to profitability. At the same time, you've taken somewhat of a different approach than many of your competitors you're prioritizing engagement monetization and a strong domestic position over a global subscriber land grab. Why are you confident that this strategy can drive durable profitability, particularly as sports investments continue to ramp?

So this July is going to be our 6-year anniversary since we launched Peacock. And if you go back to 2020, the market is dramatically different -- the streaming market is dramatically different than it was a few years ago. So back in 2020, you may remember, almost every streaming service was focused on ad-free, binge viewing and scripted dramas. And so when we evaluated this, we actually believe that there was a white space opportunity in the streaming market that again played more to our strengths. We are -- at the core, we are a broadcast network. And so the notion of extending broadcast and modernizing it for streaming was where we saw the big opportunity. So you could argue we zigged while other zagged. To effectuate that strategy, we had to do things very differently. And so for example, we're a dual revenue stream business today. I think two revenue streams is better than one revenue stream. And so when we launched Peacock, it was very important that it was dual revenue stream, which is why we anchored ourselves on subscription, but really on advertising, that allowed us to take advantage of the advertising infrastructure that we already had within NBCUniversal, was also a belief that the advertisers would eventually follow the eyeballs and that more people were going to move to streaming. And so that was a core principle to how we started. We then looked at the household demographics. And so for a broadcast network, we're trying to reach a broad household and have something for every individual in the home. Most streaming services at the time we're focused on scripted originals, Pay1 movies, things that we also kind of also invested in, we took back our movies and Universal movies and put them on Peacock. We invested heavily in originals. But if you want to reach a broader household demographic, we had to expand the aperture of the content, which meant, we need unscripted. We need news. We need sports. We need local, we need multicultural. And so having a much broader array of programming we thought would also allow us to drive that habituation to get people to want to come to our service every single day. The third thing that we did, which was a bit controversial, is we really believed that live and linear was going to be relevant in streaming. And at the time, there was discussion that live or linear was dead. All of the data that we looked at would tell us otherwise. And so we said, yes, you have to have a service that's anchored in on demand, but equally, we want it to be anchored in linear and live. So we launched with dozens of linear channels back in 2020. But equally important is we built a technology platform that was designed for live at scale. And so -- which is very hard to do. I mean delivering live over streaming is very different than delivering live over a cable or satellite. And so focusing on ensuring that we can deliver live events at scale men, what's the latency ensuring that there's no pixelation, ensuring that the video and the audio are always in sync. The tolerance of the consumer when things aren't working with live is zero. And so we spent years hard on any platform, but you see the results of that now with things like the Olympics or when we have the Super Bowl, we really do believe we've created a best-in-class platform. And then the fourth thing that we did was we really made a big bold decision about sports, which was another big unknown back in 2020 around what is the future of sports in a world of binge viewing. But coming from NBC, we know the power of sport to provide scale. We thought it could also provide acquisition for subscribers. And sports also is the opposite of binge-viewing. It's about timeliness. It's about community. You know the TAM or the addressable market of sports, so you can calculate what that value is. And so building out a really big sports portfolio was very important to us back that and still is. And so when you now look at where we are today, as you mentioned, we're at 46 million subscribers. Domestically, when you compare Peacock to other streaming services, we're actually in the same consideration set of most other streaming services when you compare domestic subs to domestic subs. We're in generally the same consideration set. But we also have 80% of our subs that are on the ad tier back to that dual revenue stream. We have some event that's live on Peacock almost every single day back to that strategy of having live and sports. And we mentioned on the last earnings call that we were pacing to profitability I'm proud to share we will be profitable in Q2, which is a big milestone for the company. It's a big milestone for the team. But I think it's also beginning a validation of the strategy that we've had from the beginning because we've been very consistent and disciplined on the execution of our strategy. And I think that that's just an example where there's not one way to approach a streaming strategy or a market, sometimes you have to play to your strength, which is what we've been doing at NBCUniversal.

That's great. And profitability in Q2 is certainly a big milestone, and that's on top of all the investments that you've been making as well. So that's great. One thing I want to double-click on is the international side. And you've been varying -- and I think the strategy -- I can't believe it's been 6 years, [indiscernible] by the way, I think, it was probably one of my favorite events at launch. So that was a great investor event. But going back to international, you've very clearly positioned Peacock as primarily a domestic streaming platform. Maybe touch on a little bit more in terms of why you don't need to be global in order to achieve the scale that you need?

Well, I don't think we need to be global in order for us to continue growing the service, growing revenue and scaling. I think maybe this is just another example of zigging while others are zagging. There's not one approach when it comes to how you want to build a streaming service, but you have to take a step back. I mean, when you look at NBCUniversal, obviously, we are a global company. Our theme parks are global. We own Sky in the U.K., Italy and Germany. Our Film group is global. We distribute our content in almost every country across every window and every distribution platform we distribute cable networks internationally, just like we do here domestically. And we also have streaming services that we have internationally as well. Sky has now TV. We have a streaming service that's an unscripted subscription service called [ Hey You, ] which we distribute internationally. In Latin America, we have a service called Universal Plus. And so it's all about trying to identify what's the best way to monetize your programming. When it comes to domestic, domestic has the highest share of video. It has the highest advertising. It has the highest ARPU potential. And so it's very important for us to anchor ourselves predominantly as a domestic streaming service because that's where we saw the biggest opportunity for profitable subs and the best return. And it also allows us to take advantage of the broadcast infrastructure that we have in place. And so I think that you're going to continue to see us be very measured. The piece that I think also sometimes gets lost in translation is that the technology platforms that we've built are global. And that was by design to also just give us optionality. And so what I mean by that is the technology stack that we use for Peacock, we call internally the global streaming platform or GSP. And so Peacock sits on GSP. Now TV, which is the Sky streaming service, also sits on top of GSP. We run the -- its exact same platform that we're running. In Eastern and potential Europe, we have a joint venture called Sky Showtime, which is in 22 countries, that service also sits on GSP, which we run and manage. And so to the extent we ever decided that we did want to expand globally, technology wouldn't be a gating factor for us. It's about us just kind of continuing to evaluate on a territory-by-territory basis, what do we think is going to give us the best return. And if it makes sense for us to launch a streaming service, then that's obviously something that we'll continue to evaluate, but we're continuing -- we're constantly monetizing our content very, very successfully, and we'll continue to do that globally. And I think that we're really well positioned to determine what's going to be the best return for the investment of the content that we're producing. But you're not going to see us go global just for the sake of chasing subs. We have very little interest in subs that have low ARPU or subs that are -- I don't want, like, for lack of a better phrase, empty calorie subs. It's really about getting the best return to monetize our content that's going to give us the best sustainable growth and long-term value.

That's great. And I think what sometimes misunderstood is just because you're not in certain international markets where the streaming product doesn't mean that you're not monetizing content in those markets?

Exactly. We -- the team under Donald Hengle does a very, very good job licensing our content. We license our content in every major country across every window, every platform. And so you could do the calculus on what's the best return. And we find that licensing the content has been a very successful strategy for us. Obviously, in the United States, we licensed content, but we launched Peacock. But there's nothing preventing us on a market-by-market basis from deciding if we wanted to launch Peacock internationally. It's something we're constantly evaluating. But again, we're going to continue to be very disciplined and measured about it. And maybe this is just another example of us zigging while others are zagging, but I don't think there's only one approach to how you might want to look at global when it comes to streaming. But that shouldn't be interpreted that we don't have a very successful monetization engine for how we license our content internationally.

Okay. Let's talk about Peacock pricing and ARPU a little bit. At Peacock, you've taken pricing while continuing to grow. As you expand Peacock's role within the broader NBCUniversal ecosystem, how are you thinking about the next phase of monetization, whether it's pricing, advertising, bundles and partnerships and while you're also still keeping the service compelling and affordable enough for consumers.

Yes. Well, I think when you look at the Peacock retail price point in the market, I actually can argue we're undervalued. There are other streaming services in the market that are almost 2x to 3x the retail price on to Peacock that arguably don't have the same breadth and depth of content. We've also built a very, very strong portfolio of sports rights. And so I do think that there is opportunity for more rate just based on the value of what we offer in the market. Coming from cable, where I've spent 15 years at Comcast. I think that there were signs early on that we saw in streaming that actually reminded us of pay television. And I actually spoke about this back in 2019, which is if you look at some of the trends of streaming, what you're seeing is consumers are subscribing to more and more streaming services, which is not a surprise because not one streaming service is likely going to give you enough video calories as a consumer -- and so now the average consumer has 4 or 5 streaming services that they subscribe to. The cost of those streaming services were inevitably going to go up because the cost of content hasn't come down. And so that would likely happen is that the market would gravity towards bundle line, which is obviously how pay TV was -- had so much growth. And so one of the foundational parts of the bundle was that the more you take the better the price, the better the value is a consumer, bundling could also be very good for a media company because typically, you see lower churn with a bundle and lower cost per acquisition. But there was one thing that was always anchored the bundle in pay television for years, and that was sports. Another reason why we felt early on it was going to be very important for us to have a very, very compelling and broad sports portfolio because if the market did move to bundling, doing those kinds of deals are not hard, doing those kinds of deals, getting the right wholesale economics is going to be critical. Otherwise, you're going to have what I have mentioned before, like these low calorie subs. And so we made a very disciplined decision that if that's where we thought the market was going to go, let's build out our portfolio, but we spent the first 4 or 5 years, predominantly focused on direct-to-consumer, maximum share of wallet out of the market, which is why the majority of our subs are direct build subs. And let's actually try to build healthy ARPU. And then at the right time, we would start to look at the next wave of growth, which is to focus more on bundling. I think that's where we are now. I think it's pretty obvious market has gravitated towards bundles. It certainly does not mean we're not going to keep our eye on direct build or direct-to-consumer because, again, those are the most profitable subs for us. But this is what led us to do deals with Apple, where we now have a bundle with Apple. Apple's content proposition is very complementary to our content proposition. And so Apple also has very strong sales channels, given the the multiple touch points of Apple. And so that made a lot of strategic sense for us. We did a bundled deal with Walmart, which, again, we saw a lot of incrementality of doing a deal with Walmart because they tend to focus more on cost-conscious consumers in C&D counties. And so we saw that as an opportunity. We've done some channel deals but very targeted channel deals, just focused on the ad-free tier of Peacock because only 20% of our base is on that ad-free tier, it has a higher retail price point. So we can experiment more. And so we have bundle -- sorry, channel deals with Amazon, and we have a channel deal with Roku. And so we're now at a point where I think the next wave of growth for us is going to be to continue to lean more into these bundles. But we're coming at it from a different angle because I think a lot of other media companies have been leaning into bundles for years. And now you're seeing us move more into that space. But I think that's going to be a big part of the next wave of growth for us over the next few years.

And importantly, with strong economics because I think we've seen a lot of examples of companies go in more for just having that relationship and the subscriber land grab approach as opposed to what makes sense P&L.

Yes. Well, look, I think Comcast has a reputation for being very disciplined. Mike Cavanagh, Brian Roberts are students of the business. We've said from the very beginning, for us, this is not a -- streaming is not a sprint, it's a marathon. I've rephrased that to say it's not a strip, it's a marathon at a sprinter's pace because we certainly feel we want to move and move quickly and decisively. But we have very little interest in having subs that have negative CLV, subs that are not really driving engagement and ARPU. And so there's no question that because we've been so deliberate in how we built our sub base that we might not have scaled as quickly as some other services, but I feel very good about the sub mix base that we have. And you can see that in the revenue. If you look at the Q1 revenue we announced for Peacock, it's actually very similar to the streaming revenue of other streaming services that have almost doubled the subscribers of us. And so having a very healthy mix of subs is important. And you're absolutely right, you're going to see us continue to be disciplined about how we approach bundled deals to make sure they're driving incrementality and positive CLV. But I think this is where the strength of our portfolio, especially the sports portfolio that we've built allows us to come to the table with a very different value proposition. And I think as a result, that's what's allowing us to do deals that we feel very good about with partners that -- we also feel are very strategic to us. And so I think that, that's going to be another opportunity as we look ahead over the next few years.

That's great. Maybe just continuing on with the pricing element of it. Premium sports rights continue to get more expensive across the industry. When you think about shifting from pricing to managing the profitability perhaps, how do you balance investing aggressively in sports with maintaining a sustainable and consumer-friendly model over the long term?

Well, again, I think back to what I said at the beginning, I think this is where managing as a portfolio helps us because when we evaluate sports rights, it's very rare that we would evaluate it just through the lens of streaming. And so we have the broadcast network. We obviously have a streaming platform. We actually launched a sports cable network last year, a 24/7 cable network NBC Sports, which again might seem a bit counterintuitive, but you have to remember that the Pay TV ecosystem still has a millions of subscribers. It generates a significant amount of revenue. And we saw an opportunity for us as part of our portfolio to also have a sports cable network in the mix. And so I think what that allows is that when we approach the leagues, we obviously have relationships with all of the major leagues. I think that what they're looking for is they want scale. And so the fact that we have the ability to kind of allow multiple ways for a consumer to access the sports content, broadcast and streaming is a real strength that we bring to the table. And we actually like having sports content on broadcast because we also simulcast it on cable, and we simulcast it on streaming, but that's a huge benefit to what we bring to the table through some of these relationships. I think because of that approach, it's also good for the consumer because we're giving them choice. If you want to watch on broadcast, which includes over the air, if you want to get it through streaming, you offer it on streaming, we're giving multiple touch points for how a consumer can get access to the content. And for us, because of this portfolio approach, we have multiple ways to monetize that. And so when we're evaluating a sports deal, and we look at the return on the investment, we don't have to get that return just through streaming. We can amortize that over the broader portfolio. And again, it allows us multiple ways to monetize. And so I think that's what allows us to approach how we look at these deals going forward and the way we've done the deals in the past. I think, again, that's one of the benefits of what we bring to the table is NBCUniversal.

That's great. Maybe sticking with the theme of content investments. And we talked a little bit about other operators, and what's worked well, and what hasn't worked well. I think the industry has learned that not every content investment creates the same value in streaming, especially. How are you thinking about where NBCU should lean in, in terms of sports versus Bravo versus Next Day MVC, originals, film windowing, unscripted, a lot of buckets to consider.

It's a great question. So the answer to that question actually evolves depending on where you are in your life cycle of a business. And so there's certain content that we find drives acquisition and drives ratings and drive scale. Sports is an example of that. Pay1 movies is an example of that. Originals, which is what led us also to the long-term relationship they have with [ Taylor Sheridan, ] who's going to be coming to NBCUniversal in the coming years. And so you have to have the right investment mix around the type of content that's going to drive those kinds of responses, which are critical. Also that type of content also is really strong for building a brand. But there's an Achilles heel to that, which is if you bring on a lot of subs, if you don't have the right mix to drive retention engagement, you're going to have churn. And churn is the Achilles heel of any subscription business. And so that's where we also invest in content that drives that engagement what typically drives that kind of habituation and viewership or things like library content, which we -- happened at NBCUniversal have huge expansive library of programming, unscripted programming, news drives retention, local, and so you've got to manage almost like a mutual fund to hedge. Now we are very focused, especially over the next few years, we think engagement is one of the most important metrics. It doesn't mean that we're not going to continue scaling the business because we will, but growing share of time is really, really important. So building out that library component of what drives engagement and habituation is going to be important. I think one of the things that I didn't fully appreciate when I came to NBC from Comcast was just how much people love our content. I see that now because I have all the data. But there's real fandom, real IP that's beloved by millions of people in -- around the world. The office is a fandom. SNL is a fandom. Fast and the Furious, Jurassic. These are fandoms. Bravo is the fandom. And so I'll give you some fun facts about Bravo. Like just Bravo is maybe one of the biggest fandoms that was inside of pay television that we were able to expand into streaming on Peacock. But Bravo viewers on Peacock typically have 33% lower churn. Bravo users typically watch about 75 episodes of content a month. They are content carnivores. And then what happens is that when you have one of these fandoms like we do, and we can demonstrate that we're expanding the TAM, the addressable market, well, that's the flywheel to then invest back into that fandom. And so in the case of Bravo, we invested and launched just an unscripted show called The Traders, which was a huge success for us. It's actually the #1 unscripted show in Q1 of last year. It's on multiple Emmy awards. Love Island is another example. By the way, Love Island uses it for anyone interested premieres tonight at 9:00 Eastern Time. That's a phenomenon for us. NextGen NYC, which is another Bravo show, which when we premiered that was the biggest new premier Bravo's ever had in its history. And so we're creating these flywheels, and we're building out these audiences. But then back to the portfolio approach, we launched a Peacock original called All Her Fault, which was one of the most popular and successful originals on Peacock. The majority of the viewers of that original were the Bravo users. And so how we're able to move these viewers around the portfolio and invest in these fandoms is how we see the continued growth. And so we're not trying to cast a broad net and be all things to all people, trying to be very surgical about the fandoms and the franchises and the IP that plays to our trends as a company, how do we superserve them? And how do we continue to nurture and grow them. And that's the flywheel and the opportunity that we're going to continue to invest in.

That's great. Next, I want to talk about where streaming is kind of headed, and I'll be a little bit more specific in a second. But I think when we look at the industry, we're all trying to figure out in 2, 3, 4, 5 years from now, Netflix is probably not going to look like the Netflix of today. Same thing with Disney Plus, they tried experiencing with a few different things. We'll see how that evolves. And certainly, with Peacock as well, you made some comments recently at South by Southwest, talking about how Peacock is evolving from being a streaming platform to more of an entertainment platform. You've launched vertical video gaming. Maybe talk a little bit about how that strategy to connect to your broader focus on engagement is looking like fandom participation over the next few years. Where is Peacock evolving into.

Yes. Well, I'll try to be mindful of time. I could talk about this for hours. So here's the way that I would frame it. sometimes when we talk about streaming, it's been categorized as like the streaming wars, which is, to me, a completeness number because there's not one winner in streaming. Just like there's not one winner in broadcast or one winner in cable or one website winner. There could be multiple winners. But if there's a battle, in my opinion, the battle is going to be for time, share of time. And so when you -- and this is an area that we spend a huge amount of focus really on packing to try to understand this. And so when you look at where people spend time with video. The average consumer in the United States spends 5 to 6 hours a day consuming video. Nobody admits to that. It's actually not that hard to watch 5 or 6 hours of video, watch a sporting event, watch a movie, watch news like you realize it's not that hard. That number has been pretty consistent over the past decade when you look at Nielsen. But how people spend those video calories has changed pretty dramatically because you're seeing -- and this also depends on the demographic of where you sit, but you're seeing more time that's being spent on social media, on user-generated content on video gaming, on video podcasting. And so I think when we evaluate this, one of the realizations that we've had is that we are actually creating demand. We're building these franchises. We're building these fandoms. We're creating demand through our networks and through our streaming service. But these streaming platforms have not evolved at the same pace as the fan bump. And as a result, we're creating the demand and then we're pushing viewers to go elsewhere to continue engaging. The best example I can probably give you is I mentioned earlier, Love Island, if you watch that show last summer, back show was a bit of a phenomenon. And when we looked at Love Island, typically, what was happening is like 6 days a week were tuning in back to the habituation, which was, again, a very calculated decision of why something like Love Island made such sense to us. But what streaming services typically do us included, as at the end of a show or the end of an episode, we use an algorithm to say, "Oh, well, you like this show, you should watch that show." And there's nothing wrong with that. It's actually very effective at driving discovery. But with Love Island, what happened was people didn't want to watch another show at the end of the episode, they wanted to continue talking about Love Island. And we didn't have anything else for them to do around Love Island. And so then the viewer leaves. And then they go to social media, and they look at clips, or they're looking for community. They'll go on looking for podcasts. They'll look for video games. Anything to stay in that world that they were in that we created. And so One of the interesting facts about that is that when you look at last summer, the #1 app in the app store at the height of Love Island was the Love Island app. The #2 app was ChatGPT. And so it just kind of highlights the size of these fandoms. And so we have now for a few years, been evolving our platform. We don't call Peacock a streaming platform because that's too limited. We think of it as an entertainment platform is a participatory entertainment platform with a very specific North Star, which is we should be the best place for fans to engage and consume with our content. That's how we're going to grow share of time. That's how we're going to retain more subs on the platform, but we have to build a platform that's designed to super-serve these fans. And we were not doing that. And so we started to put the pieces in place. And so one example that you mentioned was vertical video. And if you look at social media platforms, almost all of them have embraced vertical video, we don't need to recreate the wheel. We just need to adopt some of the behaviors of what consumers are doing on other platforms. And so we launched vertical video over a year ago. And so now when you go on Peacock, we have vertical video clips, we have vertical video sports highlights. We announced we're going to be producing original content in vertical video. We've licensed micro dramas, which is a whole other category of content that we now have on Peacock. And so we have built out a catalog around mobile, which is meeting the customer where they are, to give them more reasons to want to watch on Peacock. There's another reason why this is important. If you look at back to what I said about the Olympics, 20% of viewers who engaged with Vertical video during the Olympics, went on to watch long-form content [indiscernible]. The NBA, 25% of viewers that were watching the MBA on Peacock, we're also engaging with vertical video. And so there's a strategy around, okay, well, vertical video is a very important piece to that experience. Gaming is another one. And so we have Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy on Peacock. You can watch them, the shows. Well, why not let those fans play wheel of fortune in jeopardy. And so we didn't want to create those games off platform. We wanted to build them into the platform. And so now you can play wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy. We just launched Jeopardy yesterday. Law and Order, Dick Wolf, another fandom. Well, why not allow viewers to be the detective and solve crimes and offer a long order game. And so we partnered with Wolf games. They produced an exclusive AI-driven game for us. You can now play the long order game on Peacock. Podcasting. We were experimenting with video podcasting. But again, we're not trying to cast a broad net, -- we're trying to be very purposeful interactive features. You can now -- when you're watching the NBA, you can pick camera angles. You could -- we're introducing real-time data and probability as overlays, like we're enhancing the experiences. There's one other thing that we're really excited about, which is back to Bravo is this summer, we're launching something called the Bravo verse. And this has been something that's been months in the making, but the way it's going to work is we've used AI to scan thousands of hours of our Bravo library. The viewer then tells us, okay, well, what are the Bravo celebrities that you like? What are the storylines that you're interested in? And then we create using the AI engine, a personalized playlist for you with an AI avatar of Andy Cohen, who is the face of Bravo, and now you can go down the Bravo rabbit hole. But we're now giving those fans a completely new experience and a new way to engage with our content, but we design this in a way that we could extrapolate that same experience to other catalogs and other fandoms. And so this notion of evolving from streaming to entertainment. This is how we're going to drive more engagement. This is how we're going to drive monetization in new forms of monetization. It doesn't mean we're not going to continue partnering with these other platforms because they're very important to the ecosystem. But I think that this notion of being the best place for your fans and to super serve them is the journey that we've been on for a few years. And I'm very proud of where we are because I think that we are, in some ways, further ahead based on some of the futures that not only we've announced what we've launched in the market over the last 24 months. And we have several new ones that are going to be coming as well that we're really excited about.

Well, if there is a successful as BravoCon, I think you have...

if you want to get a sense of what it means to be a fan, if you go to like a fan fest, BravoCon is unlike anything you will ever experience. These are super, super fans. I give a lot of credit to Francis Berwick, and what she's created with Bravo, but I think we're just at the tip of the spear in how we can continue to grow that fandom and super serve it. And I think Bravo is just one of several that we have that were -- that are part of our strategic sites.

And so fascinating because I feel like when you go back 5, 10 years ago, when every media company start to pivot towards streaming, everyone the perspective was, let's maybe take what we had in linear and put it on direct-to-consumer. And I feel like everyone kind of missed out on the social element of it and the user-generated content opportunity and all of that kind of went to big tech. And it kind of seems like all the traditional media companies are kind of take back some of these fandoms or opportunities and monetize in a different way.

Yes. Well, I think there's partially -- there's a partial reason for that, which is when you look at a lot of the tech platforms for streaming a lot of the interfaces were designed for the television because that's where the majority of the consumption was happening. And then you port that platform, and you render it on mobile, and you render it on PCs and -- but it's all a derivative of the television. What we have learned is that you have to take advantage of the modality of what are the devices that consumers are using. Like when you hold your phone, you're probably using your forefinger or your thumb to swipe. You're not doing that on your television. That introduces a completely different dynamic in the types of content and experiences that you want to build towards. And so this is where we're thinking right experience, right device, right consumer. And it's a different mindset than where I think streaming started, which was predominantly just anchored on the television.

Yes. Okay. We have 5 minutes left and two questions. So I want to make sure we cover both of these. First one is kind of talking a little bit about the broader Comcast ecosystem. So Comcast has talked more about leveraging the totality of the company, including the harmony work between you and Steve Crone. From the media side, where does Comcast create the most tangible value for NBCUniversal in terms of distribution, product, data, marketing, advertising, customer relationships or anything else that you'd like to touch on?

Well, when Comcast acquired NBCUniversal, one of the first things that we did is we created this program, which we call Symphony. And if you're not familiar with Symphony, it's essentially taking the marketing inventory across Comcast and NBCUniversal and getting the entire organization to align around key tentpole priorities. And a tentpole priority could be Universal is releasing a new blockbuster film over the summer, a tentpole priority could be the Olympics. And I think when you look at the success of Symphony, it's arguably one of our superpowers. It's culturally something that we do across the broader company that has been very successful and effective and proven. And I think that this is kind of somewhat of our secret sauce. What Steve Crone and I have been working on together, and Steve and I have known each other for almost 20 years, and he's a fantastic partner is, how do we evolve Symphony into what we're now calling Harmony which is really an evolution around how do we integrate work streams across Comcast and NBCUniversal, but very specifically to align around how do we share data, how do we align our product and tech organizations? How do we think about how we go to market around key initiatives? How do we look at local and national advertising, and how could we potentially monetize that inventory better with a very specific purpose of driving broadband, wireless, Peacock growth and overall engagement and monetization? And there was a couple of things that were relatively low-hanging fruit. Like for example, low-hanging fruit was, well, let's bundle Peacock with gig subscribers. Because that's a way for Comcast Cable to add more value to their highest end customers. It's a way for us to add measured bundled growth for Peacock. And so that was something that we went to market with, or let's make Peacock the app that's kind of like the anchor tenant on the X1 video platform. We know the value of what's one more hour per user per month. We know the value of getting somebody to watch Peacock one more day a month. Well, let's find new ways to drive more of that sampling and promotion, and Steve and the team have done a phenomenal job. We're now looking at, how do we look at Peacock and NBC's inventory as a sales channel to drive broadband and wireless? And when you start looking at the data, Peacock, yes, has 46 million subs. 46 million subs is about 100 million monthly active users when you look at the number of users per sub. When we share data, and we know we'll owe those 100 million monthly active users, who lives in a Comcast footprint, do they have Comcast broadband or wireless, well, can we actually now target them with a special offer. Those are the types of initiatives that we're starting to align around both on the Peacock side as well as being more targeted and personalized with some of the inventory that we have at NBCUniversal. I'll give you another example, Comcast has been very focused on what they call real-time 4K. Real-time 4K is focusing on reducing latency around delivering 4K content over the Internet to kind of highlight the superiority of the Comcast network. And so we at NBC have been leaning into delivering more 4K content, so they can better showcase that capability or membership would be another example. Comcast launched a membership program for their -- to improve the tenure of their customers. Well, when we think about driving churn down for Peacock, or ways to create more value for the retail price point of Peacock, we're starting to look at experimenting and testing a membership program for Peacock as well. And so if we could create a membership platform that we could both tap into. If we can create a platform where we're sharing benefits across the company, these are the types of initiatives that we're really excited about. And we've got the senior leadership team at NBC and Comcast completely aligned. We meet on a regular basis on these integrated work streams. We have the full support of Mike Cavanal who has been a huge advocate of this. And it's early. It's early, but at the same time, when I think about growth opportunities, this is probably one of the areas that I'm the most excited about because this is where we're going to continue to get more economies of scale. I think we're going to truly unlock a lot of the value across the broader company by how everybody is getting aligned and working better together.

That's perfect. We're out of time, but I'm going to ask this last question anyway, and it's okay if we go a few minutes, so says I. A lot of conversation today has focused on the strength that we're seeing across the media business. But just given how important media is as a flywheel for the broader NBCUniversal ecosystem, can you take a step back maybe with a broader lens and shed some light on other parts of the company as well?

Yes. Well, first, thank you for let it be go so long [indiscernible] media. I did even get to talk about the World Cup [indiscernible] to tell. This is our 100-year anniversary at NBC, which we're very excited about. But when you take a step back -- but when you look at Universal film, Donna Langley and the team have done a phenomenal job. When you look in 2026, Super Mario Galaxy is gross nearly $1 billion worldwide. That franchise has grossed almost $2 billion worldwide. You've got the Michael Jackson movie, which has done very well, and that was released in theaters a few weeks ago. You've got a new Steven Spielberg, Movie Disclosure Day, which is being released in June, which looks amazing. You've got a new Christopher Nolan movie, the Odyssey, that's coming this summer. And so that team has got some great momentum. When you look at the theme parks under Mark Woodbury and team, they just celebrated Epic Universe 1-year anniversary. They are getting ready to launch a new kids theme park in Frisco, Texas this summer. They're making good progress in the U.K. around the the work there. I mean if you remember, when we shared on the earnings, we did say that we are seeing on the international side, a little bit of softness that we're keeping an eye on. We're seeing some of that domestically. But when you look overall across the broader NBCUniversal portfolio, we feel incredibly excited about the momentum, about the growth and about the long-term profitability of the overall company. And so we're excited as we get ready to celebrate our 100-year anniversary.

That sounds fantastic. Thanks so much for being here.

Thank you so much. I appreciate it.

I appreciate it.

Good morning, everybody. And good morning to everyone who is joining us on the web this morning for Day 2 of the MoffettNathanson Media and Communications Conference. I am really excited to be joined by Steve Croney from Comcast.

Comcast has been with us every year since we started this summit, but it's our first time together, Steve.

Yes.

So I want to start, just because I think you come with the role of CEO for the Connectivity & Platforms business from an interesting perspective in that you've been both the Chief Operating Officer and the Chief Financial Officer. So tell us how those 2 different perspectives shape, what it is you want to accomplish at C&P and the way you think about the turnaround that you're trying to achieve? What are the things that you first saw that you wanted -- that you either saw or inherited that you wanted to change?

Yes, sure. And first of all, thanks for having me. It's great to be here. So yes, I've been with the company for 35 years. I spent the first 20 years out in field operations, moved to headquarters in the last 15 years. And as you stated, spent quite a bit of time in the CFO role and about a year in the COO role. So I know a lot about the business, know a lot about the company. But what was really important is had to bring a very different perspective, right? We want to change the trajectory of the business, want to deliver different outcomes. I had to think about it through a very different lens.

And the way I approached it about a year ago when I took over the COO role is, I said, what if we were acquiring Comcast? Let me take it through that lens, true challenger mentality and went through everything, every process, every policy, all the operations and just challenged everything that we did and said, why are we doing this? Should we continue to do it this way?

And at the 50,000-foot level, I'd say the big 3 things that stood out to me were, first, we were not great at being honest with ourselves about our strengths, about our weaknesses. And I needed to really clearly define our reality. And that's the competition. That is how we go to market. That is the structure of the company. It's the talent within the company, our customer experience, really looking at things through that very different lens.

Once I define that reality, then it was about developing a North Star. What is the business that we need to become? I think that was something wasn't very clear, and the team wasn't rallied around that. So how do we build that true North Star business we need to become? And then once you have that...

And what is the business that you need to become?

I think as you look at it, it is -- I focus on 3 of the -- once again, at the 50,000-foot level, focus on 3 core areas and 1 foundational area. It's the network. We have to have a much better network and develop differentiation with our network. Two is around the product side, really focused on WiFi as the centerpiece, but how do we make our products better together.

So it's interesting. So you're defining the foundational product as WiFi rather than broadband.

Absolutely. WiFi. And then how do you make our products better when you have them together, better streaming experiences, better mobile experiences through the WiFi. And then from a customer experience perspective, satisfaction is not enough. You have to build loyalty and advocacy. And how do you do that through personalization, simplification, taking customer effort out of the business. And then foundationally is our ways of working and really looking at that and we have to have a challenger mentality. We're going to think very differently. So really focused on what are the things we need to do to have that challenger mentality. So that's the North Star at the highest level.

And then once we've developed the North Star, then it was about how do we go and execute? How do we align the organization? What are the very clear deliverables? I've spent the past 4 months, I've had 27 meetings talking to all of our leaders across the entire company. This is what we need to deliver. These are the objectives we need to deliver and really focusing the team, setting clear accountability, ownership, setting up the right KPIs and metrics. So then we focus on...

That's an interesting one. So as I -- I'm always fascinated by the KPIs and metrics that you managed to. Have you made them longer term or shorter term?

It's a mix of both. I think that's important you balance both. As we're rolling out '26 in the execution plan, they are definitely more short term, but we tied it into the North Star. And where do we have to take those over the next couple of years. So it's balance of both.

Got it. Well, there's a lot there that we're going to return to over the course of our conversation this morning. Before we dig into the individual silos of what I was going to call broadband, but I'm going to retitle it now as WiFi. But before we think about the stand-alone pieces of the business, one of the things we've been focused on in this conference is convergence. How central is the idea of convergence to your strategy? And why does it matter? So you're seeing -- are you seeing customers think about convergence as a new product category, the connectivity everywhere. And how do you think about your competitive position in convergence?

I'd say it's core to our entire strategy and core to the North Star strategy that I talked about. And we are seeing purchase intent starting to pivot towards...

And is that something more than just I get a better price, so I like the bundle? Or is it people are starting to conceptualize the connectivity everywhere as a product?

Yes, I think it's both. I think there's a value component to the bundle when you put the 2 products together, but also it's a differentiated experience. That's a key part of this. A great example of that is when you connect our WiFi with the Xfinity Mobile, it's 1 gig download speeds. That's a differentiated product, and we're continuing to try to differentiate the product.

So I think it's a combination of both. And we've really rallied the organization around it. It's all about convergence. It's that value proposition, the differentiated experiences. And we have a very strong hand. If you think about it, we have 65 million passings in the footprint, all have 1 gig-plus speeds, all have a broadband offering that's more than any of our competitors, and we're pivoting that towards multi-gig symmetrical. So you have that same ubiquity across 65 million homes.

We have the largest WiFi network in the country, and we offload about 90% of the traffic. So once again, it creates that great experience, like you said, inside the home, outside of the home. And beyond that, too, is those differentiated experiences and the great WiFi experience that we have as well. We invest a lot in differentiating our WiFi with -- OpenSignal just came out of the report saying we have the most reliable WiFi in our footprint. You have the reliability piece. You have the differentiated piece I talked about with the mobile boost, differentiating that mobile experience. We have all the features of control and coverage within the home as well. So all that's very important, and that creates a much better mobile experience.

And with the 90% offload, it enables a cost structure that where we can provide a great value to our customers. And our pricing on mobile is about half of our competitors, give or take. So that works really well. And then the customer experience. It's a huge part of this, and we're continuing to invest and focus on the customer experience as well.

So overall, we're well positioned when it comes to convergence. And one of the core metrics that we look at is converged ARPA. So you take your broadband revenues, your mobile service revenues over broadband customers, we're about $85 as it sits today, roughly 1/2 of where mobile ARPA is for our competitors. So that's another huge opportunity for us as we go forward.

And then you look to say, in early, early innings, but you look at our first quarter results, and we like what we saw. We saw connects improve. We saw voluntary disconnects improve. Our new packaging and pricing is resonating in a couple of ways. One is it's -- we're moving up tier, and we're getting more customers in our gig products, so our best broadband product. With the equipment included, now we're getting more customers taking our gateways to get all these great experiences that I just talked about and that great WiFi experience. We've seen our NPS move up the right way. So that's a leading indicator for future benefit.

And our mobile attach has accelerated significantly. We had our best quarter ever in the first quarter with 435,000 line net adds. So we have what it takes. It's all about execution, and I own that. So I feel very confident...

And I would imagine that all of those things that you talked about, ARPA and mobile attach rate and those things are KPIs that you are holding people accountable for and measuring people. Absolutely.

Yes. Yes.

Do you see -- this is kind of the future view of convergence, I guess? Do you see your fiber competitors eventually, sort of, going back to the '90s ILEC model of your sort of -- you're competing against Fortress Verizon in the Northeast, you're competing against Fortress, AT&T in the South and the West, but that it really goes back to the way it used to be 30 years ago of, sort of, regional phone competitors?

I don't. I think we control -- we can control. And that's what I'm focused on. And to me, that's just about how do you create the best possible experience, bring the greatest value to customers. And hopefully, you can knock down those walls as we go forward.

But are you seeing for example, is -- are you seeing Verizon being the main competitor that you're up against now in the Northeast? Or do you still think of it as no, it's still FWA from T-Mobile?

I think we look at it all, right? And it's a combination of fiber. It's a combination of fixed wireless. Satellite is coming into the market. So we look at it all.

Okay. Let's talk about your go-to-market strategy in broadband or WiFi. One of the first things you did was simplify broadband pricing. How does the adoption of simplified national pricing for broadband position you in the long run? And is there any risk that, that limits your flexibility to compete against regional competitors?

Yes. So when you look at it, it was essential. We were way too complex. And that complexity led to a lack of trust, the lack of transparency. So we had to make the pivot. And when you look at kind of how we're structured today, we have our value segment with Internet Essentials and NOW, and now we have 4 speed tiers that range from 300 megs up to 2 gigs. And for each of those tiers, we have 3 price points. We have a 1-year, we have a 5-year, and we have an everyday price. And that everyday price, we did adjust down. We were out of market, so now we're in market when it comes to that price. And also from a simplicity perspective, we included the gateway in the packaging. So all essential as we move forward.

To the second part of your question and then Free Mobile line as well for anybody who takes our service, whether you're existing or new customer.

And then to the second part of your question, we've maintained our flexibility, and I would argue that we're actually even more effective. And the reason for that is, over the past 18 months, we've done a really nice job leveraging our data in very different ways. We've created a lot of data models, over 100 different data models. We have thousands of attributes internal and external that we leverage in those data models. And what that enables us to do is really target whether it's markets, particular parts of markets, targets particular segments. And as we really dig in that -- and we run those models across acquisition, upsell, retention, win back, collection. So we leverage that across the board. So it makes us much more effective in a much more fiscally responsible way.

And then secondarily is with the structural changes we made, we significantly improved our velocity. It used to -- what used to take us, kind of, weeks to months to react, now it takes us days. So that's hugely beneficial as well. So we're in a good spot there.

So you saw a 117,000 subscriber year-over-year improvement in broadband net losses. About half of that was your legendary February, but half of that was sort of sustainable, repeatable. How much of that is coming from better connectivity, that is, gross adds, and how much of that is coming from lower voluntary churn? And where does lower voluntary churn or voluntary churn stand relative to the historic lows that you've seen?

Yes. So overall, in the first quarter, we saw connect improvement. We saw voluntary disconnect improvement. And that's been really solid over time. We saw improvement in fiber footprints. We saw improvement in non-fiber footprints. So it was very broad. So I haven't really focused on one particular metric. It was a broad improvement across the board. And as you mentioned, over 50% of that was tied into legendary February. It was a fantastic moment for us, and we really leaned into that. But there is an organic component to this as well.

And I go back to the new pricing and packaging. It was the biggest pivot we've made in the company's history when we did that last year, and that is resonating. And on top of that, we've done a much better job, a new Chief Growth Officer. We have a much better job of messaging, a much better job in our creative and telling our story. So that's helped that throughout.

Just thinking about the pricing for a second. Historically, the super low intro prices are obviously a magnet for accelerating gross adds. The problem is those customers churn off. The risk, I think all of us saw, when you went to everyday low pricing or price locks and things is, okay, that will help churn a year from now, 2 years from now as those low introductory rates would have rolled off, but you're going to pay a price in new customer acquisition initially. Hasn't turned out that way?

The good news is we've moved up market. And the way we've priced it, as you know, is 5 years is a little more expensive than the 1 year and as we look at that. So we were very pleased with the early results. And to your point, there will be benefits down the road tied to that packaging.

And 1 other area to highlight that we have spent a lot of time on, on top of the new pricing and packaging is we hired a new head of sales across the company. And we've seen an improvement in our sales effectiveness. Back to evaluating every part of the business, we need to do a better job from a training perspective, our employees from a compensation plan perspective, from a tooling perspective. So all of that has played...

So just give me one nugget of what you -- something that you changed for the sales channel that has made them more effective?

I'd say we leaned into convergence in mobile a lot more through our training, through our compensation.

So it's first sell is try to get people onto the converged platform.

And going back to leveraging our data, leveraging our marketing tech stack, all of that weighs into that sales effectiveness as well. So we put a lot of time and effort into that.

So the intense competitive environment and that phrase, intense competitive environment, is something that we now hear all the time on every conference call. The broad characterization, I think, is fiber competing at the high end, FWA and maybe soon satellite competing at the price end of the market. What's priced into your stock price is that you will decline forever and the penetration is going to the 20s. Why is that wrong? Help us -- give us a picture of where you think the market ultimately shakes out.

Yes. I think first and foremost is we have to -- we are operating under the condition that fiber will continue to build. Now how deep they take that will be dependent on their build economics and returns, but fiber will continue to build. Fixed wireless will continue to be aggressive. Obviously, satellite will be in the market in some capacity. So I think that's essential.

I'd say good news is the -- back to the pricing and packaging and what we've done, that is resonating. And we're competing well on the low end with our 300 meg product, competing well on the high end with our gig product. But where we spend a lot of our time is focused on what's the end state. And our belief is in the end state, there's going to be 2 multi-gig providers to the side of the home and obviously, fixed wireless and satellites continue to be active. So that's the bit of the end state.

And if you think about the end state, we've competed with fiber for 20 years. So we know they take share early. Over time, both share and ARPU come to kind of overall market norm.

So an equilibrium.

Yes. Yes. Exactly. So we know that. From a fixed wireless perspective, it's different. What I'd say they did really, really well is simplicity, ease. They did a great job there. And that's a lot of what we've leaned into with all the investment we're making is how do we simplify, make it easier for our customers to install, to do business with us. So a big focus there and becomes very tactical as well as back to leveraging the data and all those models.

How do you go after the value-conscious customer? Leverage our performance. Win back is a big part of that. And then we look at satellite, I think everything we're doing is going to benefit us against satellite. I'd say in reference to fixed wireless and satellite, our network is by far exceeds what they have, and they are capacity constrained.

So if you look at that, for me, the more bits, the better. We want usage and usage is up 10% overall for our broadband-only customers, upstream is up even more. When you look at the usage patterns, it used to be we know certain nights of the week or certain time. Now it's very -- it's driven by gaming -- new gaming launches, sporting events. It's very choppy, which I think it benefits us as well. So we have this great, great advantage and opportunity with our network.

So to answer your question in the end state, I mean, we feel good. We've competed with fiber for a long time, and it's just continuing to differentiate ourselves. Once again, the WiFi experience, the network, all of that make sure that we're competitive from a pricing and packaging perspective, better customer experience. We know increased NPS scores leads to less churn and then the mobile component of this all. The convergence and the value proposition tied to mobile is essential as we go forward.

So you've called 2026 an investment year for broadband. Part of that was you didn't take a price increase this year. Is '27 a return to normal? And is 3% to 4% ARPU growth long term, which used to be your North Star for how to think about ARPU growth for the stand-alone product. Is that still the right way to think about it?

So as you step back the -- back to the point, we were not competitive in the market. Not only were we complex, we were not competitive from a price perspective in the marketplace. So it was essential that we did what we had to do. You go back to when we did that mid last year, we said we feel pressure as we -- on ARPU as we turn into the new year, some incremental pressure in the second quarter, and then we start to see relief as we come out of the year.

And the big drivers of that were what you touched on, the piece of it was we didn't take the rate increase. Secondarily was the free wireless lines and the way accounting recognition works that impacts broadband ARPU. And then the third is some additional transactional activity from our base as people moved into the new packages.

So you step back and you say, okay, now let's look forward, what do we have is, one, that incremental transactional activity will lap itself. And over time, to the point you made earlier, should actually start to diminish because more people are locked in.

Two, we have flexibility on pricing. So we maintain that flexibility as we go forward. A big, big part of it is on the Mobile Free lines. So when you look at the Mobile Free lines, where early cohorts are starting to happen, but we're seeing the significant majority of those customers roll that becomes accretive to broadband as well. And even -- and just having more mobile in general becomes accretive over time just as we sell in new services, et cetera.

So there's a lot there. And then like I said, the mix has shifted as we sell into our new pricing and packaging. So we're selling more gig tiers over 40% now. So that's another benefit as we go forward. So I think it will continue to move. And as I touched on this concept of converged ARPA. One big component of that is broadband and the broadband revenue. But another big component is how do we improve our sell-in to new customers to our existing broadband base? How do we improve sell-in of more mobile lines to our existing mobile customers? Last 2 quarters, 30% of our line net adds came from existing mobile customers.

Yes, the point that you made about your ARPA is half of what the mobile-only ARPA is for your competitors, speaks to -- some of that is the introductory discounts. But most of that is just you've got fewer lines per account.

And lower penetration.

Yes. And so how are you thinking about raising the -- not just the attach rate, but also the number of lines per account?

Yes. So I'd say that it's one thing that's been great about the free line offering, being transparent, I wish we would have done it sooner, but we're in that game now. So what it does is it allows our customers to test out the product and it drives awareness with the product. But like I said, once we get the folks in, we spend a lot of our time on life cycle management is those free lines. And like I said, the significant -- the early cohorts, a significant majority of the customers are rolling to paid.

Yes, I was going to say those customers who are rolling to paid, are you seeing any particular churn issues with those customers?

They're not. And we feel -- and one of the big components of that is, if you think about it, they're rolling from 0, but they're rolling to $30, $40.

Which is still like less than anything...

Exactly. About half of what else they can get and you go back into the old days when we had the low broadband offers, we were rolling EDPs that are well above market. We saw that churn, and we saw that pain. We're not seeing that as much. But back to the point of as we manage that life cycle management, we're looking at porting, we're looking at usage. We're looking at how many customers are in equipment installment plans. We're looking at the premium selling. Our premium product is fantastic. And the big, big one is those incremental number of lines. And as I said, to take 30% of our record-setting mobile line net adds are coming from existing mobile customers adding more. So once they get in with the free line, then they say, hey, I'm bringing my next line...

I'm going to say, so is that the dynamic you're saying it's a kind of, let me try it out, make sure the water is warm and then if it is, I'll bring my kids and my spouse and...

Exactly. The IPs are up. Yes, exactly right.

The day before you reported results, you introduced new mobile plans. And for example, they included device insurance, which is an interesting wrinkle. It's a profit center for some that is it a profit pool that you can attack? Is that resonating with customers? What kind of response have you seen from customers?

It is. So if you take a step back and you go back about a year, we knew there was a big TAM in the premium marketplace, and we just didn't have the right product. We didn't have the feature-rich product that people are looking for. So about a year ago, we introduced our premium unlimited product, and that was you get the 1 gig download speeds, but you get 4K streaming, anytime device upgrades, simplified international plans. And we got to about 30% sales. So we're really pleased. It was well above what we had modeled.

And then we said, okay, how do we further disrupt that? How do we drive more of that premium penetration? There's benefits of that from a churn perspective, from a revenue perspective. And we said, no one has ever done this. Let's include device protection. And we think a good chunk of our competitors' customers take a device protection plan, probably in the $10 to $20 range. That's incremental value for our customers and another way to position that product. So it just came out, but our expectation is that we improve upon that 30% number.

What -- can you say what the sell-in rate is among gross -- for new gross adds into your broadband product? What percentage of them are taking wireless along with the broadband?

Yes, I got to look at Marci on that. I don't think we've talked about that one yet, so I won't go there specifically.

We haven't said.

But obviously, it's improving. You can see in our results.

Yes. I mean, your overall market share is still in the mid-single digits. And we've looked at the share of gross adds, making assumptions about churn would say your share of gross adds is in the 20% range. So there's a long runway there. And the question is sort of are you seeing that at the front edge of...

Yes. And I would say, when we released 16% of our broadband customers have mobile, if you take it down to mobile lines in our footprint, we're probably about 6%, 6.5%. So we have a massive runway. And that's what we're focused on.

So your predecessor when I would be on the stage with Dave over the last 10 years, it was pretty clear that he viewed broadband more as a defensive strategy to protect -- or sorry, wireless, more as a defensive strategy to protect broadband than as a revenue-generating opportunity in itself. It's obviously both. But what do you see it as first? Is this first and foremost playing offense and trying to grow the revenues of the business by adding a new product line? Or is it primarily about trying to protect the broadband business?

I'd say unequivocally, it's about playing offense. It's our #1 priority as we push forward. And it's stand-alone. It's a firmly profitable product. So we had a couple of options. One is you can maximize the short-term profitability or we can invest some of the profitability to create the value that we've created to drive mobile lines to create a much better mobile converged experience. And with a roughly $200 billion TAM in the mobile space, we've definitely chosen the latter. We're going to make those investments as we move forward.

And as it relates to the profitability of the product, obviously, a big part of profitability is how much of the traffic you can offload on to WiFi and how much of the traffic you can offload on to CBRS. Can you just talk about those 2 things and the progress and the vision that you have for those 2 things?

So we've said about 90% is offloaded onto WiFi. As I mentioned before, the nation's largest WiFi network, and it creates a much better experience for our customers back to the 1 gig of download speed when you attach to our WiFi. So -- and then we do have many markets up with CBRS, and we look at that on a -- once again, on just a cost to build and does it make sense and based on the densities, et cetera, but that's some additional offload that's included in the overall 90% number.

And where does that fit in your priority stack? Because I have a question coming up about your network upgrades. But there are obviously issues of just how much labor you have and what do you tell them to do first? Where does CBRS fit in the priority?

I think we look at it, there's a great return on it, we'll go ahead and put up some cell site. But if not, we -- it's all balanced across the broader piece. But I would say the general overall network evolution is prioritized because our offload is so good on WiFi.

And I realize -- I characterized it wrong in that I called it offload. And I think one of the things that you guys have done a good job at is articulating a strategy that it's not offload, it's WiFi first. And it's the component that goes over the cellular network that is the offload.

You're exactly right. So that's the way we look at it, kind of the inside and outside of the home. So -- but I think -- and then in addition on the cost, as you get that cost benefit. And then we're selling to our existing broadband customers. So the cost of that is less expensive. And that's what's enabled us to create this great value proposition at about half the rate of our competitors. And we resonate with our customers...

Do you have a vision where you have CBRS, ground-mounted small cells sort of ubiquitously across your denser markets so that it really...

Yes. I don't know that we fully get -- it totally depends on the offload -- because the WiFi offload is so good. So it does that add the extra value that we want. And we assess on a case-by-case basis.

Got it. Let's talk about video for a second. Your video subscriber losses have eased, but not -- you're still contracting at a 9.5% annual rate. Charter has gotten that down to 1.3% rate of decline. So something that I think most of the people in the room never would have thought was possible to see again. Is there a reason you haven't replicated that kind of offering of the free streaming services along with the traditional video packages? Or is it simply a matter of timing in your programming agreements and that you'll get there along the way?

I think the way we look at it is convergence first. And obviously, for a segment of the market, video is very relevant. But we focus more on giving our customers optionality and control. So when you look at it, we've simplified our video packages just as we have with our broadband packages. So we have some skinnier bundles in our now construct, and then we have 4 linear packages that now have fees and the primary set-top box included.

Underneath that, though, we've really leaned into bundling of apps. So we had one, we call, Stream Saver app. We now have 12 and it includes anywhere between 3, 4 and 5 apps and mixes of those in those bundles, but provides a value to the customer of about 25% to 40%. So once again back to this optionality and giving the customer choice. But we also make that available not only to our video customers, but to our broadband customers as well. So it's another value component with broadband.

And when you think about WiFi, you're creating a great WiFi streaming experience, 4K, et cetera. So we provide that optionality. So I think when you really think about it, we always look at profitability by every one of our products and where do we want to invest and what drives the biggest benefit for broadband and for mobile. And that's how we look at it.

I would imagine the churn rate of customers who are in the -- those video packages, their broadband churn rate is meaningfully lower? Is that fair to assume?

Yes. It's same with the stream.

It sort of works the same way as wireless does, that the deeper the relationship, the better the churn rate.

Exactly. And what we have seen is, like I said, we have seen improvement. We had over 100,000 better in the first quarter. And I think it was -- it was our best first quarter from -- since first quarter of '19. So it's moving in the right direction, just a different approach.

Business services never quite gets the attention it deserves. There's always been a fair amount of attention and acknowledgment of your SMB business. But you're still reasonably new in the enterprise market. Can you just talk about the enterprise market for a second. And if I think about all the connectivity opportunities that are rising in data centers and what have you, how are you competing in that and even thinking about positioning for Edge inference for AI and that sort of thing?

That's great. So, amen, I agree with you 100% that it's undervalued. If you think about our overall business services segment, $10 billion of revenue, roughly $60 billion marketplace. It's approaching 25% of our connectivity revenues, running at a 55% margin, and we've been significantly outperforming our competitors and peers when it comes to growth.

And to your point, SMB, we're the largest provider of -- to SMB businesses in the country. To your point, where a lot of the momentum and growth is coming in is in the mid-market and enterprise base. And what we're really focused on there is selling solutions. Connectivity is foundational, but it's selling solutions.

And one of the metrics we look at is for every dollar of connectivity, we now sell in $0.70 of solutions. If you go back a few years, it was 1/3 of that. So it's a big area of focus. And that's where we spend a lot of our time innovating. We've taken on smaller acquisitions along the way to fill either whether it's capabilities or products that we don't have, Masergy, Nitel examples of that. So we're going to continue to drive that forward.

And our goal there is to take a much bigger share of the Fortune 500s communication spend. And we do serve most of those customers. So we have an opportunity to take more of that spend.

To the second part of your question, we're looking at a lot of different options. So I think our network and the intelligence we built in the network and how we've built our network along with -- we have thousands of edge facilities, hubs and head ends along the way. So that provides a great opportunity, to your point, to provide -- bring AI solutions closer to the customer, provide different experiences for our customers tied into that. So it's an area we're leaning into, similar with data centers and connectivity to the data center. So we're spending a lot of time in that space, but we do think that's going to be a big opportunity for us as we move forward.

You just talked about the opportunity created by the infrastructure and the plant. If I just look at your stock prices, the market believes that your infrastructure is inferior and that ultimately, I guess the narrative would be that you're going to have to eventually upgrade to fiber and HFC is going to come to the end of its life cycle. Why is that wrong?

Yes. So what I would say is if you really look at our end state, full duplex DOCSIS 4.0, there isn't anything a fiber compared to that we can from a network perspective. And you look at our network overall, it'll be ubiquitous. There's flexibility in the network, intelligence in the network. It still has active devices, which is really important as we go forward.

And if you look at overall total cost of ownership, we're in a really good spot. You start with capital, cost us about $200 of passing. So about 1/7 to 1/10 of a fiber passing as you get the drop to the side of the home.

From an operating expense perspective, maybe $1 to $2 more, but we'll take that trade-off any day because that's the power going to the active devices. And those active devices enable the intelligence that we're putting into the network. And core to that intelligence is, if you think about it, our nodes are amplifiers, all the way down to the gateway AI-capable chips and the telemetry we can build upon that. We fully virtualized the network as well. So we're looking at self-healing that's going on...

And that's really important for repair and maintenance.

Absolutely. And you look at -- yes, and you being proactive with our customers. So -- and we can predict much better than we ever have. So when you look at some of the early metrics on our end state, trouble calls are down 15%. Our time to repair is down 35%. We know exactly where the issue is. Impaired devices on the network is down 50% because we can get ahead of that and work the plant. So there's a lot of power in that.

And then with all that -- the AI that's in the network, just being able to optimize the experience -- the WiFi experience all the way down to the customer level. So there is a tremendous amount of value and power in that. So I think -- but we're 60% of the way there as we sit here today, less on the end state.

But -- and that's just with the split strategy, but not with DOCSIS 4.0.

And then DOCSIS 4.0 deployments are starting to accelerate. So you have the -- with amplifiers, we're kind of the long pole in the tent. We now have those. So we're out enabling that back to our mid-splits as well as anything new that we're building. So as we get to scale, then we'll finally be able to -- we'll market, we'll market multi-gig symmetrical. We'll be able to market the intelligence. We'll be able to market the low latency. All these things that we have yet to be able to do, which will happen as we get through the end of this year.

So I'm always fascinated in finding naturally occurring experiments that sort of point the direction of where we're going. You have a lot of your plant like every cable operator does, that's FTTH already, where you've been doing edge-outs and rural builds and...

Most of our plant is fiber as well, just not the drop.

Yes. So do you see -- if I think of the 3 cohorts of already finished with the mid-splits, already FTTH because it was built after a storm or what have you and then the rest of your plant. Are you seeing real differences in the way customers think about those geographies?

Not so much as we sit here today. And I think a lot of it is we just haven't marketed the capabilities. And so do the customers know, obviously, we let them know that, hey, mid-split's here, you've got additional downloads. So you get -- there's some slight benefits there, but it's going to be as we get out in the market. That's where it's going to really take hold.

Yes. The last question, I guess, is the one that everybody is most focused on, which is just when can you grow again and how can you grow again, make the case for how Comcast returns to being a growing or at least CNP becomes -- returns to a growing business?

Absolutely. So we're -- we've talked about it, we're in a deliberate investment cycle, right? So we invested in, a lot of rate to become much more competitive in that space. We've invested a lot on the expense side as well from a customer experience perspective, a product perspective, a go-to-market strategy perspective. So all of that with time, will lap.

But if you look at the fundamentals and the foundation is tremendous demand for broadband, right? That usage continues to grow. It's essential in people's lives, and I intermingled the terms, but really around that WiFi experience in the home. So that's a big positive for us.

And then you look at our converged strategy. We have a tremendous value proposition, differentiated both on price, but also on the experience and what we bring with WiFi and how we can differentiate that mobile experience and differentiate other products in the home with the great WiFi experiences that we've created.

Business services, we touched on, $10 billion business, great runway for growth. We're proving that we are growing in that space. So that's another significant opportunity for us.

Tied in the convergence piece is mobile, continue to penetrate mobile. And as we talked about, you add more lines in, you add more premium services. So you have a huge benefit coming in from mobile.

Another one we haven't talked a lot about, but I focused on as we came in is we're doing a better job of leveraging the totality of the company. Matt Strauss, who is the CEO of NBC Media and I have been working very, very closely together on a project we call Harmony. It's an always-on approach just to leverage all the assets in the company. You saw that a little bit with legendary February.

Yes. I was going to say legendary February is really is an interesting...

It's all the impressions we've got and how we can leverage data in different ways. So there's value in that. And then from a cost perspective, right, as we're improving the experience and all the things we're doing from a network perspective, that's taking cost out of the business. You're going to have that as a tailwind as well. And we're continuing to look at the structure of the company and just continuing to gain efficiencies and building more effectiveness along the way as well. So there's a lot there. It's -- we have a great hand, and it goes back to -- we just need to execute, but I'm confident we'll get there.

All right. Well, it's a good place to end it. I thank you for spending the time with us this morning, and I think all of us wish you great success in your new role and with the turnaround that you're trying to pull off.

Thank you. I appreciate you having me, Craig. Thank you. Great time.

Thank you.

Greetings and welcome to Comcast's First Quarter 2026 Earnings Conference Call. Please note this conference call is being recorded. I will now turn the call over to Executive Vice President, Investor Relations, Ms. Marci Ryvicker. Please go ahead, Ms. Ryvicker.

Thank you, operator, and welcome, everyone. Joining us on today's call are Brian Roberts, Mike Cavanagh, Jason Armstrong and Steve Croney. I will now refer you to Slide 2 of the presentation accompanying this call, which can also be found on our Investor Relations website and which contains our safe harbor disclaimer. This conference call may include forward-looking statements subject to certain risks and uncertainties. In addition, during this call, we will refer to certain non-GAAP financial measures. Please see our 8-K and trending schedule issued earlier this morning for the reconciliations of these non-GAAP financial measures to GAAP.

With that, I'll turn the call over to Brian.

Good morning, and thanks, Marci. We're off to a good start. We've taken a hard look at both where the market is and how we're performing and made some real changes. With our new leadership structure, Mike as Co-CEO and taking the day-to-day lead on improvements and Steve off to a fast start fully running connectivity and platforms, I really like our team. Steve has brought in key new talent and is quickly restructuring a lot of the operations. And equally important, we have better aligned everyone across the entire company around a clear set of priorities with a sense of urgency to work in harmony toward the important company-wide initiatives. We've gone top to bottom in the businesses, looking at how we operate, how we serve customers and where we need to reset.

As you'll hear from Mike, Jason and Steve, it's still early, but the initial results are encouraging. We're starting to see signs that our efforts are working, and we're shifting the businesses in the right direction. I'm also convinced that we have absolutely the best products in each of our markets. So the opportunity in front of us now is making sure customers really see that and feel it in every experience and touch point. There is a real energy across the company now to work together in different ways to take advantage of the big moments we have, whether it's the mobile launch we just announced, the Olympics, the Super Bowl or Xfinity's new membership program. These are opportunities to show up for consumers in a way that only Comcast can and connect that across all of our growth businesses. Net-net, I feel encouraged about where we are. We've got the right leaders. We're making meaningful but important improvements, and I feel good about these early results.

Mike, over to you.

Thanks, Brian, and good morning, everyone. Our focus as we begin 2026 is on executing against the priorities Brian just highlighted. We are just 1 quarter into the year, but are pleased with the progress, so let me highlight some of the first quarter achievements. First, despite what remains an incredibly intense competitive environment, broadband net losses improved by more than 100,000 year-over-year, the first year-over-year improvement since the fourth quarter of 2020. We also delivered the best wireless net additions of any quarter in our history. Together, these are early signs that the strategic pivot we've made in our connectivity business is underway.

Second, in Parks, another area of consistent and disciplined investment, we generated healthy underlying EBITDA growth driven by robust consumer demand at Epic Universe. And third, we had a real company-wide moment with legendary February. We outperformed across audience, engagement and monetization. And importantly, we leveraged this massive reach to market our connectivity products at scale, a proof point that when we really lean in, we can move the needle. Stepping back, this was our first quarter post VERSANT, and we're already seeing the benefits of a more focused portfolio. Our 6 major growth drivers now represent well over 60% of total company revenue, up from 50% when we introduced this framework 3 years ago, supported by consistent organic investment and deliberate portfolio actions, including the spin of VERSANT Media.

Now going deeper on our Connectivity & Platforms business, the competitive environment remains intense. Fixed wireless continues to market aggressively across our footprint. Fiber overbuild is moving at a rapid pace and promotional convergence offers remain elevated. We're not assuming this gets easier anytime soon. Against that backdrop, we're investing to compete effectively, whether it's against fixed wireless, fiber or any other alternative such as satellite. To do this, we're staying focused on what we can control and what matters most to consumers, exceptional connectivity powered by the most reliable WiFi, best-in-class products and a simpler, more transparent experience that's easy to buy, activate and support.

Our confidence is building in the strategy and actions that are underway, including the execution of our go-to-market shift that we amplified through the reach of our sports portfolio. We aligned the full company across Xfinity and NBCUniversal around clear offers, focused messaging and sharper targeting, and we saw that combination contribute to improved broadband and wireless performance this quarter. We also used these tent-pole moments to launch real-time 4K, a meaningful differentiator, enabling us to deliver live sports with lower latency and at a higher quality than our competitors. And we continue to see our customers consume more video online, which is driving network demand higher with monthly data usage on our network up 10% this quarter. Given the scope of the changes we've made across the business, the early signs of progress are: connect volumes are up for the first time in more than 4 years, voluntary churn continues to improve and NPS is moving in the right direction.

Customers are responding to our go-to-market strategy with roughly 40% of our residential broadband base already on our simple, transparent packaging and the majority still expected to migrate by year-end. Wireless is a central lever in our convergence strategy. It increases engagement, reduces churn and strengthens customer lifetime value. Wireless accelerated meaningfully this quarter even as the competitive environment remains intense. And we like what we're seeing both in the momentum we're generating and in the quality of the customer relationships we're building.

Our free line offer continues to perform well and is doing exactly what we intended, building awareness, increasing attachment and expanding the top of the funnel across our broadband base. We're managing that base of customers with a clear life cycle playbook focused on usage, engagement and the overall product experience with the goal of converting a meaningful portion to paid relationships starting in the second half of the year. At the same time, we're gaining traction in premium wireless.

We launched Premium Unlimited a year ago to broaden our offering for customers who want a more feature-rich mobile experience, including unlimited talk, text and data in the U.S. and internationally. Since launch, adoption has increased meaningfully. Uptake is now around 30% and the premium base is up roughly fivefold. And we're building on that momentum with Mobile+, our new premium plan we launched just yesterday. Mobile+ includes everything customers already value and adds lifetime device protection for all devices. We're the first in the industry to include this feature at no additional charge as part of the core offering, a disruptive shift away from the traditional pay-per device model used by incumbent carriers. Mobile+ strengthens our value proposition and reinforces our product and pricing advantage.

Shifting to content and experiences. Legendary February was a remarkable 17-day stretch for our Media business. More than 225 million Americans watched across the Milan Cortina Winter Olympics, Super Bowl 60 and the NBA All-Star game. That scale drove record advertising sales, roughly $2 billion over the 17 days and helped accelerate momentum at Peacock. We added 2 million net new subscribers in the quarter with revenue up more than 70%, putting Peacock on track to approach profitability for the first time next quarter. The Olympics continue to be a meaningful differentiator for us. Milan Cortina was the most watched games since Sochi, averaging 23.5 million viewers. Peacock streamed a record 16.7 billion minutes, more than double all prior winter games combined. And NBC closed out prime time #1 on the closing ceremony night, marking our 143rd consecutive Olympics night at the top. The Super Bowl averaged 125.6 million viewers, the most watched in our 100-year history and the second most watched program ever. And the NBA All-Star game delivered its largest audience since 2011 with 8.8 million viewers across NBC, Peacock and Telemundo peaking at 10 million.

Turning to Studios. We're off to an exceptional start with Nintendo and Illuminations, the Super Mario Galaxy movie, which has crossed $750 million globally, the biggest title of the year worldwide, and the franchise has now grossed $2 billion at the global box office. We have a strong lineup for the rest of the year with Steven Spielberg's Disclosure Day, Illuminations' Minions and Monsters, Christopher Nolan's the Odyssey and Universal's Fuccer & Law, among others. Lastly, at parks, Orlando continues to perform extremely well with Epic driving strong resort attendance and higher per cap spending. We're continuing to invest behind a pipeline of growth. This year, we opened Fast and Furious Hollywood Drift in Universal Hollywood and our first-ever kids park in Frisco, Texas this summer. Internationally, our U.K. park is progressing through final planning approvals as site stabilization begins, and we're building on our strength in Japan with immersive Pokemon experiences.

With that, let me turn it over to Jason.

Thanks, Mike, and good morning, everyone. Let me start with a high-level overview of our consolidated results and then get into more detail on our businesses. Before I begin, I want to note we recently issued updated pro forma trending schedules, which we filed in early March. The most significant change is the removal of VERSANT from our financials, along with a few smaller updates within Connectivity & Platforms and Content & Experiences. As a result, when I refer to our results today, all year-over-year comparisons will be presented on a pro forma basis.

In the first quarter, revenue increased 11%, in part benefiting from NBCUniversal's highly successful airing of the Milan Cortina Winter Olympics and the Super Bowl. Excluding these events, revenue was up low single digits. As we've discussed, this is an investment period for us. We continue to execute our broadband go-to-market pivot and customer experience improvements with the goal of stabilizing our customer base and returning the category to revenue growth over time. At the same time, we're absorbing the full cost of the first year of the new NBA contract in Content & Experiences, and this quarter included the peak dilution from that. As a result, adjusted EBITDA declined 9%. Earnings per share were $0.79, and we generated $3.9 billion of free cash flow in the quarter, of which we returned $2.5 billion to shareholders, including $1.25 billion in share repurchases.

Now turning to our businesses and starting with Connectivity & Platforms. Before diving deeper into the results, I wanted to begin with a high-level overview and share some perspective on the direction we're heading. As we've consistently emphasized, we made a decisive and strategic pivot in this business to position ourselves more competitively within the evolving broadband market. This transformation hasn't just been about minor tweaks. It's been a comprehensive shift. We prioritize simple and transparent pricing. We've dialed up our investments in both current and future customer experience. and double down to ensure our network and product offerings remain best in class.

Another significant change has been how we're leveraging wireless to support and enhance broadband, far more expansively than we have in the past. The encouraging news is that the early indications suggest this pivot is not only gaining traction, but is absolutely the right move. Our new go-to-market offerings are clearly resonating with customers. For instance, this quarter, we saw a notable improvement in broadband performance, narrowing our losses by over $100,000 versus the prior year, while simultaneously achieving record wireless net additions accompanied by a meaningful improvement in how our customers perceive and rate us as measured through Net Promoter Scores. Of course, with any major strategic shift, there are inevitable costs, simplified pricing and the inclusion of bundled free wireless lines have put pressure on broadband ARPU, and as a result, have also weighed on EBITDA growth, which is evident in our 4.7% decline this quarter.

We were transparent about this last year, flagging that these pressures would intensify into the early part of this year, including the quarter we're reporting now and some incremental pressure in the second quarter. That expectation remains unchanged. However, we anticipate some relief as we exit this year, particularly as we begin to lap the initial investment pressures and monetize the free lines at the 1-year anniversary mark of the start of our Freeline rollout. Looking ahead, like others in the industry, a key metric for success is increasingly shifting toward consumer purchase intentions around bundled broadband and wireless offerings. To support this, you'll notice in the trending schedules we published in March, we started to break out wireless revenue into service and equipment revenue. And we're now grouping broadband revenue and wireless service revenue together into a new convergence revenue view. Our convergence ARPA, or average revenue per account currently stands at roughly $85. For context, our telecom competitors are roughly double this amount on the same metric. This really underscores the significant growth opportunity in front of us, especially as we stabilize broadband and look to accelerate growth through wireless.

Now let's get into more details on the quarter, starting with broadband. Broadband subscriber losses improved by 117,000 year-over-year to 65,000. This improvement reflects traction from our new go-to-market strategy, including improved connects year-over-year, lower voluntary churn, a step-up in take rates on gig plus speeds and the continued uptake of our free wireless line offer. In addition, we leaned into the unique moment that legendary February created across our company by amplifying Xfinity brand awareness on a national platform with particular emphasis on gig speeds and our 5-year price guarantee. We estimate these specific offers accounted for over half of our year-over-year improvement in subscriber losses.

Broadband ARPU declined 3.1%. This is consistent with the pressure we signaled on our fourth quarter call, and reflects the absence of a rate increase at the beginning of the year, our new go-to-market pricing, including the legendary February offers and the impact from strong adoption of free wireless lines, which initially has a dilutive impact on broadband ARPU. We expect incremental pressure on broadband ARPU for another quarter until we start to anniversary early go-to-market transition efforts as well as the impact of free lines starting to roll into paying relationships which will happen in greater volumes as we exit this year.

Convergence revenue declined 2.8% with convergence ARPA down 0.8%, reflecting the pressure on broadband revenue and partially offset by 15% growth in wireless service revenue. We added 435,000 net wireless lines, our strongest quarter on record with nearly half of our residential postpaid phone connects coming from customers taking a free line. We're deliberately leaning in as our free line offer expands awareness and ultimately widens the base of customers we can drive into paying relationships. We also continue to see a strong uptake in our new premium unlimited wireless plans, accounting for about 30% of our postpaid phone connects reinforcing that we're competing effectively in the higher-value segment of the wireless market. We ended the quarter with 9.7 million total lines at 16% penetration of our domestic residential broadband customer base. Looking ahead, in the second half of the year, many of the free lines will come up for monetization Early engagement and usage trends are encouraging in that respect, and we expect to convert the significant majority of free lines into paying relationships, which should provide a tailwind to Convergence revenue and ARPA growth over time.

Turning to Business Services. Revenue grew 6% and EBITDA increased 4%. Growth continues to be driven by strong momentum at our Enterprise Solutions business as we add customers and deepen our relationships through a strong mix of advanced solutions. And looking ahead, we're excited to expand our business mobile relationships through the launch of our T-Mobile MVNO, which adds another differentiated capability to the portfolio as we compete for business customers at every level. In content and experiences, there are a few items I'd like to highlight. At Theme Parks, we delivered another quarter of strong growth with revenue up 24% and EBITDA increasing 33%. Adjusting for the roughly $100 million of preopening costs at Epic in last year's first quarter, Parks' EBITDA grew over 7%. Under the hood, we had very strong growth in Orlando, where Epic continues to drive higher per cap spending in attendance across the entirety of the resort. We are really pleased with Epic's performance since its launch. It's expanding the overall guest experience and helping to position Universal Orlando as a true weeklong destination. Partially offsetting strong growth in Orlando is some pressure at our other parks. Specifically, in Osaka, we're seeing some impact from China-related inbound travel trends, which is putting pressure on attendance. And in Beijing, we're navigating a more challenging macroeconomic environment.

Turning to media. Revenue increased over 60%, including strong contributions from the Milan Cortina Winter Olympics and the Super Bowl, which together drove $2.2 billion of incremental revenue. Excluding those events, Media revenue growth remained strong, up 13%, driven by 21% growth in distribution and 5% growth in advertising. The strong growth in distribution was driven by Peacock with paid subscribers of $5 million year-over-year and $2 million sequentially, reaching $46 million. In advertising, underlying demand remains solid, supported by a record upfront and a strong sports lineup, including the NBA. In the second quarter, we'll continue to benefit from sports, including the NBA playoffs and the FIFA World Cup on Telemundo and Peacock.

Media EBITDA was a loss of $426 million, consistent with the dilution we've been expecting in the first season of the NBA as we straight line the amortization of these rights with quarterly seasonality driven by game counts. The first quarter was the peak volume with about 50% of the games played and the corresponding costs flowing through. So as a result, this quarter represents our peak EBITDA dilution from NBA costs. This dynamic flowed through to Peacock as well, where EBITDA losses were $432 million. Importantly, we expect the set up to improve from here, with second quarter reflecting a meaningful inflection point with Peacock expected to approach profitability. So stepping back, the first quarter was the high watermark for NBA-related dilution for media, and we feel good about the direction from here. At Studios, we had really strong growth this quarter. This was in large part driven by content licensing deals led by the successful renewal of the office on Peacock. While that benefits Studios this quarter, it drives larger eliminations at the C&E level.

Now let me wrap up with free cash flow and capital allocation. In the first quarter, we generated $3.9 billion of free cash flow. We did that while continuing to invest meaningfully across our businesses, including broadband go-to-market pivot and customer experience work in connectivity, further strengthening our domestic broadband network and onboarding the NBA. Stepping back, our capital allocation framework has been and will continue to be balanced and consistent. With the VERSANT spend now complete, our portfolio is more streamlined, and our capital priorities continue to start with investing organically behind our growth drivers. We ended the quarter at 2.3x net leverage. Just as a reminder, leverage is calculated on a 12-month trailing basis. So as VERSANT exits the calculation over the course of this year, we expect leverage will tick up a bit. And as I said last quarter, our intention is to bring leverage back to 2.3x. And we continue strong capital returns to shareholders. This quarter, we returned $2.5 billion, including $1.25 billion of share repurchases and $1.2 billion of dividends. And over the past 12 months, we've returned $11 billion to shareholders, which includes a significant and well above market dividend yield, along with strong and methodical share count reduction. This balanced approach has served us well, and it continues to guide how we allocate capital as we execute through this transition period.

With that, let me turn it over to Marci for Q&A.

Thanks, Jason. Operator, let's open the call for Q&A, please.

[Operator Instructions] Our first question today is coming from Craig Moffett from MoffettNathanson.

I guess the obvious place to start is with broadband. Your broadband ARPU rate of decline actually moderated sequentially a little bit. I wonder if you could just elaborate a little bit on how much lower do you think broadband ARPU might have to go to maintain the kind of stabilization that you've seen? And then if you could just broaden the lens perhaps just to talk about where the improvement came from, was it relative to FWA? Was it relative to fiber? Was it relative to all of the above?

Craig, it's Steve. Thank you for the question. As Jason said and we previously have highlighted, broadband ARPU pressure would intensify in the early part of the year. We do see some incremental pressure in Q2, but we do expect relief as we exit the year, and we talked about it. The primary drivers of the decline include the absence of a broadband rate increase, free wireless lines and migration to our simplified pricing I talked about it earlier, we were not competitive enough. We need to adapt our approach and pivot the business, and our focus is on getting to the other side of as soon as possible. We'll talk about a few of the areas where we see improvement. Our continued mix shift to higher speed tiers. We're seeing a significant improvement in our gig plus tier speed mix. Our higher mobile attachment, '25 was our best year in mobile net adds -- line net adds that we've had and it's our -- Q1 was our largest quarterly net adds on record. And we're seeing the early cohorts of our free line conversion, and we expect significant majority of those to convert to paid relationships that will accelerate in the back half of the year. Mike touched on in his script, we've launched new premium products, and we're very happy with the sell in there on the mobile side. And we do maintain our pricing flexibility. So we can adjust the rate and acquisition pricing as the market evolves, and we're lapping the period and we will have a period of elevated transactional activity tied to plan migrations, and we expect those volumes to normalize over time and that will reduce our dilution going forward. So I think we will see improvement as we exit the year this year.

And in reference to your second question, overall, I touched on it in the last call, 4 key objectives I'm focused on. It's improving broadband performance year-over-year driving higher mobile penetration, creating better customer outcomes and returning to revenue and EBITDA growth. And we're really encouraged by Q1. We did see benefit across all of our competitive environments, and we did see both tech and disconnects improve. Jason highlighted, though, half of the about -- a little over half of the improvement was tied to our investment in Legendary February. That was a unique opportunity for us, and we really took advantage of it. But foundationally, our new pricing and packaging is resonating, and we're supported by clear messaging, better creative, driving greater awareness across our prospects and our base. And definitely, we're leaving no stone unturned. I'm challenging everything we're pushing hard. A few examples of that are, we're leveraging our data more effectively than we ever have; we're using AI to improve transactional outcomes; we're currently running hundreds of models with thousands of attributes to optimize our acquisition or upsell or win back our retention; and we're enhancing our marketing tech stack to enable greater customization and personalization, leveraging those models to drive better outcomes.

We'll continue to focus on the customer experience, and we're driving improvements across the entire customer life cycle that includes simplified buy flows, simplifying our activation, focusing on same-day order to activation with broadband, improving our unassisted channels, taking out customer effort and continuing to improve reliability across the entire network and very, very pleased with the results where we've upgraded the network. So we're seeing early and measurable progress in NPS. And we're also hyper focused on sales effectiveness. We hired a new head of sales, and that individuals focused on sales development, training staffing models, compensation models and tools and once again, pleased with the early results there. So I'd say in summary, we're building a more stable customer base with our new pricing and packaging. We're seeing higher gig tier mixes, accelerating mobile attach and higher NPS, all of which will benefit us into the future.

Steve, that's super helpful. Can you just comment on the FWA versus fiber part of that?

Yes. Like I said, we saw improvement across all of our competitive environment.

And Craig, I would just add to that, I think to step way up, the improvements equal parts, execution and then leveraging the totality of this company. On the execution side, as Steve said, I said in prepared remarks, our connect activity was better, our churn activity was better, customer perception of us was better. So all sort of taking place in the quarter are expected to repeat, amplifying across the company through legendary February, that a little bit more of a one-off event. We'll obviously look for opportunities to do that again in the future, but nonetheless, put the full weight of the company behind us in the quarter.

Next question is coming from Michael Rollins from Citigroup.

I'm curious if you could expand further on some of the success you're seeing in wireless in terms of kind of moving up into larger families, you mentioned the business opportunity that's coming up with new MVNO. And also just within this context, what is Comcast doing to simplify the migration process for customers. And if carriers start to pull back on subsidies, your competitors do less on that. Does that help you get a better hit rate to move customers over to Xfinity Mobile?

Good question, Mike. I strongly believe we have the right to compete and win when it comes to mobile. We have 2 strong MVNOs covering consumer and broadband. We have largest converged footprint. We have the nation's largest WiFi network. We've talked about it. We offload about 90% of XM traffic, and we have lower acquisition costs because we're selling to our base. continued operational focus, Q1 was great. Our largest line net add quarter since launch. We've really rallied the organization around mobile. And this has helped create awareness within the organization. We're mobile-led and really helping with our sales effectiveness. We're also doing a much better job in life cycle management. So we're selling more to our existing customer base. We're selling more to our mobile customer base. About 30% of our connects line net adds are coming from existing mobile customers adding more mobile lines, which is really important for us. We're focused on continuing to improve the customer experience. We have a long way to go here, but we've made great strides improving the customer experience once again, across the entire customer life cycle. And has been the case the last few quarters, about 50% of our lime connects are free lined, and we're really, really pleased, as I touched on the last question with the early retention rates for that free line roll-off.

And then on top of that, have the TMO MVNO, which will be launched in the near future, bringing mobile availability to our mid-market and enterprise customer base. So -- and then in reference to your question on the subsidy side, we primarily compete on price and value. So really, really focused there. And we will use subsidies selectively, new product launches, key moments. But that's an area that we'll continue to watch and target -- also target throughout the customer life cycle. And then the last one, which Mike touched on a bit, is our premium plans. So we launched that about a year ago. And we really were not competing well for those that wanted to feature rich product. And we've done a great job. About 30% of our connects are premium customers. And as of yesterday, we launched a new premium plan that has device protection included. We think that's a significant differentiator. No one else in the marketplace is doing that. So not only will it help our premium upsell, it should also help our conversion rates when it comes to mobile. So overall, when you look at it, I think our MVNO relationships, it's a capital-efficient model, we have a cost structure that supports profitable value proposition and it's really resonating with our customers. And with about 16% penetration, we have a long runway ahead of us, I'm very bullish.

And it's Mike. I'll just pile on. I think if you look at the journey over multiple years in mobile, it's been a steady compounding effect basically of improving products from -- by the gig and a focus on a certain type of household at the beginning to now, we're fully competitive right up to the top of the need of a household at the higher end. Plus the passage of time, I think and Steve's bringing the focus to the whole organization of attaching mobile and using free lines and being hyper focused as we're in this year of the processes and life cycle management, they mentioned to make sure we do a great job converting to paid because, as you said, once we see that happening, we're doing a nice job getting paid mobile customers to add more lines down the road. So that all is -- this is not a fleeting moment for us these past few years. I think we've been steadily building and letting the effect of our progress in mobile compound itself and it's going to continue to be a big area of focus for Steve and his team going forward.

Our next question is coming from John Hodulik from UBS.

Two, if I may. Maybe first for Steve. From Jason's comments, it sounds like after the benefit of the year-over-year improvement in broadband subs is due to the sort of legendary sea promotions and the half was sort of organic based on some of the efforts you've had. If we expect those efforts to sort of gain more traction through the year. Can we expect the high-speed data subscriber losses for the year to improve versus last year? That's my first question. And then second, maybe for Brian. We spent about a year talking about media consolidation. But I think the conversations have shifted towards cable consolidation. Just what are your thoughts on the potential landscape and maybe regulatory framework and sort of just backdrop on further consolidation in the cable industry. .

Thanks for the question, John. Yes, I would say we do expect improvement year-over-year, but more than half of the benefit in Q1 was tied into the legendary February. We really leaned into that from a marketing investment and an offer investment. It was like I said, it was a great moment, and we took advantage of it.

Let me start and maybe Mike wants to -- this is Brian, jump in as well. Look, really pleased, as I said in my opening, with the energy, I think you can feel it in the team the broadband business, I think, frankly, we've corrected and perhaps way too much negativity. So I think we have a great company and we're going to operate even better in the months and quarters ahead. That's the plan of record. Part of that is believing in the assets you've got, we've made the change with VERSANT, and I think we feel really good about and comfortable. But as we said on the last call, and I think we've always thought if we can find ways to create shareholder value, the bar is high, but we're always focused on looking at those kind of creative situations. And -- but that said, I also just really do like the direction of the company and don't want to create a lot of distraction. But Mike, what are your thoughts?

Yes, I think you said it. I think the opportunity we have, given the negativity around the cable segment and the changes we've made and the progress we're seeing and the road map we see ahead, I think, is a rich path to drive value. I think we're undervalued, frankly, and the negativity on the business is something we need to work on changing people's sentiment towards a period full stop. And I think doing that by continuing to run the play that Steve just articulated really well is Plan A. I think, in addition to that, we've got plenty of opportunities and have worked with others in the industry to partner around video or mobile or otherwise. So there are ways to benefit ourselves through scale in partnership terms, and we're open to doing that. And then ultimately, there's always bigger ideas that, as Brian said, open to strategic possibilities to create value. But we've got -- the focus is really on what we can do ourselves and the list is long, and we're underway on that.

Our next question is coming from Jessica Reif Ehrlich from Bank of America Securities.

I guess turning to NBCU. As you also said, your assets are more streamlined following diverse spend, and you've locked in basically all major sports charge like everything at this point. So as you look at your key assets in Universal Studios, Peacock, Theme Parks, they all seem strategically very important. How are you thinking about allocating capital across these assets [indiscernible], what gives you confidence the returns will become more visible in your consolidated earnings over time? And you said Peacock will be profitable next quarter. But is that -- should we expect consistent profitability?

Sure. It's Mike, Jessica. So I think zooming out, I think we feel great about NBCUniversal, both it's -- how it's set up post VERSANT with each business that's within it, Parks, Studios and Media set up to be growers. It's our -- you look at parks, and we're really pleased with the big initiative last year was Epic. And ahead of us is a U.K. park and the expansions of the kids parks in the U.S. and more to come. So I think the creative plans inside our Parks business to keep driving growth, and that's one of our 6 important growth drivers is a good one, and we love that business, and we'll allocate -- recycle the capital that they create back into the business over time. to keep growing that business and creating value above our cost of capital. So no question that, that's a leader.

Commented on Parks earlier -- I mean, on Studios earlier in the script, in the call. I think we're off to a great start with Mario, and we've got several great further movies coming out the rest of this year. We've been #2 in the box office, top 2 for the last 3 years, and I expect that to continue under the great leadership that we have, and that's a part of the flywheel of creating franchises and feeding parks. And fits right into what makes a media company great alongside parks.

And then on the Media side, now that we are post VERSANT in first quarter out of the gates, we are very, very focused on making that business a business that the combination of NBC Broadcast and Peacock. And as Jason said, Peacock should approach profitability in the second quarter. And then because of our straight-line amortization of NBA rights as we look to the next season, so to speak, of NBA lapping itself I think the prospect for ongoing and durable profitability for Peacock is what we have our sights set on. And that, combined with really putting it together with the linear media business in is how we're going to manage the media business going forward is what is the revenue opportunity as we look at consumers and what they're willing to pay across the landscape that they're faced with, how broadcast sustains, which I think we feel very pleased when you look at the power broadcast in this legendary February and what it means to marry great broadcast together with a stream platform like Peacock.

So I think there's obviously work to do on all those fronts. But I think we have a very elegantly designed media business where we've gotten it focused to 3 parts, Parks, Studios and Media that are going to work together for years to come, and we're going to be focused on driving value and putting capital to work against the opportunities that we have there.

Next question is coming from Sean Diffley from Morgan Stanley.

You had alluded to satellite being kind of a new thing to be concerned about. I was curious if you could compare and contrast the fixed wireless learnings versus the satellite learnings. Do you expect that to change meaningfully the way that regulators could look at the definition of the market? And to John's question earlier, potentially have a more favorable view of larger scale M&A in the cable sector.

Thanks for the question, Sean. Our assumption is that the market will stay highly competitive, fiber, fixed wireless and now satellite is getting more promotional. And what we focus on is what we can control and what matters for the customer anchored by the following. We have a great network that is on par with fiber and it does exceed the capabilities of fixed wireless and satellite, both of which are capacity constrained. We're focused on price value. Our new go-to-market strategy and free wireless lines is really resonating in the marketplace. We have a differentiated WiFi experience that ranks #1 for reliability in our footprint, hugely important for the customer. and we're improving the customer experience. But the tremendous amount of focus that we have, we are taking a vulnerability and I believe, creating an opportunity in an area where we can win.

If you take it from the customer's lens, what the customer is solving for is broadband is a product that's incredibly relevant to their lives, with consumption growing about 10% year-over-year, and that lends itself to prioritizing a WiFi experience that leans into speed and reliability. And we stack up incredibly well there. Other customers don't prioritize simplicity. And this is where Fixed Wireless did really well. They changed the game on ease of install, simple pricing. As I touched on earlier, that's exactly where we've been investing. And I see no reason why we can't win there as well. So to me, if you put all these together, I feel we have a great hand. We either have a leadership position or we have a path to a leadership position on the things that matter most to our customers, and that is how we intend to compete, no matter who the competitor is.

Okay. Well, this is Brian. Let me just -- on the second part of that question. Look, I think what makes -- what you count on us to do is to reevaluate the market, the technology and the landscape. And I think as the government, we'll perhaps do that based on what actually happens here in the years ahead. That's why we have -- that's what we've done for 50 years. And it makes it interesting and intellectually an opportunity to see this changing landscape, what opportunities that open up for the company and what's real, what's not real. So I think what matters most of what Steve just said. And again, I echo I think he's off to a fabulous start with the team in being -- trying to control the things we can control, and that's making our customer experience better and making sure we have the absolute best product in as many customers' homes as possible. And then we'll see where the market evolves to and what doors that opens and what situation that creates. But we're hopeful that through that changing landscape, the last 50 years, we've managed to position the company in a place where we can grow, where relevant, we can return capital to shareholders, all the things Jason said. So first order of business is make sure we execute really well. That's what's so important about this quarter.

Next question today is coming from Sebastiano Petti from JPMorgan.

I guess just given some of the headlines we're seeing on a macro basis and consumer sentiment kind of at all-time lows. Just any color you might be seeing domestically in the parks or from maybe some of your ad partners if you're sensing any tone shift perhaps in the economic weakness is that translating to [indiscernible], et cetera? I know you did talk about Epic driving higher attendance and per caps. And then maybe just more of a housekeeping question. I think, Mike, in your prepared remarks, you did say fiber builds are accelerating. Obviously, you see all the announcements out there from your competitors, not surprising, but any update in terms of where you guys stand today, perhaps on a fiber overlap basis across your residential footprint?

Sure, Sebastiano. So I think in terms of the macro and the geopolitical and how it's affecting our domestic business, Jason commented on some of the impacts on international parks of just changing in travel patterns. And I think the inbound international travel to the U.S. parks is something that has not ever gotten back to the level we saw pre-COVID. So those are -- those factors continue to exist. I think inside the U.S., domestic to domestic, we haven't yet seen any significant impact in the parks business caused by higher oil, but I think that does not mean that it may not happen depending on the duration of the effect on price of gas and the like and airline tickets and so forth. So more to come, but thus far, not seeing a pullback of any level that's concerning in the current results. But like I said, that we'll see what the coming quarters look like and pretty much the same on the advertising side. We felt, obviously, had an excellent quarter just finished on the advertising front best ever. And so I think the underneath it, aside from the special events that we had during the quarter, it was strong advertising results at a baseline level. And as we sit here now, that's sustained.

In reference I just want to comment that the compelling nature of the Olympics pulls forward our relationship with advertisers, obviously, the same for NFL Sunday and the Super Bowl. So as we look forward to L.A., and we've got tremendous enthusiasm and excitement for how that could also keep the ecosystem very, very robust. It's -- we have a good road map ahead of us. In reference to the second part of your question, about 55%.

Operator, we have time for one last question.

Our final question today is coming from Michael Ng from Goldman Sachs.

I just wanted to ask about the wireless line to paid strategy in the second half. First, could you just talk a little bit about what you've seen in the free line roll-offs to date and the strategy that gives you the confidence in the successful conversion later this year. And then second, I was just wondering if you could talk about the related impact from the wireless monetization strategy on broadband subscriber trends. Could this also help broadband ARPU stabilize later this year?

Yes. So in reference to the wireless free line to paid strategy. We're early in that role. But as I mentioned, we're really focused on life cycle management, managing those customers all the way throughout. And in the early cohorts, we've seen a significant majority of those customers rolling to paid. So we're -- we feel that will continue as we move forward and more of the lines roll in the back half of the year. And yes, it will have a direct impact on broadband ARPU based on revenue recognition as those lines rolled to paid in the back half of the year, and that will be a tailwind.

Thank you, Mike. That now ends our call. Thank you, everyone, for joining us this morning.

Thanks, everybody.

Thank you. That does conclude today's question-and-answer session and today's conference call. A replay of the will be made available starting at 11:30 a.m. Eastern Time today on Comcast Investor Relations website. Thank you for participating. You may all disconnect.

All right. Good morning. I'm Ben Swinburne, Morgan Stanley's telecom, cable and media analyst. For important disclosures, please see the Morgan Stanley research disclosure website at morganstanley.com/researchdisclosures.

And I'm really excited to welcome this morning here, day 2 of TMT, Mike Cavanagh, Co-CEO of Comcast, previously served as Comcast CFO, shaping the company's strategy, capital allocation and operating discipline across connectivity and NBCUniversal. Mike, thanks for being here.

Great to be here. I guess it's our last garage together in this format, some other format maybe.

Absolutely.

Congrats, by the way.

Thank you very much. Thank you very much. So why don't we start? You guys just wrapped up a very big month for the company. In February, we were just chatting about the Olympics backstage. When you step back, what do the Olympics mean for the company, both strategically and kind of culturally?

Sure. The stats are fantastic, and we issued enough press releases that I won't rattle any of that off TL. But to answer the question, I mean, we feel it's so important to us as a company, given the incredible effort it takes across the whole company, which I don't think most people appreciate. So when you have an outcome like we had, and it's broader than the Olympics, it's the full month of February with Super Bowl, Olympics and NBA All-Star game having the NBA back and a couple of NBA games sprinkled in at the beginning and the end.

And so what do I mean by that? I'd start with tech and distribution. At our core or at our origin, we're a broadband and video distribution company. And the Olympics ended up streaming 17 billion minutes on Peacock. No known big -- no glitches it worked, right? It worked multiple streams. It was an amazing feat over the course of the month, all done, like I said, back to back to back. The whole month was going from one huge event, Super Bowl on to Olympics with 6,000 hours, I think it was. And then again, NBA All-Star. So the fact that it worked, I think, speaks to we know how to do this stuff. We have both worked with Comcast and the outreach we have to the broader ecosystem of ISPs and other distributors to sort of make sure that we can make it all work, which I think is an advantage that our company has and brings to the party.

What we also did is to take advantage of that for the benefit of the cable side, we did something real-time 4K, which was sort of an end-to-end from NBC Sports production all the way through to Comcast cable network, increasing compression playing around to make sure that we could deliver 4K at the least latency for the viewer because as Chris -- at Charter with some of the things they're doing, I mean, as a broadband company, the more we can drive high data flow, higher resolution reasons for low latency, I think that is going to benefit the business over time. So on the tech side, it's a very big deal.

And then, of course, the X1, I was speaking to one of the technicians in the back who was making me up and said he's been a Comcast customer for 30 years, I asked about the X1 remote and the like. X1 households, 85% watched Olympics, and there was a 76% lift per Nielsen in viewing of -- versus the nationwide average. So it just goes to how we can present people's content in a way.

I'd say the second thing is just the unbelievable level of sports production and storytelling, Mike Tirico and the Gold Zone, the team we have that does research on -- to create the story arcs for all the athletes is all an amazing feat. Then you bring in to broaden it out for interest beyond just sports fans. You've got Snoop's and the Stanley Tucci doing food and culture. And it all makes these events as big as it turned out to be. And I think the final piece is just the marketing of it all. It is an unbelievable marketing job.

We were just talking 5 weeks ago, say, 2 weeks before the Olympics started, were you thinking, did you have your mind on spending as much time as you did or that the country did consuming Olympics? And the answer is sort of no. So you could say, hey, that's a worry, but why did it work out that way? Well, our relay from Super Bowl to Olympics to create 9 billion promotional impressions. So using those for the benefit of promoting the next thing in the calendar sports wise, but also promoting entertainment content on Peacock, for example, where we had over the 2 weeks of the Olympics, there was more -- 52% of the video consumption on Peacock was entertainment nonsports. So it just goes to show when you're promoting what's there off the back of some of these big events, it does benefit there.

And obviously, we leaned in and had a limited time offer really on the broadband side as we pivot in our go-to-market strategy and feathered Comcast in with our Jurassic spot in the Super Bowl and some of the company-wide Olympic stuff together with the go-to-market. So all of that, I think, is what -- why we're so proud of it. But it's also very much the impact that it has when we sit down with major partners, whether they be sports leagues or otherwise, they know what we do. We have Mike Tirico come to a meeting, have Molly Solomon, who does production, have Jenny Storms, who did that marketing promotion, have our technicians on the production side and network. And you know what you're getting when you are partnering with Comcast because we can bring the whole company together. So that was an important month. Thanks for asking about it.

Absolutely. So I think Brian was here last year. It's been a lot of change in the last year. You are now co-CEO of the company. Congratulations. You've also been repositioning. As you mentioned, the connectivity business, you spun out Versant to your shareholders. If you step back, how do you see the company's position, growth potential today? And what should investors expect to remain constant when we think about your strategy and capital allocation and what might change?

Sure. I think that is the more things change, the more they stay the same, I guess, is one. Let's start with what's not going to be different. I mean I think Brian and I worked together for 10-plus years. I mean we believe strongly in the culture of the company, the bias to be entrepreneurial going back to his dad and innovate like we just discussed, the ambition of the company, the strategy writ large, but strategy is constantly evolving. So much is going to be the same.

And I'd say what I'm going to be spending my time on might be of the moment is very much about driving a pace of change and urgency of around all that we have really set up. I mean I think we have great future prospects, but not if we don't really get after it in a very much blocking and tackling way. So what does that look like? I'd say that to me, it's leadership, getting the right people on the field in all the key positions and being willing to mix it up to make sure there's not plaque buildup, so to speak, in the way we operate so we can move fast.

Steve Croney is an example of that, but I think there's a new leader of the cable business who's off to a big start. I heard him on the earnings call. You see more of him as time passes but change agent knows the business, detail-oriented, leading a lot of the moves that we're making, soup to nuts in that business. I think then you go beyond that, what we'll be driving is the new go-to-market strategy in the cable side, big important set the business up for the long term with a simplified, more transparent pricing. We'll get into it down the road, but that's underway, but we have to follow through on that.

Third, I guess, would be the push into wireless, very important and again, underway and organized the right way. We'll talk more about that. I think the other thing on my mind then on the media side of the company is really parks. Epic was a huge success as we first big park of its kind in 25 years. There's more to ramp there, and there's plenty more to go in the future of the Parks business, but driving on that front media. I think Versant was a move most people didn't see us deciding to do. But I think the media question segment is really about dealing with linear decline. And I think deciding that those assets weren't core to our strategy and freeing them up to pursue their own path is something important that we'll continue down the path of managing media in a holistic way.

And finally, Peacock. I think there's a lot of focus on taking Peacock. We made substantial P&L improvement again this past year, $700 million, and we've said that we'll see significant progress again this year despite having NBA. And so I think as your question teed up, I think we're marching on a path towards getting Peacock to profitability sooner than later. So when you put all that together, I think that's the cadence that we're operating at together, Brian and I.

Great. So touched on a lot of stuff there. We'll touch on all of those things in more detail. So let's start with Broadband. That's probably investors' #1 focus when it comes to Comcast. You're dealing with fiber overbuilds, fixed wireless and a more promotional market. What are the changes you and Steve and the connectivity team are making to really improve the results of that business?

Sure. Well, we've talked about it before. There's the network, there's the product and experience. Network, we feel very confident in our network of today and the network we're going to have tomorrow. It is -- already handles tremendous volume. We talked about some of that, that we have and so there is -- we give no quarter, so to speak, on the network side. It's getting more intelligent as we virtualize more in the network. It's allowing us to pinpoint customer needs and super serve as time passes. So that's one piece.

Second piece is product. That's where I think we excel. We wake up as a broadband company every day. Some of our overbuild competitors wake up thinking about other things as a priority. So our push into lighting up the home, connecting more devices seamlessly to our network, having the best WiFi, which we do, taking more offload onto our network through devices than the industry broadly. All those things are -- it's our wheelhouse to make sure the product is excellent, not just in connectivity, but everything that surrounds connectivity. And so I think the real place where we had work to do, and I think our changes that Steve is leading is really around the experience side.

We had pricing that was less transparent and more harder to engage with for the consumer with difficult -- more difficulty getting product onboarded than the new competition, particularly fixed wireless brought. So revamping much simpler go-to-market, more all-inclusive is all part of addressing that. So that's a big move on that score. And then general ease of doing business. We've got a lot of work going on to really do root cause work, relying on agents, AI agents to really work through internal systems to serve the customer better and avoid churn that comes from tougher experiences across legacy systems. That is also going to come from the fact that we've simplified the business. There's a whole raft of effort going into positioning the business for the future.

And as you guys work through that transformation and repositioning. Do you think about fixed wireless and fiber competition differently? Are you segmenting your approach? Or how do you think about the 2 competitive?

Well, everything I just described, I think, is going to help across all segments. So the good news is that there's -- that's the starting point. But yes, I'd say when you think about fixed wireless, it's a durable -- well, all competition is intense, and we see it staying that way for a while. Fixed wireless, net adds may be stabilizing a little bit, but we'll see. I think that is not a space that telcos are going to give up on so easily. So we expect there to be ongoing pressure there. But what we've now done is really studied the playbook carefully. And the playbook was super simple pricing, easy setup and install and a very basic service that kind of worked did what it was supposed to do.

And I think our new go-to-market at the lower end tier with more inclusive and our go-to-market offer, I think, has really gone at that segment of the market in a way that we weren't as aggressive dealing with, say, a year ago. And what's more, I think on fixed wireless, we know where they live, right? So we know who is with us and when they left. We know in those neighborhoods how fixed wireless might be scaling, where there might be prone to opportunities to do win backs and bring the offers to market. So I think that for the portion of the market that's served by fixed wireless, hopefully, because of all the things we're doing to drive more need for higher capacity and speed and latency, we have -- we are changing the game so that more people want our higher product, but we are very squarely in the game of being more aggressive in competition against fixed wireless.

And on the fiber side, we always expected in the bulk of our markets to face fiber competition. And that's really why we're doing, all we're doing in the earlier question to make the network. And I don't think there'll be any concession on our part to say that we aren't going to compete very strongly against fiber. We've seen that when we've been -- when we've seen overbuild markets, we have the early impact that ultimately settles into stable ARPUs, stable -- a roughly equal split of market shares. And with all we're doing that I just described, that's only going to get better. And again, we wake up as a broadband company every day and making sure we're positioned well to fight that fight. That won't change the fact that there's still overbuilt to come, and that has to be allowed, so to speak, to happen.

But in the long run, we expect it to be a 2-wire market and most markets don't really see the big telcos overbuilding each other. There's markets where there's some other competition, but it doesn't really make sense, especially the way they're coming to market pricing and otherwise that they're ever going to be more than one big telco, which creates dynamics for how they're going to compete against us where we have ubiquity across our footprint with our MVNO and our ability to deliver upgraded speeds and plans as we roll out better networks.

And Mike, you touched on the network a couple of times, but I wanted to just spend a minute on the sort of network evolution. I think you're sort of in process of executing on getting to symmetric gigabit speeds, DOCSIS 4.0. Where are you on that upgrade? And are you seeing any indication that where you have upgraded that the business is performing better competitively?

So to start with, as I was just saying, the network we have today is a high-powered network, delivering gig-plus speeds across the full footprint. And again, married with the MVNO, we are the converged player up to date across the widest market anywhere. We handle massive 900 gigs a month on average, 35-plus devices. The one is growing around 10% a year roughly. The other is growing at 40% a year roughly. So we're handling, the network of today is very robust. The path that we're on is, again, a capital-efficient path to FDX, a full symmetrical multi-gig up and down, which is -- the path to that is mid-splits. We're about 60% done with mid-splits. And then thereafter, we do a full upgrade to FDX. The markets, the subset of that where we are full FDX, yes, we have seen repair calls, repair minutes and customer problems, customer dropping significant double digits. And so in the fullness of time, we'll be pushing that message across the base as we hit higher levels of penetration.

You say 35 devices per home?

Yes. Refrigerators -- go count them up. You'll be surprised.

I'm sure you're right.

And don't turn everything off because there's just FBI can find you if you walk into somebody's house and there's a refrigerator picks you up as I've learned from some recent investors.

Good advice. Good advice to see. I want to make sure we also touch on wireless. And in particular, there's an expectation in the market that some of the -- a lot of the free lines you've been adding as part of your new go-to-market are going to roll to pay later this year, be revenue accretive. That's obviously important to your strategy. Can you talk about the opportunity in wireless and sort of how you think about that promo roll off later this year?

Sure. I think the -- it is important. I think we've got a big opportunity. We have a right to win given the connectivity player we are on the broadband side. I think the MVNO is a strong, durable MVNO that allows us to have a right to win in the connectivity space -- in the converged space. So the challenge is how do you get and we've already ramped the business. Last year was our best year. We added 1.5 million lines. We're at 9 million lines, 15% penetration. A lot of room to grow. We're profitable in the business, but we don't have to let it all drop. Part of the reason we're doing this is to help drive the broadband business. And so therefore, what do you do? And I think we're watching -- I think getting more customers exposed to the fact that the product is a high-quality product with best devices on a great leading network. So you're not giving up, but there's customer inertia.

So how do you deal with customer inertia, especially in homes with multiple devices. We're using free lines now that we're into this as a chance to get customers who haven't experienced exposed. What we see on the free lines that are out there, not yet at the roll date is very good levels of engagement. So we're very hopeful that as we hit the point where you're rolling into pay and knowing that pay means pay 25 -- there'll be a steep discount for the customer versus what the alternative would be. We're very hopeful of that, and we'll keep working it as that passes.

Once we get an active line, we then do well in getting the next line home. So 30% of our new lines last year are additional lines added to relationships where the first line was already there. So that's important. And then on the other -- in addition to that, I guess, premium unlimited, which gives you opportunity for free devices, unlimited data and the like that is set up to really be a competitor at the higher end of the market, that is new in the market and attaching really nicely as we -- especially as we're doing our new go-to-market plans. So I think we're set up to compete across the full spectrum, and it's an important growth driver, and we're just going to keep at it as time passes.

I know you're limited in what you can say about the new MVNO. We had Dan Schulman here yesterday.

We've modernized our agreements.

Modernized...

Durable profitability and good profitable growth for the both of us. There you go.

Okay. Maybe I'll kick the question. Why don't we talk about Comcast business. This is an area where you've had really consistent growth even as the residential broadband business has moderated. But there's fiber focused on that market, certainly fixed wireless as well. What do you see as the sort of pricing power in that business for you, the market share opportunity as you look out over the next few years and trying to avoid what we've seen in the residential business bleeding into business?

So I think the short answer is mix of business, meaning that at both the low end and the high end, adding more above and beyond great connectivity has been the recent past, and it's the path forward. So going back to the beginning, it's a big market, $60 billion. We're a $15 billion business ourselves, grown from nothing -- sorry, $10 billion over 15 years with high margins. So small business is where we started. We've built small business on the back of connectivity, very focused connectivity that serve the purpose. But as time has passed, we've had extended services to higher-end service, managed WiFi and the like. When we've gotten into the bigger end of the market, that really is what it's all about.

We definitely have great connectivity, but we've through some amount of M&A and some amount of investment in sales force that can really deliver these products. It's managed networks, it's more mobile, and we've got the T-Mobile MVNO on the business side, which is now going to allow us to ramp above the 20 lines per account path. So when you consider the things other than connectivity that we're focused on, I think that's the path to see the continued revenue growth as the mix changes even as fixed wireless is definitely competing in the small business market. And I think everyone's naturally, we're seeing more focus from the telcos in the mid and upper.

Okay. Let's shift gears to the Content & Experiences segment, and we'll start with parks. How is Epic performing relative to expectations here as you approach the 1-year anniversary? And I'd love to hear a little more about the ride flow piece that you've talked about a bunch and also whether international tourism into the U.S. Parks business is seeing any softness.

Yes. Those are the fun ones to talk about. So the business since 2011, I think when we fully integrated parks, we've grown revenues and profits double digits across the park portfolio. So we love the business. Epic was a big swing. It's the most advanced park opened in the world in 25 years bring a lot of new to it. It's done everything we wanted. I would rate it as a great success in bringing more attendance into Orlando, of course, or writ large, driving higher per caps in the -- across the whole park system in Florida in addition to Epic itself and hotel stays and length of stay.

So all those things when you've already got the investments that we had in Orlando, having Epic succeeded that we check, check, check. So we're very happy. On where do we go from here? I think it's continue to see the park and the workforce in the park mature. So ride flow and capacity ultimately gets to its maximum potential, which is not -- it's not a -- as we come to the 1-year anniversary, where we've made great strides. We still have a little room to grow capacity, which will unleash more attendance possibility, given us sort of path to continued growth in Epic before we get to extending this footprint around to do more and obviously, other things going on in the parks portfolio around the globe to follow this. On the international front, yes, international, same as 2025, there continues to be pressure on international visitation to Orlando that we're feeling, but domestic attendance continues to be strong.

Great. Okay. You mentioned in your first answer in the Q&A talked about the NBA and the All-Star game. This is the first year with the NBA back on NBC and of course, on Peacock, it's 11-year deal. Talk a little bit about the financial benefits since this is obviously a very substantial investment for the company into exclusive rights.

You're going to have another piece of that on the other side in your new job. So in the NBA -- this year, the NBA is 15% up versus last year. So the kind of sport and the league doing well. Our piece of it with -- I think it's the most watched All-Star game in 15 years. Our Tuesday night product is up 90% versus the like-for-like on TNT and strong -- very strong performance on our new Sunday night format. So we're pleased with what we're -- how we're doing. And it's doing everything or it's set up to do everything we would want it to do in terms of giving us over these 11 years ahead, a smoothed out sports portfolio within our media business, bringing a younger audience into the mix. And so all that will capitalize over time. So performance is great. It fits in for all the reasons we described.

P&L side is definitely dilutive in these early years. We're taking a full 1/11 straight-line amort of the cost even as the revenue over the full life will ramp. How it will ramp -- as affiliate deals renew, we will see increases in affiliate revenues related to having the sport. We'll see growth in engagement happen as on the back of what we just discussed and more viewers and subscribers ultimately on Peacock. So this year is the peak of it. Actually, this first quarter is the peak of the peak because we take the cost -- that annual cost and spread it in season against games. And roughly the first quarter is 50% of our games, 25% in the fourth quarter and another 25% in the second quarter. But as we look forward to next season lapping this first season goes back to my comments earlier about despite all that, seeing meaningful improvement this year in Peacock.

And that's actually where I wanted to go next. So you added, I think, 3 million customers in Peacock in the fourth quarter, while taking a pretty significant price increase and you're seeing an improvement in the losses. I mean, it looks like the business could potentially reach profitability in 2027. We've been talking about this for a long time, but what is next for Peacock as a business as you look out over the next several years? And do you have the scale you need to kind of reach its fullest potential? Or would you ever consider about a global product?

So I think we're domestic. And in our current formation, what we are is maximizing the fact that we have a leading broadcast network and all that means in terms of reach and investment to begin with there and leveraging that into the basis of a portfolio inclusive of sports that makes sense for that audience that has left the pay TV ecosystem. But that's not all of there. Obviously, our sports portfolio is behind ESPN, the most significant sports portfolio there is. I think -- but in addition, Pay1 movies from Universal, one of the leading -- we have -- and all the discussions around what's going on with movie production and theatrical we're acknowledged as one of the -- we put out a significant number of new movies every year. We're at the scale that the industry is pleased with, not that that's the objective, but it's the fact between Focus and Universal. So that feeds into and is very important for Peacock viewing and for the studio to have the outlet.

And then next day, NBC and Bravo really gives you a portfolio that to the question of where do we go from here, we started very much in a -- we're going direct-to-consumer. We've maintained high ARPUs throughout. We've scaled the business to 44 million subs as we got to the end of this year with less of an emphasis on partnerships and wholesale. So I think one of the roads ahead is to really look at taking the benefit that Peacock creates in terms of a full portfolio of what I described and seeing places where through bundles and partnerships with others.

We have a path to ongoing growth, manage the whole thing in concert with the P&L of the NBC side, as one media business, whose dynamics are now different having shed the pressure that comes from Versant and chart our way towards both a profitability in Peacock sooner the better and view that in the context of the total Media segment P&L, which is important because that sits alongside a phenomenal parks business and a phenomenal studio. So there's no -- we don't -- I don't see a reason in our construct why we are disadvantaged by not pursuing global. I mean others are doing it. Clearly, they have different strategies for different players. But in our case, domestic is our path.

As you can imagine, Mike, there's a lot of focus on the value of your media portfolio in light of the Warner Bros. process that's been going on for the last 6, 9 months, you guys were involved in that. And I think there's a view that Comcast shares don't reflect full value for the portfolio. How do you and Brian and the team think about surfacing that value?

Sure. So I think the -- I would certainly agree that Comcast is not capturing full value, right? I think we have businesses, and we're determined to deal with that. I think you start with the fact that we're in businesses where across all businesses, we're at historic lows in multiples for a variety of reasons, the lack of certainty about the growth trajectory on the broadband side that we described and the path to win in wireless and convergence and likewise, the meaning of path to profitability in streaming. So those dynamics are affecting all of our competitors.

So looked at through the lens of where do we -- what do we have to do? We individually and the industries broadly have to prove out the thesis behind how we get to get the drive value in the businesses. I think everything I described earlier across these businesses, I think we're laser-focused on exactly talking to -- we talk to investors all the time. I think our view on what needs to happen in the businesses is very lined up with what I hear from many shareholders. So I think getting after it and doing it in terms of what needs to happen in needs of the business is where my focus is going back to some of the earlier discussion.

And that, hopefully, then the stock price follows to where we feel very good about the capture of value of what the embedded businesses have. We always have the path -- the options to consider other things if and when we conclude that there's a need to consider other paths. But driving results in the business is our priority for the near term. And if -- again, if we conclude differently, hopefully, people take the evidence of the Versant spin and our consideration of a thoughtful approach to the Warner situation that made sense for us, didn't get picked by them are evidence that we're open for business when it comes to other broader possibilities. But I think we like what we're doing.

Okay. Maybe just in the last minute here, my last question about allocating capital to sort of drive the business. You're buying back stock. Obviously, you talked about valuation levels. How do you think about allocating capital to share repurchases versus trying to execute some inorganic investments to grow through M&A?

Nothing really different now than what I've been saying for the last few years. I think last 5 years, we've returned $70 billion of capital in total, $50 billion of stock buyback. So substantial commitment and performance on capital return. In the context of our philosophy of let's take the business strategies, particularly the 6 growth businesses, allocating capital where needed to drive those businesses, which we've been doing.

At the same time, maintain a strong balance sheet because I think in the world we're in, that's a -- we value that highly. But that has nonetheless positioned us to be a significant both through dividends, which have grown for many, many years in a row and commitment to buybacks and total capital return. I think that formula should be continued -- investors should continue to expect that, that's the formula. So the bar is high for inorganic deployments. Never say never, but we like the organic plan, certainly as we're trying to drive the value of the stock.

Great. Anything you'd like to wrap up with as we close it out?

Good luck. Look forward to competing against you. All right.

All right. Thanks everybody. Thanks, Mike.

Take care. Thanks, everybody.

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to Comcast's Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2025 Earnings Conference. [Operator Instructions] Please note that this conference call is being recorded.

I will now turn the call over to Executive Vice President, Investor Relations, Ms. Marci Ryvicker. Please go ahead, Ms. Ryvicker.

Thank you, operator, and welcome, everyone. Joining us on today's call are Brian Roberts, Mike Cavanagh, Jason Armstrong and Steve Croney.

I will now refer you to Slide 2 of the presentation accompanying this call, which can also be found on our Investor Relations website and which contains our safe harbor disclaimer. This conference call may include forward-looking statements subject to certain risks and uncertainties.

In addition, during this call, we will refer to certain non-GAAP financial measures. Please see our 8-K and trending schedule issued earlier this morning for the reconciliations of these non-GAAP financial measures to GAAP.

With that, I'll turn the call over to Brian.

Good morning, everyone, and thanks for joining us. Before I turn the call to Mike and Jason to walk you through our results, I want to take a moment to say a few words about the team and the year ahead.

We're at an inflection point, both in our industry and at Comcast. The business is changing rapidly. Competition has never been more intense. And the choices we're making right now matter. I feel very good about how we're positioned, and it really starts with our leadership. Steve Croney joins us for the first time on this call today. From day 1 running this business, he's challenged long-held assumptions and moved quickly to reset priorities around actions that will drive growth. We spent time last week at Steve's leadership meeting where we brought together the entire team following a major reorganization. And coming out of that, my confidence has only increased. There's a clear sense of focus and urgency. Everyone understands the priorities and is moving with speed and purpose. I think you'll enjoy meeting Steve today for those that don't know him.

And as Mike starts this year as co-CEO, I could not be more excited about him stepping into his role. We've worked side by side for a long time, and he brings an exceptional combination of strategic clarity and operating discipline. As we continue to pivot the company towards our 6 growth drivers, Mike is leading the strategy and execution of that shift. As we look ahead to the upcoming Winter Olympics, we're excited about the prospects for Team USA, but more importantly, we are reminded of the power of shared moments to bring people together across the globe. Like so many, I'm heartbroken by the tragic events of recent weeks and our thoughts are with the families and communities that have been deeply impacted. In a time of profound division, we hope the Olympic Games can offer a moment of connection for our country and for people everywhere.

Now I'd like to turn it over to you, Mike.

Thanks, Brian. 2025 was a year of meaningful progress for us. We moved with urgency to make decisive management, operational and structural changes resetting how we run our businesses and how we compete, all with a clear focus on positioning the company for sustained growth.

A key step in that effort was appointing Steve Croney as CEO of Connectivity & Platforms, and I couldn't be more pleased to have him leading that business. Under Steve's leadership, we've made the most significant go-to-market shift in our company's history. We've simplified our broadband offering by moving away from short-term promotions toward a clear, transparent value proposition. Customers now choose from 4 nationwide speed tiers with straightforward all-in pricing that includes our best-in-class gateway and unlimited data along with a 5-year price guarantee that brings predictability and removes long-standing complexity from the category.

We also strengthened our wireless approach with new offers tailored to different customer segments from premium unlimited plans for higher-value households to a 12-month free line promotion designed to increase mobile awareness and attachment. At the same time, we began to simplify the overall customer experience with faster access to live agents, easier digital buy flows and activation and same-day delivery. Those changes are beginning to show up in customer behavior. Voluntary churn continues to trend lower. NPS is moving in the right direction, adoption of the 5-year price guarantee remains strong and gig-speed sell-in has improved meaningfully with approximately 40% of the base on gig-plus tiers.

We've also expanded the use of simplified market-based pricing and retention, including broader deployment of new everyday pricing. Refreshed packaging is driving higher Xfinity Gateway attachment enabling a more differentiated in-home experience with better streaming performance and lower latency.

Turning to wireless. I'm pleased to share that we've modernized our MVNO partnership with Verizon supporting continued profitable growth for Comcast, Charter and Verizon. With these enhancements, we have an even stronger relationship with Horizon to enable our customers to have a world-class experience. With the addition of T-Mobile as a network partner for our business customers later in the year, we continue to have a capital-efficient mobile platform with a cost structure that supports a durable and growing convergence value proposition for our customers. Wireless continues to be a powerful driver of that convergence strategy and 2025 was our strongest year yet. We added approximately 1.5 million net lines, ending the year with over 9 million total lines and roughly 15% penetration of our residential broadband base. That performance reinforces wireless as a key growth engine for the company, while also strengthening customer relationships and lifetime value across our connectivity portfolio.

Even as wireless competition intensifies, our broadband scale, industry-leading WiFi and improving offers position us well to grow wireless profitably while maintaining a disciplined long-term approach. And finally, we continue to make substantial progress on our network upgrade with roughly 60% of the footprint now transitioned to mid split spectrum and a virtualized architecture. We are already seeing benefits from greater automation and the deployment of AI across the network to optimize the end-to-end customer experience. Our investments are delivering tangible operating benefits including a 20% reduction in trouble calls and a 35% reduction in repair minutes where we've deployed FDX technology.

2025 also marks great progress across content and experiences. At Parks, the opening of Epic Universe is already acting as a catalyst across Orlando, driving longer stays higher per cap spending and increased demand across our parks and hotels, reinforcing the attractive returns we see from continued investment in this business. In media, we've made meaningful progress at Peacock, improving EBITDA losses by approximately $700 million for the year, and we are pleased with the successful launch of the NBA on NBC and Peacock late in the year, which is delivering strong viewership while expanding reach and engagement across our platforms. We strengthened our content pipeline with a long-term creative partnership with Taylor Sheridan, adding premium franchise scale film and television IP.

And finally, we've completed the spin of Versant Media, creating a focused, well-capitalized public company while enabling NBCUniversal to concentrate on driving profitability in our Media business, powered by best-in-class live sports, entertainment and news across NBC, Peacock and Bravo.

Looking ahead, 2026 is about building on the changes we made in 2025 and advancing the next phase of our plan centered on levers that matter most. Our priorities in Connectivity & Platforms are clear, position the business for a return to growth, deepen convergence through wireless and fully leverage our network leadership across residential and business services. This will be the largest broadband investment year in our history, focused squarely on customer experience and simplification with the goal of migrating the majority of residential broadband customers to our new simplified pricing and packaging by year-end.

In wireless, we expect a meaningful portion of customers currently taking a free line to transition to paid relationships in the second half of the year as engagement deepens and customers experience the value of the product consistent with the progression we've seen over time. We'll further simplify activation and service interactions with a focus on reducing call-ins, improving first contact resolution and shortening speed to service. We'll also lean into our network leadership as we complete upgrades across most of the footprint and start marking multi-gigabit symmetrical speeds and their differentiated capabilities, creating opportunities to move customers into higher-value tiers over time.

And in Comcast business, we'll remain focused on stabilizing small business while accelerating growth in mid-market and enterprise, where demand for advanced, secure and scalable connectivity continues to increase. 2026 will also be a defining year for content and experiences. It marks NBC's anniversary, a century of leadership in broadcast and live storytelling and a year in which NBCUniversal will deliver roughly 40% of the industry's major live events, bringing the biggest moments in media to audiences at scale. Sports remains one of our most durable strengths with the full breadth of that portfolio on display, beginning with Legendary February, featuring the Super Bowl on NBC and Peacock, followed by the Winter Olympics in Milan and the NBA All-Star game, all sold out.

Later in the year, Major League Baseball returns to NBC and Peacock on a new agreement followed by the World Cup on Telemundo. And at Peacock, we expect another year of meaningful EBITDA improvement as we continue progressing toward breakeven even as we absorb the NBA rights. Our Studios Slate remains exceptional, led by the Odyssey from Christopher Nolan, the Super Mario Galaxy Movie and Minions 3 from Chris Meledandri and Disclosure Day from Steven Spielberg. At Parks, 2026 marks the first full year of Epic Universe alongside the opening of Universal Kids Resort in Frisco, Texas, the debut of our first outdoor roller coaster at Universal Studios Hollywood and groundbreaking on our new Universal Resort in the U.K.

So to wrap up, my focus remains squarely on growth. We've been consistent in investing behind the 6 growth engines that define our future, while protecting one of the strongest balance sheets in the industry and returning substantial capital to shareholders. We like the position of both of our major businesses. Our broadband network and products are best-in-class, our customer experience keeps improving. And as the market shifts to multi-gigabit symmetrical speeds, we're well positioned to grow. We have the best hand in convergence, combining broadband leadership with a differentiated capital-light mobile business and we're the market leader with small businesses and the fastest-growing provider in mid-market and enterprise.

On the media side, we operate world-class Theme Parks and Studios and we're scaling a streaming platform that runs in concert with our television business, delivering unmatched sports, news and entertainment. Taken together, we feel very good about where we're positioned with the right assets, the right strategy and the financial strength to perform through cycles and create long-term value.

With that, I'll turn it over to Jason.

Thanks, Mike, and good morning, everyone. I'll start with a high-level overview of our consolidated results and then get into more detail on our businesses.

Total company revenue grew 1% in the fourth quarter benefiting from strength across our 6 growth businesses, which collectively represents 60% of our revenue and grew at a mid-single-digit rate, notably Theme Parks, Peacock and domestic wireless, 3 of our 6 key growth drivers, each grew revenue right around 20%. As we previewed, we are in an investment period. We're pivoting in the broadband business through changes to packaging and pricing and significant investments in the customer experience, all designed to stabilize our base and subsequently grow revenue in the category again.

We are also absorbing the full cost of the first year of the new NBA contract in our Content & Experiences segment and expect that to scale over time. As a result, adjusted EBITDA in the quarter declined 10% and adjusted earnings per share declined 12%. We generated $4.4 billion of free cash flow in the quarter, which includes about $2 billion of a cash tax benefit related to an internal corporate reorganization. Recall, we received the P&L benefit associated with this in last year's fourth quarter. And at the time, [indiscernible] that the cash benefit from this would occur in 2025. So this quarter's free cash flow includes the benefit of that. Finally, during the quarter, we returned $2.7 billion to shareholders, including $1.5 billion in share repurchases.

Now turning to our businesses, starting with Connectivity & Platforms. The competitive environment for broadband remains intense, similar to prior quarters, while we saw wireless competition step up towards the end of the fourth quarter. Against that backdrop, we continue to advance our new go-to-market strategy we launched earlier this year. While it's still early, we remain encouraged by what we're seeing, including lower voluntary churn, strong adoption of our 5-year price guarantee, a significant improvement in take rates of gig-plus speeds and continued uptake of free wireless lines. We remain focused on transitioning the majority of our customer base to simplified market-based pricing plans. And importantly, prioritizing getting to the other side of this transition as quickly as possible.

As we have highlighted, this pivot comes with an investment. That includes rate reinvestment through simplified broadband pricing and offering free wireless lines, which impact near-term revenue as well as higher operating costs tied to customer experience initiatives. These dynamics were reflected in the quarter through dilution to broadband ARPU growth and elevated marketing, product and customer service expenses, contributing to the 4.5% decline in Connectivity & Platforms EBITDA. As we have said before, as we continue to invest through this transition, we expect incremental EBITDA pressure over the next couple of quarters until we begin to lap these initial investments in the second half of 2026.

As we move past this investment period, we will have the vast majority of our base on new pricing and packaging for broadband. We'll have a much higher percentage of our customers on gig-plus speed plans, which are substantially differentiated from fixed wireless and satellite offerings and we'll have a large base of free wireless customers moving into paying relationships with us. All tailwinds to our business at that point, which will better position us for long-term growth.

Now let me get into some more details of the quarter, starting with broadband. Subscriber losses were $181,000 as the early traction we're seeing from our new initiatives was more than offset by continued competitive intensity. Broadband ARPU grew 1.1%, slight growth but consistent with the deceleration that we had previewed reflecting our new go-to-market pricing, including lower everyday pricing and strong adoption of free wireless lines. Looking ahead, we expect further ARPU pressure for the next couple of quarters, driven by the absence of a rate increase, the impact from free wireless lines and the ongoing migration of our base to simplify pricing.

At the same time, convergence revenue grew 2% in the quarter, driven by 18% growth in wireless. We added 364,000 wireless lines and similar to last quarter, nearly half of our residential postpaid connects came from customers taking a free line. Our free line strategy is a logical and importantly, a rational competitive approach from us. It adds value to our core broadband product, build familiarity in a tough to penetrate wireless market and we'll convert to a paying relationship after 1 year in a product category where we are firmly profitable and one which delivers strong bundling benefits to our core broadband business.

We also continue to see a strong uptake of our premium unlimited plans, further strengthening our position in the higher value postpaid market. In total, we now have over 9 million wireless lines with penetration of our residential broadband base above 15%. While the wireless environment has become more competitive, we remain confident in our strategy. Our converged offerings continue to deliver meaningful savings versus comparable plans from our competitors, reinforcing the value proposition we deliver to our customers. Looking ahead to the second half of 2026, we expect to convert the vast majority of free lines into paying relationships, which in turn should provide a meaningful tailwind to convergence revenue growth.

Turning to Business Services. Revenue increased 6% and EBITDA grew 3% in the quarter. Results continue to reflect the dynamic we've been seeing for several quarters with modest revenue growth in our small and medium business segment and strong momentum at our Enterprise Solutions business. In SMB, competitive intensity remains elevated, particularly from fixed wireless, but we're driving higher ARPU through increased adoption of advanced services, including cybersecurity and Comcast Business Mobile. Enterprise Solutions continues to gain traction as we expand our customer base and deepen our relationships. This remains an area of investment and an important growth driver going forward. In addition, in 2026, we look forward to expanding our business mobile relationships through our T-Mobile MVNO.

In Content & Experiences, there are a few items I'd like to highlight. At Theme Parks delivered another strong set of results with growth accelerating in the fourth quarter. Revenue increased 22% and EBITDA grew 24% with EBITDA crossing the $1 billion level for the first time. This performance was driven by strong results at Universal Orlando. We're really pleased with what we're seeing from Epic, which continues to drive higher per cap spending in attendance across the entirety of the resort. While we're not yet operating at full run rate capacity, we've made meaningful progress expanding ride throughput and we remain focused on scaling further over the next several quarters with higher attendance, stronger per-caps and additional operating leverage over time.

At Studios, we've had great success with the Wicked franchise, which has now grossed well over $1 billion worldwide. Our overall results reflect tough comparisons to last year's film slate, the timing of content licensing deals and higher marketing spend associated with the higher volume of films this year. Turning to Media. We successfully completed our spin of VERSANT on January 2, after the quarter closed, so our fourth quarter results still reflect a full quarter of ownership. We will provide pro forma trending schedules, excluding VERSANT ahead of our first quarter earnings to help with comparability in forecasting as we go forward.

Media revenue increased 6% in the fourth quarter, primarily driven by Peacock. Peacock revenue grew more than 20% to a record $1.6 billion, supported by strong distribution revenue growth of over 30% as paid subscribers increased $8 million year-over-year and $3 million sequentially, reaching $44 million as of December 31. Advertising revenue at Peacock grew nearly 20%, benefiting from our strong sports lineup, including the premier of the NBA and the timing of the exclusive NFL game this quarter. Total advertising increased 1.5%, with strong underlying demand driven by our record upfront, continued strength from Sunday Night Football, which delivered the most watched season in its history and the launch of the NBA this quarter, partially offset by lower political advertising compared to last year.

Media EBITDA declined in the quarter, primarily reflecting the addition of NBA rights. As we've discussed, we are straight lining the amortization of these sports rights, which creates upfront EBITDA dilution, particularly for season, with game counts driving the quarterly realization of this expense. While the fourth quarter represented about 25% of our total games for the season, the first quarter will be the peak volume period with roughly 50% of our games played, which will also result in peak EBITDA dilution. Over time, we expect to offset this impact through advertising growth and subscriber acquisition and monetization across both linear and Peacock.

At Peacock, while losses came in at $552 million for the quarter, reflecting the addition of NBA rights and our exclusive NFL game, full year Peacock losses improved over $700 million year-over-year. Peacock has reached meaningful scale and continues to demonstrate improving monetization, giving us confidence in our ability to absorb near-term investments, including the first full year of the NBA. And in 2026, we expect Peacock losses to meaningfully improve again.

I'll wrap up with free cash flow and capital allocation. For the full year, we generated $19.2 billion of free cash flow, up significantly year-over-year and the highest year on record. We benefited in 2025 from lower cash taxes, favorable working capital comparisons, particularly related to studio production spend and lower capital spending. As we look towards 2026, it's important to note that onetime cash tax benefits in 2025, including the $2 billion mentioned upfront, will not recur. In addition, recall we said the benefits from new tax legislation we averaged about $1 billion per year for the next 5 years. The timing of those benefits are lumpy. We saw an outsized benefit in 2025 and expect the benefit to be significantly lower in 2026. Finally, as you can see from their filings, the VERSANT spinoff removes a significant pool of cash flow from our operations.

Total capital spending in 2025, inclusive of CapEx and capitalized software and intangibles declined 5% to $14.4 billion. This includes a 17% decline to $3.6 billion at Content & Experiences, driven by lower investment in Theme Parks following the completion of Epic Universe earlier this year, alongside relatively consistent capital spending of $10.5 billion at Connectivity & Platforms. Looking ahead to 2026, we expect total capital spending to be relatively similar to 2025, with spending at both C&P and C&E remaining relatively consistent year-over-year. Turning to leverage.

Our balance sheet remains incredibly strong. ending the year with net leverage at 2.3x. As you know, the VERSANT spin was capitalized in a way that position them for success with low leverage and ample liquidity. As a result, our leverage ratios will increase slightly on the back of the spinoff. Our intention will be to migrate back to the 2025 pending leverage of 2.3x.

On capital returns, in 2025, we returned nearly $12 billion to shareholders, including nearly $7 billion in share repurchases, resulting in a mid-single-digit year-over-year reduction in our share count. Consistent with what we articulated at the conference last month, we are maintaining our annual dividend at its current level of $1.32 per share. In addition, our shareholders received a dividend in kind through the distribution of VERSANT shares and now we'll be able to participate directly in VERSANT's capital allocation priorities, including dividends. As a result, our investors should see higher total dividends in 2026, marking our 18th consecutive year of dividend growth.

As we look ahead to next year, our capital allocation strategy remains unchanged. Our priorities are to invest organically in our growth businesses, maintain a strong balance sheet and return capital to shareholders. This formula has served us well and will continue to guide our approach.

With that, before turning back to Marci for Q&A, let me welcome Steve Croney as this is his first earnings call and turn it over to him for a few opening remarks. Steve?

Thanks, Jason. I appreciate it, and it's great to be on the call, and I look forward to getting to know those of you I've yet to meet.

As Brian and Mike have outlined, we've been moving with urgency on a number of important changes across the business and the team is focused and aligned on executing against the plan. When I think about what success looks like, it starts with being honest with ourselves and clearly defining our reality. The market is going to remain intensely competitive. Success isn't about waiting for the environment to change. It's about how we perform inside of that environment. We're executing against a clear actionable plan to change the trajectory of the business. We are focused on simplifying how we operate, eliminating redundancy and aligning the entire team around a single set of growth objectives, all of which are centered around improving our competitiveness in the marketplace.

A lot of the progress Mike outlined on pricing, mobile penetration, network modernization and the customer experience is exactly what this plan is designed to deliver, fewer distractions, clear ownership and accountability and much better execution. From there, we stay focused on our core pillars. First is the network, which remains our foundation. We offer gig Internet and wireless to 65 million homes, the largest converged network in the country. Our job is to stay well ahead of demand on speed, performance and capacity. Usage continues to grow at double-digit rates, and as competition intensifies, a scalable, reliable and increasingly intelligent network will become an even more important competitive advantage.

Second is the product. This is where we have our clearest differentiation. Customers make decisions based on the quality and reliability of their WiFi, and our WiFi reliability ranks #1 in our footprint based on independent open signal testing. We have a WiFi centered strategy designed to reliably support hundreds of connected devices and deliver a seamless experience in and out of the home. Mobile then builds naturally on this foundation. When customers take mobile with broadband, lifetime value increases substantially and those customers are more meaningfully loyal.

Third is the customer experience, which is our biggest opportunity by far. We must make it easier to do business with us and build a more loyal customer base through greater price transparency, more simplicity, fewer friction points and consistently getting it right the first interaction. And importantly, the same operating model applies to Comcast business, where we are accelerating growth in enterprise while continuing to lead in SMB with a clear shift towards advanced multiproduct solutions.

When we get these 3 critical pieces right, I am determined to improve our broadband performance year-over-year in the near term, return to revenue and EBITDA growth, drive higher mobile penetration and create much better customer outcomes, which include higher relationship and transactional Net Promoter Scores, lower effort and stronger loyalty. All of this is within our control. It doesn't assume relief in the competitive environment, and it doesn't rely on any one lever. It's about executing better. With the industry's best products, a differentiated WiFi-first experience and a unified team focused on growth.

And with that, back to you, Marci, for Q&A.

Thanks, Steve. Operator, let's open the call for Q&A, please.

[Operator Instructions] Our first question is coming from Mike Rollins from Citi.

If I can dig into the broadband side of the business for a moment. First, in terms of moving from more localized rate plan management to national, can you give us an update in terms of what you're seeing on both the intake and retention of customers. And then secondly, can you discuss more of the wireless opportunity. And in terms of the converged bundle with the free line promotion, if there's an opportunity to further accelerate quarterly wireless net adds.

Thanks, Mike, for the question. I appreciate that. So let me start with broadband.

So as was highlighted in the opening, it's our largest go-to-market shift in the company's history. And on top of the go-to-market shift, we are investing across marketing, product differentiation and the customer experience. And we are encouraged by what we're seeing early. We've seen year-over-year improvement in voluntary churn. We've seen an active migration of the base to more simplify and transparent pricing, which has long-term benefits. And we have a strong adoption of the 5-year price guarantee, further stabilizing the base. And we're seeing continued mix shift toward our gigs tiers, which is a clear differentiator from fixed wireless and satellite.

And on top of that, even though we have the national price points, we still remain -- keep flexibility market by market. And we have a data-led approach and we look at that. So we look at the competitive intensity, and we will adapt -- staying within the structure that we have, we will adapt our pricing accordingly as we approach that. So in reference to mobile, where you went there, there's a huge opportunity in mobile. 65 million passings, as I highlighted earlier. So we're really excited about the opportunity there. And it's one of the largest and fastest-growing markets, $200 billion TAM, and we strongly believe we have the right to compete and win in that marketplace. And customers are responding to the value. We did see competition intensify a bit in the fourth quarter, but we still had our best year ever in 2025 with wireless net additions. And another positive is in the back half of the year, about 50% of our residential postpaid phone connects were free lines, which created a meaningful modernization opportunity as we move forward.

Additionally, we have strong early results in our premium unlimited tier that we launched this year, expands our reach into the higher end of the market, enabling gig download speeds, 4K streaming and guaranteed device upgrades, all at a price that is well below the market. And additionally, we have a structural advantage when it comes to mobile. 90% of Xfinity Mobile traffic is offloaded onto our own network, and we have lower acquisition costs by selling into our existing broadband base. So if we take all that together, we're 15% penetrated today. We have a long runway ahead of us.

Next question is coming from Craig Moffett from MoffettNathanson.

Two questions, if I could. First, Brian, I wonder if you could just reflect a bit on the process that we've seen play out with Paramount and Netflix and Warner Bros. Discovery. And how you think that sort of shapes your thinking about Peacock with respect to scale or partnerships and what have you? And then second, Mike, if you could just quickly return to what you said in your prepared remarks about the modernization of the contract with Verizon. I wonder if you could just put some meat on the bones for us with respect to the MVNO agreement as to what might have changed?

Okay. Thanks, Craig. Let me start and kick it over to Mike and feel free to talk on either subject. I don't think we have too much to add on the Verizon piece that's covered. But in terms of Warner Bros., I mean, what can you say? It's still underway, obviously. But I think we saw an opportunity to see if we could build value for the Comcast shareholders looking at their international reach would have been additive. But once it looked like all cash, we were just not interested in at these values stretching our balance sheet to do something like that.

So I don't know how much more we can say except that it forced us in the journey to really take a good look at what we have and what we're building. And I'll let Mike expand a little bit on this, but I think done a super job. The businesses that we would have contributed in a very creative structure, putting the 2 companies together is post the VERSANT spin and they're trying to do the same thing with their cable nets that we've already done. We have a wonderful Studios business, as you just heard in the opening, creating franchises, 2026 should be a great year for the film business. We're excited with the number of the films coming out. Off of that business, we've -- Studios in the television business, which is feeding Peacock.

Your question on Peacock, I think we made a lot of progress in 2025 and are getting there. And there is an integrated media business that is profitable, that has got a lot of sports. It's got someday Taylor Sheridan today, it's got great PayOne movies and wonderful shows, All Her Fault, Love Island, really some breakthrough content in 2025 with more coming with now the Olympics and the Super Bowl and the World Cup and on and on and the NBA. So I just think we came to this late because of our Hulu 1/3 ownership, which we have been able to monetize. And so finally, is the Theme Park business. And so all 3 of those businesses put us in a very different kind of business than perhaps what you're witnessing with Paramount, Netflix and Warner Bros. and what their ambitions may be.

So I think we're very -- when we sat and looked at our businesses, we're very confident and comfortable that we're in the right part of the industry. We have separated the businesses that have more strategic issues that have to get resolved with the cable nets and Mark Lazarus is off to a great start trying to do that with VERSANT. And so I think we take a wait and see. It has stirred the pot. I would end with this one thought. A lot of companies are what does this mean to me. And there's a lot of conversations on whether there are opportunities to build value and we're always open to that. So we're looking at ways to creatively compete, succeed and go into a part of the business that perhaps is not the same as everybody else. And I think we're doing a great job with that.

Mike, do you want to expand on that a little?

I think you said it well, Brian, but I'll just add that the VERSANT spin did leave us by design with the 3 growth businesses that Brian described within NBC. And I think it's a microcosm of really across the whole company. My focus over the last 18 months has really been to make sure the management teams and leaders in all of our businesses are properly focused on dealing with the challenges that some of the legacy businesses within our mix have and not let that take away from the focus of putting resources and energy and ambition behind those parts of the business that have growth opportunities. And that's been the focus.

And I think you see with VERSANT set off on their course. I think the remaining businesses of NBC, we're focused on driving top line growth and then converting that into the bottom line as time passes and you see that happening. I think one other thing I would add on that score is it's competitive. As Steve said, we're operating in very competitive markets across all the businesses. And one other area of focus for me, Steve and others across the business is to make sure that in these competitive times, we make sure to take advantage of all the opportunities we have across the businesses, not that we weren't on that previously, but I would say the energy of making sure that we're using all parts of the company to help the business. We've been very strong at this broader notion called Symphony over time, but I think we've gotten a lot more tactical in the last 6, 9 months on a week in, week out basis with a real cadence around what can NBC be doing to help the connectivity business. And likewise, what the connectivity business, for example, can be doing to help Peacock.

So I think there's opportunities ahead of us to make sure we do that we execute that at a high level. So I think that's what I would add on the NBC side of it all. Going to Verizon, Craig, not much to add there. I think we are -- we amended the longstanding agreement, the partnership we have. It's a good arrangement for all parties involved. It's modernized and it's a foundation for mutual profitable growth as we continue to build the business together. So as you zoom out, I think what was important to us, what is important to us, going back to my comments just now, is that we take advantage of the opportunity that you and others have pointed out that we have in connectivity. I think we have a right to win. We're across 65 million homes with gig-plus speeds, broadband on a path to multi-gig symmetrical. And we can today sell gig speed plus mobile plans with the best devices across a leading network, and that is a real opportunity for us to execute against. And so our agreements allow us to -- we feel confident that the -- we're well positioned with the extension of the agreement to continue to do that.

Next question is coming from Jessica Reif Ehrlich from BofA Securities.

Maybe continuing with the theme of potential consolidation. Can you step back and talk about how you're thinking about your asset portfolio over the next 12 to 24 months or longer? And what would need to change for you to consider a different structural approach to the media assets to recognize the value and potentially strategic flexibility because for the first time in a really long time, there are clear values for different parts of the media business versus the current conglomerate multiple that you're unfortunately getting and other areas of the business that are scaling up. So it's -- how do you think about the next couple of years?

And then just drilling down to Peacock for a second. You have 44 million subs now, and I'm just wondering what the levers are to narrow the losses? Is it pricing? Is it outload, CPMs? Do you manage turnaround sports seasonality? What are the milestones that we can look for to -- for Peacock to actually get to breakeven and sustained profitability?

Sure. So it's Mike. I'll jump in there. So I think the -- piling on to what Brian and I had just said, I think I'd add to it that we don't really see that there's strategic advantage or making NBCUniversal stronger by separating it from the from the cable side of the house or putting it outside of Comcast, so start there.

So the advantages we have, it's sitting inside the company, don't -- it doesn't get stronger by being smaller as a stand-alone entity is our view. What our view is, as I just said, is create value by executing against the plans we have. And the second part of your question. I think one of the big ones, I don't think there's any doubt about the strength and value creation opportunity that we have in parks. We're leaning in heavily to that. I don't think we need anything more than just the team we have and the resources that we can put behind it, very much the same in the studio business. And so the real work to do is on the media side execute now post-VERSANT on the integrated domestic strategy to have a broadcast business aligned with a streaming business in Peacock that adds to it the PayOne movie windows from our studios as well as the strong sports news and entertainment that goes along with it, to drive Peacock towards profitability, which as Jason said earlier, we made great strides in 2025, and we'll do the same in 2026.

When it comes to the path to doing that and particularly the NBA side of it all, I think what is -- you're seeing is the strength of the content, especially new content is price increases. So we successfully took a $3 price increase last summer -- late summer and held the full year growth that we've seen in subscribers. You see it in advertising with growth there. And for the note on the NBA, we've seen really nice success in the NBA thus far with adding something like 170 advertisers in the NBA, great demand, 20% of those advertisers are new and basically sold out on our NBA season. So we feel very good on that score. And then as time passes between over several years, 2025 to 2028, is our affiliate deals renew as opposed to -- they don't accelerate simply because we took on new content. So we'll see that revenue stream build as we -- and those multiple levers are the levers that over the period of time ahead bring Peacock to profitability in the overall media segment to sustainable profitability alongside parks and studios.

Next question is coming from John Hodulik from UBS.

Maybe quick One for Steve. Can you talk about the competitive environment in high-speed data and just sort of how that's evolved over the last several months. Mike mentioned at our conference that they were seeing -- you guys are seeing more competition on the fiber side. Just want to get a sense for whether or not that's continued into January? And then maybe for Jason, you referred to the biggest year for investment in the broadband business. And it sounds like you're pointing to sort of incrementally accelerating declines in the first half with C&P EBITDA. Are you suggesting or do you guys model out that those declines will improve in the second half of this year or that we could actually get to EBITDA growth? And when do you guys expect that to happen?

John, great to hear from you. So in reference to the competitive environment, in the fourth quarter, we did see a more competitive environment from fiber and that remains. It's just -- I think we assume that's going to happen, continuos to go forward, as I already mentioned. From a fixed wireless perspective, stayed pretty consistent, and we're seeing stability there. And I think as we're all aware, the mobile environment got significantly more competitive within the quarter. So as discussed, we've built the plan, assuming the environment stays the same, and we'll continue to operate accordingly.

Yes, John, I'll take your question on EBITDA and just sort of the pacing through the year. I think you're right, in upfront remarks, we talked about sort of the fourth quarter and into the first half of next year, that's going to be a period sort of characterized by incremental investment, which obviously, we've talked about to feed some of several initiatives Steve has walked you through. We did not take a rate hike early in the first part of this year in broadband. So that's going to impact ARPU as we said, over the first couple of quarters.

As we look to the back half of the year and really sort of zooming out, we will have a far greater percentage of our base and well over 50% and creeping into sort of the vast majority on new pricing and packaging, which is really sort of the intention here, really stabilize the base, create durable pricing and packaging and really sort of lock it down from a churn perspective and create monetization mechanisms on top of that. So wireless being the biggest one. We sort of came into this year saying much like we did end of last year, Steve and team focused on how do you go accelerate wireless. And part of this was the low to mid tiers of the market. We had a little bit of an awareness issue. We went after that with free lines, come try us for a year, and hopefully, we can monitor it after that and move you into a paying relationship, I think we've got great confidence that the vast majority of our lines will move into a paying relationship. And then we took on the high end with the premium unlimited plans that Steve has mentioned, we're off to a great start with those and having a lot of success.

So as you look at the year, I think one of the things that gives us confidence is, a, we start to lap some of the incremental investments we made starting in the second half of 2025. And b, we'll get into monetization of what is probably the biggest vehicle we have out there, which is free wireless lines moving into paying relationships. So I'll stop short of giving a full EBITDA guide. I would tell you, in the back half of the year, we'd expect improvement.

Our next question today is coming from Kutgun Maral from Evercore ISI.

Great. I was hoping to dig in on the Theme Parks. Can you expand on the trends that you're seeing there and outlook for the business? Epic seems to be delivering on what you had hoped for in terms of driving higher per caps and attendance across Orlando. You touched on this a bit earlier, but perhaps you can discuss the operational or financial priorities for its second year and whether you're seeing any shifts in competitive posture in that market? And any more color on your broader parts portfolio would be appreciated as well.

Kutgun, it's Mike. So I think we are -- couldn't be more pleased with Epic. It was a big swing, as everybody knows, the biggest park opened in the country and maybe beyond to the world in 25 years. Lots of excellent technology. The theming is incredible. So to sit here and look back on the achievement that the team made of getting it successfully opened and ramping it with more ramp still to go as we head into 2026. And by the end, we'll -- I think, of this coming year, I think we'll be fully ramped up in that park.

But I think you said it well, and it was in my earlier remarks. The point of it was to lift all of Orlando, and that's, in fact, what it's done. So when you level the whole thing up, having taken this fourth quarter that we just ended and first time that we -- the parks business has crossed $1 billion of EBITDA in the quarter is a great achievement. We've had a phenomenal year with Epic and the -- I think the plan continued to invest behind that park in the fullness of time, but I think this year is a year where we continue to drive the original agenda, which is to fill up our hotels, which is the case. We have -- we added 2,000 rooms. Our average daily rate in the hotels in Orlando is up 20% and occupancy up 3%. So we again feel great. So it's a continuation in the near term.

More broadly in parks. As you know, last year, we secured and have recently got the national level approvals for our park in the U.K. We'll be opening the kids park in Frisco, Texas later this year. Japan delivered its second best EBITDA year in the history of our business. So there's a lot to feel good about a great team under Mark Woodbury, plenty of enthusiasm to keep building behind the successes that we've seen. But going back to the top, I think when you have a moment like the ambition of owning Epic and succeed, I think it makes us all feel good about the future of that business ahead of us.

Final question today is coming from Michael Ng from Goldman Sachs.

First, just on the comments around the broadband investments this year. I was just wondering if you could just expand on that a little bit more. Is that more in kind of customer relationships and pricing? Is that more on the CapEx side? And then relatedly, I wanted to ask if there was a shift in posture in terms of pursuing some of these premium unlimited plans. It just feels like good opportunity to lean into some of the potential jump balls over the next year or 2, just given the Apple iPhone cycle. So just would love your thoughts there.

So yes, in reference to broadband, I'd say leans much heavier into our go-to-market pricing strategy. As we look at it, we did a few things. We simplified it considerably as we discussed, down to 4 tiers. We're all inclusive now with those tiers. One positive and being all inclusive is we have more customers taking our gateways, which we believe are best-in-class and they'll get the feature benefits of that over time.

But a big part of the investment is around migrating our base into the new pricing package in a simplified way. So we're managing through that now. And as Jason highlighted a little bit earlier, the heavy majority of our customers in the new pricing and packaging. Additionally, we did lower our everyday prices, which makes us much more competitive in the marketplace. And for those customers who may have a promo role is much more manageable now. And then the biggest driver is the free wireless line. And importantly, we lean into that space, big market ahead of us, as I mentioned, substantial improvement in CLV there and greater loyalty from those customers that have both products that have -- or converged households. So we'll continue to lean into that and push forward. So that's the bulk of the investment that we're making around the broadband.

I do think that is the case. Investment, it's less the capital side where our network has been steadily doing what we need to do. The investment language is about putting more value to the customer, getting them on new pricing and packaging in a variety of ways as just seen through EBITDA.

And I think on the premium side, I do think that, that is and as Jason said in his remarks earlier, getting more exposure to our broader base through exposure to the free line for 1 year is a strategy to get breadth of exposure, but our ambition is to be a leading provider competing against all segments. And so the launch of Premium Unlimited has been directly targeted at being relevant in that space versus our earliest offers by the gig, which targeted were succeeded in a different segment. So we're pleased with what we're seeing, and it gives us the opportunity, as you suggest, to think about where and when to lean in further.

I just would end by saying that hope you feel like I do that there's a bounce and in energy with the new team. And I think Steve, good luck, we're all counting on you. And I think we're off to a great start.

That concludes our fourth quarter earnings call. Thank you all for joining us.

Thank you. That does conclude today's conference call. A replay of the call will be available starting today at 11:30 a.m. Eastern Time on Comcast Investor Relations website. Thank you for participating. You may all disconnect.

Okay. All right. So I think everybody knows who we are. We have 35 minutes for Q&A.

And yes, let's -- there's been no shortage of headlines in the media these past couple of weeks. So from your vantage point, can you just talk about how NBCUniversal is positioned amid all this industry change? And what should investors focus on as the real drivers of the story at Comcast?

Sure. Well, let's start on the NBCUniversal side since there's so much news in the last couple of days on that score. So I just want to remind everybody or make the point, a lot of accomplishments in 2025, basically, everything we wanted to do at NBCUniversal, we did and then some. So great team, great effort.

I'll get into it piece by piece, which is Parks, Studios and the Media segment, including Peacock. But one of the very important things that happened that spread across the whole place was preparing for and now being at the precipice of the Versant spin. And so I think that is not a -- that's a decision we made that I think is for the benefit of the shareholders. I think for those of you who attended the Versant Investor Day last week, I think you saw a great team on the field, born from my colleagues at Comcast and NBC. They're going to do a great job. And it sets free those assets in a way with low leverage that I think feel very good about what that's going to mean for shareholders.

And conversely, for the remaining NBC, particularly the Media segment, it means the only linear assets that remain are broadcast, which is NBC and Telemundo and the leading reality player in Bravo. And the point there is that those are the linear pieces that are integral to the strategy that we have for Peacock which we can come back to later. So I think it's a big setup when you combine that with how the businesses are each performing that we roll into 2026 with great momentum, great leadership, good solid business strategies.

And I just want to remind at the highest level, the strategy that we're playing is unique to us. Everybody -- when the prognosticators are looking at other people's strategies then saying, "If you're not going to be successful at somebody else's strategy then you're therefore a failure." I would point out that we have a strategy for our business, and our business is unique in media. We're one of two players in the global parks business. We have a leading studio, TV and film, #2 player in the film last several years, we'll get into it more deeply.

And a Media segment, which is the combination of broadcast and streaming. And we look at strategy for each of those pieces and the whole together as that's the hand we're playing. And we think it is a d*** good hand, $40 billion in global revenues for that Media segment.

And it leads to the second tier of what is our strategic focus in streaming within that. To make our Media segment work within the context of Parks and Studios, we have a domestic strategy. Obviously, we want to leverage everything. We're going to 100th anniversary of NBC in 2026. And so everything we're about, which we'll, again, we'll get into more deeply, is stuff that is leveraged into Peacock together with Pay-One movies coming out of our studios and the like, and that is what we're trying to accomplish in the Media segment.

So that's the high-level setup for Media, and it leaves us positioned going into 2026, and what apparently will be a pretty unstable ecosystem around us with a great set of strategies, a lot of momentum and with the Versant split happening. So I feel really good about where we're headed. So maybe Warner Bros. now?

Yes. Obviously, that's the big news of the last few days. Could you talk a little bit about your strategy as it related to Warner Bros.? Over the last 15, 20 minutes, we've heard that Paramount Skydance might not be done here with this process. Just talk about how you were thinking of...

Yes. All I can speak to is how we came at it. And obviously, the journey that I just described, we were heads down doing our thing. Obviously, we pick our heads up and look around at what's going on around us. Situations develop. This was one where the Warner Bros. team announced one version of how to chart their future. And then flipped it around. And flipped it around in a way where -- without creating a studio and streaming pure play. Given what we decided was our future, which would be ex the cable nets, that was interesting.

But when we looked at the circumstances of how it all came to be, and I won't get into the sort of details, you can read all about that yourselves, we didn't expect that we had a high likelihood of being -- prevailing with the deal that made sense to us. So we debated whether to bother or not. Do we want the disruption, do we want the distraction, et cetera, et cetera. But it's our job.

So we thought better to take a look and do the work and see where it leads, you never know. And so that's what we did. But in the end, our proposal was made up of the following. It was with a view that we would -- are not interested in stressing the Comcast balance sheet to any stressful level as a result. That meant our proposal was light relative to the other proposals, I gather, on cash, and therefore, period. But what we did offer was a significant chunk of equity in a combined entertainment company that would have combined NBCUniversal Parks, Media and Studios together with the Studio and Streaming segment of Warner Bros. and provide to the Warner Bros shareholders a substantial percentage of that company, and that company would have been a publicly-traded controlled subsidiary of Comcast.

So that all fit as a proposal that made sense to us for us in light of the fact that we like what we're doing. We don't need to do anything else. Had that come to be, I think it would have been an interesting play. It probably would have changed our streaming aspirations to be global streaming aspirations by necessity. But otherwise, respect and understand the decision of the Warner Bros. Board to obviously prefer the certainty of high levels of cash or collared stock and not what we were willing to go to, to make it happen.

So good news is that we like what we were doing, as I just described, and we roll on with a lot of focus. But I think we're better for having taken a look. I think our team, our management team went through the exercise of reverse due diligence, and I think showed really well, and we walked away feeling great about our business and our strategies.

So I think the other thing that's obvious in a world of consolidation and I've lived through it in other industries and these industries, too, is we're going to hit at a moment in time now where there's a lot of distraction. And I think being focused as a former rower, eyes in our own boat and get the job done is going to be, what the next couple of years give us an opportunity to do. So again, that's the broad on Warner Bros. So maybe take a few minutes now going through each pile inside the Media segment.

Yes, perfect. Why don't we start with streaming because you brought it up and you referred to Peacock as sort of more of a domestic focus versus a global streamer, or do you need to be global? Or can you -- talk about how Peacock is positioned, especially given some of your recent content and sports wins.

Well, so when you think about the play the hand you got, we -- NBC is a tremendous asset. I mean, walk in and out of 30 Rock and you just feel the legacy of the place. Our power in creating scripted content, both through the movie studios and on the TV side, whether it's on our platforms or others.

So All Her Fault now on Peacock comes from our studios. Likewise, some great content lands from our studios on other platforms. But entertainment is super strong, feeding Peacock, Pay-One movie window and the like. Reality, you've got, again, Bravo. Some of the Love Island is only a few months in the past, and Love Island next -- whatever is coming next. The team is hard at work. I think we've got great assets there. We've got the library from the studios, too.

Then you come to the big opportunity in sports, which given the legacy of NBC Sports, and the need of leagues to keep their reach through broadcast, yet reach a new audience as the linear system changes, puts Peacock in an excellent position to serve our partners, whether it's Olympics. We've got NFL with Super Bowl coming up in next February. And we're back with the NBA, which is off to a great start. And we have the All-Star game in February. So February and really next year, we're going to have 40% of the big live events coming through, whether it's a combination of sports and non-sports.

How about this one, the Thanksgiving Day Parade last week or 2 weeks ago, 35 million viewers, the highest of all time. So you think again about partnering and figuring out ways to drive engagement around live events is an important part of what we do. And so that is all the DNA and then news now with the separation of MS Now into Versant, news -- most reached news organization between Nightly News, NBC News NOW digital and Meet the Press.

So when you get to Peacock, all that feeds in. Sports has been a great driver of acquisition for us and engagement. Our back library of entertainment, our reality, it all comes together with Pay-One driving, we now have 41 million high-ARPU subs. So one of the things that's interesting about Peacock is we were very slow to get in the game of doing wholesale to drive subs. So now that we're later in the game, one of the opportunities we've had, and you've seen this in some of our recent deals with Amazon, with Apple, with YouTube, starting to allow our streaming service to be packaged in ways that capture the value that we've created through such a strong sports portfolio.

And so I think the business has made great strides. Peacock as a stand-alone, and I don't really -- we report it stand-alone to give some transparency, but we manage it as one P&L. But Peacock improved in the last trailing 12 months by $900 million of EBITDA. We're at 41 million subs. We just took a $3 price increase over the summer that's stuck nicely. And with the NBA expense coming in and as we reported before, that's going to be straight-lined over the next 11 years, even though cash costs will be lower in the first half of that, and -- but we didn't follow cash, we follow more of a straight line.

All that means that nonetheless, next year, we expect '26 versus '25 Peacock to continue to meaningfully improve its EBITDA losses on a trajectory to a positive future for it and the combined Media segment. So without the linear pieces that have gone to Versant, I expect that the Media segment wins inside NBCUniversal has the opportunity and expectation that it will grow revenues after we lap NBA and grow profits from that point forward.

So you're talking about improving profitability at Peacock and for the whole Media segment in general next year, even with NBA...

Even with NBA. And when you -- for Peacock next year. All of NBC is the first full year -- first half of next year, and it will be loaded up with significant NBA costs when you put it all together. So that's obviously something that we got -- as we take the full cost, the trajectory to monetize we'll average it in.

So it doesn't sound like from this conversation that you believe that the streaming business or Peacock is subscale or the studio, I mean you don't feel like...

No. In the context of what we're trying to do, which, again, if you're -- sports are not -- sports are market by market, right? So when you think about the -- what we're doing here is really about a domestic strategy. And I think feeding our studio content into our domestic strategy, again, which fits alongside the broader strategy, does not -- there's plenty of buyers for our studio content in other markets. And if we were to follow the strategy that I described in other markets, we'd be getting into the business of producing sports.

And I think aspiring to be global right now in our -- is not -- I don't think the leakage, put it this way. I don't think the leakage in the ability to monetize the content created in our studios is a -- that leakage versus building a streaming service where you'd be ramping investment for a long, long time is not something that gives us any pause about executing our Peacock strategy in the U.S.

And similarly on the studio side with Universal, obviously, at this point, it looks like Netflix and Warner Bros. coming together; if not, Warner Bros. and Paramount coming together. You're going to see some consolidation. Does the landscape get better for Universal as a studio both for film and TV in the environment that comes next?

I think, generally speaking, consolidation hopefully leads to market healing as players start to figure out how they really want to make money over the long term. Obviously, the dynamic that we face in media is, to some degree, tech players that may be making money in different ways that is that -- you put a little asterisk on it. But generally speaking, consolidation as different players start to settle into long-term strategy there to drive value, that tends to be a good thing. If you yourself have a strategy that is sound and that you can go execute against. So I think for us, I kind of welcome the consolidation.

Right. And then lastly, on Peacock and sort of the Media business. You signed a big deal with Taylor Sheridan; NBA, obviously another big deal. I mean, it sounds like against that, you expect profitability to improve next year. But is this the beginning of sort of additional spending that we should expect on the Peacock side just to scale up the business?

Again, it's Peacock profitability improves in '26 versus '25. And then in '27 and beyond, I feel great about the trajectory for the Media segment along with the other pieces of the business.

I think on Studios, we've got great leadership. We've been the #2 film studio on average over the last several years, coming off another tremendous slate this year with Wicked: For Good in theaters now. How to Train your Dragon, Jurassic reboot. Next year, we've got the next Minions, we've got Super Mario, we've got the Odyssey with Christopher Nolan and Steven Spielberg's next film.

So we've got excellent relationships with some of the top creators, whether it's Meledandri, Nolan, Spielberg, Blum, Jordan Peele and now to your point, Taylor Sheridan. Film deal starts sooner than -- it's several years out before the TV deal starts. But I think it makes the point that our studio is able to -- is an attractive place for creators to bring their work. And that's a large part of what being great in that business and being perceived as adding value, and a lot goes along with that.

But I think our team in Studios is excellent. So I think all we need to do is invest behind that team. We always look for more IP for them to use. We've done that through partnerships with Nintendo. Hence, we got Super Mario. And there's ways to continue to do that. So we would have gotten some had we done Warner Bros., but I think that's not a -- Plan A always was to invest behind the team we have.

And the same at Parks. Parks we opened Epic. It's doing great. It will ramp in 2026. We are a global business. We've got the L.A., Orlando, Beijing and Osaka. And so as we look ahead to that business, same thing. It's invest behind the team we have. So we sit down with them. And on the road map is the U.K. park that we secured land and are going through government approvals. So that will open in 2030, 2031. We're working on smaller formats, the Halloween Horror in different spots at a smaller scale, and we'll open our first Universal Kids in Frisco, Texas next year.

And in the longer term, things like cruises that Disney does are opportunities that we have to take our scale in that space. And you can broaden that out beyond. So I think being in the experiences businesses, as we changed from parks to its Universal destinations and experiences is great team and a great position in the market.

So again, all those three pieces of our NBCUniversal working together, we, not me alone, my senior team, it's a charged-up group of folks. And so we're going to get after it.

That's great. I think that's a great summary of NBCU. So let's switch over to Connectivity, if we could. You got new leadership in that business. What's the main focus of the new team over the next 12 months? And can you talk about just some of the changes we should expect to see?

Sure. Well, Steve Crone is now -- in January takes over as the CEO of the business. Been with us a long time in a variety of jobs, and basically a year ago, Dave, Brian and I put Steve in the Chief Operating Officer role, proved himself out. And here we are making a change.

It's obviously a moment of great competition. And so that speaks to what we're looking for is sense of urgency, and Steve certainly has that, a lot of energy and a great motivator of the team and coming from the business. Some people say, is that good or is that bad? I would say, good in a moment we're making changes to the way we operate. We did a big collapse of the field organization to move faster. We want to operate with urgency, and we want to recognize that it's a different business now than it was once upon a time. So there can't be any sacred cows. We got to have a challenger mentality and Steve brings all that to the job. So it's not an easy time. Let's be clear on that. But I think leadership and the team he's putting together is great. And so he's got all our support.

Got it. Can you give us an overview on what you're seeing now in terms of the competitive environment? Have things worsened, stayed the same? Or what are you seeing in the field?

It ebbs and flows, but I think it continues to be intensely competitive, and I think it will stay that. I mean our expectation is that it's going to remain that way for a while. In the fourth quarter, you've seen a more aggressive promotions, more on the fiber side of things, holiday promotions, Black Friday, getting -- hitting the market. And so that's a little -- the latest dynamic of what's going on.

I think fixed wireless is steady. It's lasted longer, been more durable than we had initially expected. But at this stage, we're realistic that it's going to continue to be competitive -- a strong competitor for the near and midterm for sure. And satellite is the specter of what satellite aspires to is out there, and we're not going to be dismissive of it. We're not seeing it as we sit here now, and it's like fixed wireless, it's going to have its capacity constraints and market constraints but it's -- we've got a lot of competition.

Yes. And in conjunction with that, you guys announced on the call that you would not be taking a price increase in the first half of '26. How will that impact trends in the first half of the year? And how do you see the year unfolding?

Well, so I think we started the middle of this year, and we'll continue with our new go-to-market where we simplified the whole structure of the go-to-market strategy with tiers of speed. And beyond that, relatively all inclusive. And alongside that sort of tiered pricing 1-year and 5-year price locks and everyday pricing. So a fundamentally different go-to-market strategy, getting away from the promo roll, start at one level and then have big price spikes.

And that's where competition attacked us and successfully. And we've seen that as just a consumer -- even though it's the way many of the business we're doing it once upon a time, it's one of the challenges in the space, it's been something that we had to acknowledge and get after and Steve was a big part of that.

So that, combined with -- so we'll roll through, and by this time a year from now, we'll have a large majority of our customer base on sort of this new pricing structure. You've already seen that have an impact on slower -- impact on ARPU growth and EBITDA. And I think those will -- those pressures will continue, say, through the first half of next year, the price -- the holding off on a broadband price increase will be part of that effect. But I think it will position the base of customers that we take into 2027 as much more on a sort of stable market-based pricing plans that have less friction, less consumer annoyance to them.

And with the other piece of it, which was starting in the middle of this year, adding a free wireless line to any customer who had not yet experienced one or new customer or existing customer that had not yet taken the chance to experience mobile will -- once we start lapping that and charge for that line, as you saw with the Charter, there'll be some relief on the pressures on Connectivity ARPU.

Got it. Speaking of wireless. So could you talk a little bit about the strategy? Is it helping on the retention side or in terms of new acquisitions? And if you could comment on the profitability you're seeing in that business?

Sure. We -- much like Peacock, we talked about the profitability of the wireless business when it was negative for many, many, many quarters, a couple of years. So the business of wireless has become profitable and remains profitable to us. The utility of the mobile business is really to be looked at in the context of the full Connectivity relationship.

And so where we see it the most at this stage is retention. Churn is much lower for customers who have taken mobile from us and attached it to broadband. You've got world-class broadband. And then given the MVNO, we've got excellent wireless together with the best devices out there. And you're saving substantially on your mobile bill. And with the mobile market being 2.5x the size of the broadband market, that's actually a good trade for consumers. And for us, it being a capital-light strategy, all kind of works together. And so we feel pretty good about what we're doing.

In terms of the competition we face and are we competing in a thoughtful manner, I would say, absolutely yes. I mean the challenge that we obviously have with being a kind of -- the good news is that if converged consumer behavior is the Holy Grail looking forward that -- and many of the leading wireless guys that can only offer it in certain parts of their footprint are espousing that. We're the only player today that can offer you across our entire footprint, gig speeds -- plus (sic) [ gig-plus ] speeds on broadband and the same leading wireless.

So we, from that perspective, need to drive this business. We've got 14% of our broadband base takes wireless. But there's a little bit of an awareness issue, and there's a little bit of an issue on whether we have high consideration at the higher end of the market. So the two things that are going on as we approach the market are get people to try. So hence, that's really the reason for giving a free wireless line to our existing customers, get them to experience it. Once they're comfortable that it is as we profess it is, which is the Verizon network with -- performing the way it would perform if you had Verizon service together with our phone -- an Apple phone or whatever phone you want, that is our bet that driving experience leads to retention and conversion.

And what we also see is that existing Xfinity Mobile customers are adding more lines. So it is our experience that when once we get a relationship built with a player in a given household, as time passes, they're adding more. So that says great things to us about the prospect of where we can go from here.

And then in terms of attacking the higher end of the market, family plans, because we started buy a gig, get extra phone. Now we've -- with our unlimited premium plan, we go right at everything at the high end, including some forms of device subsidies, all-inclusive data and the 4K video, it's a good -- it matches up well against the best plans out there from the competition. So that we need to drive as well. And what we're seeing as we do our go-to-market on the broadband side and are attaching mobile, the attachment of unlimited premium plus is going pretty well. So...

Is that a big initiative for '26? I mean, should we -- sort of lot of people out here are wireless investors. I mean...

Here on out. I don't think it's any -- I mean we -- I think wireless is a -- in a responsible way, we want to -- we feel we have a right to play and win in broadband and wireless convergence. We've got an excellent MVNO. We've got a capital-light strategy. We have the best WiFi network, hence, our offload from Xfinity Mobile to broadband through WiFi is higher than what it is for the wireless providers on average. So there's some recapture of kind of "lost" owners economics. We get it that way and in lighter capital cost. So I think we've got a pretty durable proposition. And so it's rinse, lather, repeat.

Right. Maybe we can segue real quick to the business market. First of all, you guys signed an MVNO with T-Mobile to attack the business market in wireless. How big of an opportunity is that maybe as a stand-alone business? And how do you expect it to impact the business segment?

Well, wireless -- I mean, Business Services itself has grown into a $10 billion-plus revenue business. It's 25% of our Connectivity revenues from nothing a little over a decade ago, very high overall margins, high incremental margins. We started in the small business segment where we have high penetration, getting a little bit of competition in that space from fixed wireless, but as we've added capabilities from cyber to network management and the like, we've really focused on deepening relationships in the small business end, but also pursuing a mid- and enterprise-size market opportunity where we've been doing really well.

We had a couple of acquisitions that have given us -- tuck-in acquisitions that have given us capability sets necessary or helpful anyway to advancing our enterprise and mid-market strategy. And having the T-Mobile MVNO for business gives us the ability to offer more lines, which -- than what we had in the other MVNO and so they're happy to do it, and it's nice to have another partner and deepen the relationship and build a relationship with T-Mobile alongside our good relationship with Verizon.

Just lastly on the Connectivity side. Just the relationship with Verizon, there's a lot of people that I think that -- it renews here in January. Just how is that relationship? And are they serving your needs?

It's a good relationship. I have connected with the new top of the house. I think we are both interested in making things work well for both of us. And I think that's the attitude that we're moving forward with.

Great. And in the couple of minutes we have here, just sort of some higher-level questions. Can you talk about your confidence about getting back to revenue and EBITDA growth in the second half, maybe on a consolidated basis?

Yes. So we -- I think the kind of pivots that we'll have as we get to the second half of next year is obviously on the NBC side, we lap Season 1 of the NBA. And so that will, on the profit side, get to the point I was making earlier that driving revenue growth from there should be accretive to bottom line growth, and that's our intention, both top and bottom line...

And that contract is -- right? You have more and more revenues against a straight line [ sort of ] expenses?

Correct. Yes. And we'll probably talk about it. But next year, remember, there will be many hundreds of millions of dollars. Our cash written -- our cash sent to the NBA will be lower than what we're -- what's hitting the P&L, just FYI on the free cash flow side.

Parks on a trajectory of growth. Studios, a great slate, but the Studio P&L bounces around a little bit but creates long-term value. And then on the Connectivity side, I mean the major dynamic is going to be -- obviously, we have to respond to whatever competitive dynamics continue to be out there. And so promising anything, we will get to a large -- like I said, significant majority of our customers by the time we are exiting 2026 will be on our new go-to-market plans. And basically, once you get to the third quarter of next year, we will hit the anniversary of having lit up the free mobile line, which is then for -- we'll try to do the best we can, converting those to paying. Remember, they're not converting, they're still converting to a serious discount relative to market rates.

So we feel pretty good about that opportunity and are kind of getting ready to do that. So those will be the dynamics as we -- definitely, as we're looking into '27, but we'll start to see the emergence of that in the latter part of next year.

Great. And then a couple of quick questions on capital allocation. Maybe first on the comp, the cable side. The network upgrades are almost done. Have we seen peak CapEx? And what's the company's appetite for more fiber upgrades?

So something like our network is 95% fiber. So we can do as much fiber as we want as time passes. But what the point is that we're on our road map within the capital envelope of roughly what we currently are doing or talking about doing to get to multi-gig symmetrical through DOCSIS 4.0 over the next several years.

So -- but we will feed -- going back to capital allocation, the strategy is always to feed the businesses and the leadership teams that we have in the segments, the six growth segments that we've talked about and build businesses ourselves, which is what you've seen us do. And that's a little bit NBA, that's a little bit Taylor Sheridan, that's definitely Epic Universe, that's building our network, that's building a wireless business, that's building Business Services, all things that happened because we prioritize putting capital and resources behind businesses that we think have long-term growth and great leadership. It's probably the most effective thing to do for shareholders. So check the box that, that's a high priority and continues to be.

We want to keep a strong balance sheet. It's been important to us, and that's our intention to continue with a little bit of the story of the Warner Bros. side of it is that, that was a constraint on what we were willing to do and that's okay.

And then third is return of capital, which we've done a tremendous job of returning capital over the last several years. Part of that is the dividend, 17 years of increasing the dividend. And just a note on that as we roll into 2026, we'll start the year and 5 days in, we'll separate. But Comcast shareholders looking into 2026, will get the Comcast dividend as it is together with the new Versant announced at their Investor Day a 20% dividend payout ratio target. So the combined effect of that is roughly -- is nearly a 5% dividend increase combined for the Comcast shareholder today. So that will make it 18 years.

Perfect. That was a great wrap up.

Thanks for spending the time, everybody. I appreciate all the support.

Thank you.

Please welcome Wylie Collins, EVP, Investor Relations and Treasury.

Good afternoon, and thank you for joining us for Versant's inaugural Investor Day. We've been working hard to prepare Versant for its journey as an independent company, and we're excited to share our vision for the future. We have a packed agenda today. You'll hear from our leadership team about the businesses that comprise Versant, and you'll also hear from some of our on-air talent and a few of our key partners. We also have a break in the agenda to allow us to catch our breath for at least a few minutes and at the end of the presentations, we will have a Q&A session. For those of you with us here today, we also hope you'll join us for a reception after the program. But before we get to any of that, I would like to draw your attention to the important notice on the screen right now which concerns forward-looking statements, non-GAAP measures and other information. But most importantly, let's get the program underway. Thank you once again for joining us, and we'll see you at the Q&A.

[Presentation]

Please welcome VERSANT's Chief Executive Officer, Mark Lazarus.

Thank you. That tape has great energy, and it gives me a lot of energy. Thank you all for being here. We are thrilled to be able to be here today to talk with you about our strategy and our plans. Now I've spent my entire career in media. That's some 40 years. In that time, I have been a disruptor. I have been disrupted and I know that this is an incredibly interesting time and a challenging time for our industry. We are certainly aware of the trends, but it is also a time of great opportunity. And I've never been more excited than I am right now. Because as you will see today, Versant has a unique set of assets, a dedicated leadership team, and we are prepared to defy expectations, be innovators in the markets that we serve. This is a company with a mandate to build beyond cable, in fact, beyond media, when we are ready to transform and positioning ourselves to win. So let's dive in.

First, Versant is a home to a diversified collection of 11 well-known brands. Our portfolio includes networks, streaming, digital transaction, software solutions and more. And we have spent this last year, separating the companies, operating these businesses and strategically planning for transformation. Unlike most other companies, our brands play an integral role in the lives of our fans, and we know why. Live is still the domain of the television networks and Versant is there at the moment that people care about. During the biggest moments for our country, be that election nights or inauguration days, critical moments in the stock market from opening bells to news -- the breaking news, exhilarating moments on the pitch, the track, the court or the green or wherever champions are crowned. We are the most talked about moments in Hollywood by owning the red carpet. If audiences care, we are there, which means that right now for millions of people, the country's most devoted audiences, not to mention our advertisers and our distributors, Versant is indispensable.

Our vision is clear. And you can see it here, but let me read it out loud. Versant is an industry-changing force. I'm going to say that part again. Versant is an industry-changing force in sports, news and entertainment. Home to iconic and trusted brands that inspire that inform and delight audiences. Our unique combination of content and services enrich the cultural fabric igniting passions, sparking conversations and connecting people to what they love most, okay?

So what does that exactly mean? Well, at the heart of it, it's about the audiences, the fans, the users, our customers. Last year, 14.4 billion hours of content were watched on our -- in our programs. Fully half the country watches our content each and every month with distribution that puts us well ahead of almost every streamer out there. And it's not just about content, it's also about commerce. Our digital platforms processed 140 million transactions this past year. That includes tee times, movie tickets, video rentals and video purchases. So this company goes well beyond advertising and subscriptions. It also helps to explain why we'll have such a strong, profitable business from day 1.

In fiscal 2025, Versant is expected to generate $6.6 billion in revenue, $2.2 billion in EBITDA and $1.4 billion in free cash flow. That's a tremendous starting point. We also have an exceptional and experienced management team. Every single person up here has a deep understanding of our industry, a passion for our brands, and most importantly a strong vision for how to grow their unique audiences and the surrounding businesses. Now personally, I'm excited for you to be able to meet the team that we've assembled. You're going to hear from the entire top row today about their businesses and about our plans. But I'm also excited for this team because with this new company, they will have the ability and the resources to invest in these businesses and flex in new ways to bring their best ideas to life. Our management team will also be supported by a world-class Board of Directors with experience over decades, helping steer public companies. And we're glad that our Board Chair, David Novak, and our Board member, David Eun, are here with us today. Thank you both for being here. This group will draw on their wide range of expertise across industries, their experience driving innovation, transformation, and I'm thrilled that we will have their guidance.

We will operate in 4 large growing markets: business news and personal finance, political news and opinion, golf and athletics participation and sports and genre entertainment. And what you'll see is that every single one of these, we have a beloved brand, very large and loyal audiences, financial scale, powerful digital platforms that take us beyond television and in many cases, beyond media. In each and every one, there are strong growth opportunities. Yes, we have big TV revenues, but that only scratches the surface. So let me take you through each of these one by one. First, Business News and Personal Finance, this is upwards of a $20 billion market with more people looking to understand the 24/7 markets and looking for timely information about trends impacting their portfolios now more than ever. We are the market leaders with CNBC.

Since 2019, the number of retail investors has gone up 40% to 107 million people, and the audience for online business and financial news has grown 25%. CNBC is the #1 global business media brand. It is also the leading digital site for business news and the #1 media outlet for top CEOs and C-suite executives to get their message out. And if you look at the market for political news in opinion, you'll see a very similar story. The audience that's interested in political issues and current events has grown 35% since 2019 to a total of 75 million people. And once again, Versant leads with MS Now. MS NOW is the #2 rated network in every genre for 7 straight years and is the #3 network so far in 2025 with a lot of momentum since last month's election, where we were the dominant network. In addition to the success on television, it's also the #1 digital site for political news and the #1 news brand on YouTube in 2024. That shows real range, real scale, real market power. We move to the golf industry.

This is a $45 billion market, and it's growing fast, both on and off the course with 59 million fans in counting, up 37% in just 2 years. Versant is at the center of this momentum, capturing 40% of all golf hours watched with more live golf than all other networks combined. We also deliver a suite of services to golfers and golf courses which you'll hear more about in just a minute. There's lots of opportunity in golf and we're ready to continue to deliver high-quality median services for our fans and the broader golf industry.

And then there's the broadest and biggest market of malls, sports and entertainment. The popularity for this just keeps increasing with 700 billion hours watched in the industry, and it's a $200 billion market. Audiences continue to gravitate towards these cultural moments and that command real attention and scale. From USA on television with the #1 scripted original this year in the rainmaker to Fandango for movie tickets or to buy or rent and stream at home video, Rotten Tomatoes for review and discovery, to E! SYFY and Oxygen for pop culture, science fiction and True Crime, all genres with proven digital, live and micro-transaction revenue success. We are big in TV, and we have large digital audiences with huge transactional volume.

Now across all of these markets, 2 big things really differentiate us from the rest. First, it's the strength of our brands. And you can see they are well known across the country with near total awareness. And as I mentioned, these are big, profitable portfolio which has been historically managed with different priorities. Investing to build these brands was simply not a priority. I was managing some of them. They were under resourced, but that won't be the case anymore. Now we will invest back into the business.

The second element that differentiates us is our focus on live programming. Live programming is a major driver of today's total TV audience and accounts for more than 1/3 of the viewing this past year compared to just 1/4 just a few years back. At Versant, 62% of our audience comes from live programming, largely across sports and news. Live TV is hard. We produce a lot of it. It's what the audiences are looking for. We do it really well, not that many people do. And by the way, the influence of our audience is truly remarkable. Just think about Morning Joe and Squawk Box. We are reaching the most important people in the world live every day.

We also have long-term relationships with sports leagues, including the PGA Tour and NASCAR, who are fantastic partners and their leaders are here with us today, and you'll meet them in just a few moments. Just take a look at all of our exclusive programming. We've invested in established leagues like the PGA Tour and NASCAR as well as the Premier League and WWE. We're also investing in the rapidly growing fan bases across women's sports like golf, volleyball, the WNBA.

And finally, there's the Olympics which, while not exclusive to us, will be on our air live from Milan in a few weeks and again, in 2028 from Los Angeles as well as a large array of college sports. We also continue to invest in sports. We recently announced an extension of our U.S. GA partnership and a new partnership with the Pac-12. The 62% mix of Versant's audience across live news and sports puts us ahead of established competitors like Paramount WBD and Disney on a percentage basis. With this mix of must-see programming, we're entering the market with significant scale right out of the gate. Whether you measure scale by the time people spend with us or the number of addressable homes we reach, Versant rivals that of almost every streamer in the market. Live programming continues to drive audiences and most of our live events spanning news, sports and entertainment are exclusive to our platforms and can't be found anywhere else. I repeat that exclusive to our platforms and can't be found anywhere else, which makes Versant a valuable partner to advertisers and our pay-TV distribution partners.

You can see this when you look at the details of our audience scale in our core markets and how we stack up against our competitors with leading positions in business news, political news and opinion and golf. The rest of our content, the 38% comes from entertainment program a mix of live moments, scripted and unscripted programming and an incredible library that we own and can monetize in new ways, in some cases, monetize for the very first time. With this strong foundation, we have a multipart strategy to win. First, we're going to win with premium content. Content is who we are and what we do best. Our TV business is still big and profitable, and we will be able to lever our brands. Second, we're going to keep expanding our audience beyond the pay TV ecosystem. We're going to reach new customers, whether that's through new video distribution channels or new experiences like podcasts, live events or transactional.

In other words, growth. A third is we're going to scale and launch digital platforms from growing already successful platforms like GolfNow, and Fandango to developing new offerings and services that harness the momentum of our trusted brands and that scale of our audiences, and that translates to more growth. And finally, we will do all of this with a relentless focus on operating efficiency and a disciplined capital allocation with our strong balance sheet at the core. That includes directing capital to pursue opportunities that align closely with our strategy as we work to turn our diverse portfolio of brands into an even more diverse set of revenue streams.

We are making acquisitions like free TV networks and Indy Cinema, which will extend our leadership to new audiences and services. Anand will share more on these in a few minutes. While we're not afraid to -- we're also not afraid to consider value-maximizing options for businesses that may not perfectly fit or align with our new direction. It's exactly what we're doing right now with sports engine, where we're exploring strategic alternatives. If you take a quick look at our 2024 revenue mix. 83% of our revenue came from our network businesses in some form, while 17% came from our digital platforms and other non-pay TV resources.

Over the next few years, we're going to evolve each of these business models to be more balanced. And every strategic decision we are making is with that goal in mind. As you can see, in each of our 4 markets, we are in various stages of this evolution and how we shift is going to be determined by specific market dynamics and opportunities and needs of our consumers and our fans. Let me give you an example of how we did this already with our golf business. It's the most developed of the businesses we operate in that regard, and it's the best indicator of where we're headed. 15 years ago, our golf business was just the Gulf channel, but then we started investing. We acquired the [ Nascent ] but rapidly growing GolfNow, which is a business where golfers can book online tee time similar to OpenTable or Resyi for restaurant reservations. And that took our golf revenues outside of pay TV. We then started branching into software for golf courses, and we've seen enormous success there.

We recently also added a digital subscription business called GolfPass, where golfers get exclusive content and learn from the great Rory McIlroy and gain other benefits from their membership like Tee Times and rewards.

So right now, when you look at our overall golf business, about half of our revenue comes from pay TV and half comes from GolfNow and our other related services that we offer. We are not in the golf media business. We are in the golf business. And that is the model for what Versant will do across all of our verticals, investment in growth, powered by our trusted brands, knowing that we'll have to execute and approach that will be tailored for each of other specific markets and each specific brand. I want to say in closing, Versant's competitive advantage is clear. We are not stuck in old media. We are being unleashed to grow further and grow our businesses beyond the bundle. Our mission is to expand beyond the multichannel universe and these vertical markets all have significant opportunities.

In fact, one of our definitions of Versant is vertically ascendant, and we are well on our way. We are a leader in 4 large and growing markets, that are vital to their audiences and their partners with live programming, you just can't miss. We have an experienced management team that is ready to run with these businesses and to use this unique combination of financial scale and flexibility to invest today as we build for tomorrow. And now to tell you more about our strategy and our plans of how exactly we're going to go about this, please welcome my friend, my partner, our COO and CFO, Anand Kini.

So thank you, Mark, and thank you all for being here. So you just heard Mark review our growth strategy, and that growth strategy is the foundation of our business model. And it's also how we plan to drive significant shareholder value. And we're going to drive it really across 3 dimensions. So first, our exclusive, mostly live programming and brands make us economically advantaged in pay TV. So as a result, we have and will continue to have a highly profitable portfolio of networks.

Second, our network leadership and brand strength enables us to grow by expanding our audience and building digital platforms that address a full spectrum of consumer needs in markets that we know very, very well. As you just saw, these markets are very large totaling hundreds of billions of dollars. And we believe we have a lot of room to grow share. So our business model isn't just about harvesting current success. But rather, it's on building and extending it. And then third, this all comes together to form a stable, highly cash-generating business, driving immediate returns to shareholders while we concurrently transition to a growth platform long term. We think there are few, if any, other companies that can pursue and execute this strategy. It takes programming that audiences want and can't get anywhere else. Brands that consumers love, leadership in growing dynamic markets, a proven track record of building growth platforms and a well-capitalized financial model that enables the investment.

Versant checks every one of those boxes. So now I'd like to dig deeper into each element of that growth strategy and the impact on our business. So let me begin with how we are going to continue to win with premium content and how that underpins our success in Pay TV. Let me start with some table setting. We're all aware of the structural challenges facing Pay TV. And they are real, whether that's moderate cord cutting, audience fragmentation or digital competition. However, at the same time, Pay TV is a massive audience platform that we believe will remain highly relevant for many years to come. So even with all the growth in streaming, Pay TV still represents 2/3 of all professional video hours consumed. And virtually all the hours of sports and news watched. So in other words, while it's not a growth business, we believe pay TV's demise has been significantly exaggerated. And we're confident it will be an important part of the media ecosystem and highly profitable for many years to come.

And this isn't only because of pay TV's vast scale. It's also because of our success in this market. We are winning in pay TV due to our differentiated exclusive content. And there's a specific example that I think illustrates our success and also highlights how Versant is a leading voice in the biggest moments for our country. So for that, let's go back to the 2024 election. At every moment on that road to election day, MS NOW was there and massive audiences watched. From the state of the union in March, which generated the largest state of the union audience in MS NOW's history, to the very first Harris-Walz rally when MSW NOW was the top-rated network in all of TV to the Democratic National Convention, when yet again, it was the top-rated TV network beating all competitors in cable and broadcast. And then to election night, where MS NOW once more, enjoyed great success. So put very simply, MS NOW was the place to see and understand what was happening. And this isn't only about 2024.

So just last month, MS NOW was the #1 network in all of cable on election night, and you're going to hear more about that from Rebecca in a little bit. And we're going to keep building on this momentum into the 2026 midterms, the 2028 presidential election at all points in between. Just like with major news events, there are countless examples of our success in value in sports. Mark already talked about our breadth in sports, but we also have great depth. And I think it's the combination of those 2 that make us truly indispensable for sports fans. So we have more NASCAR Cup Series races than any other platform. We have 45% of all Premier League soccer matches aired. We're the only outlet that's going to have more than 50 WNBA games, including the playoffs. We're WWE's largest television network partner with live events every week of the year. And we have more than 2x as many PGA tour events as any other network. And in just a few weeks, we're going to be airing 475 hours of the Milan Olympics. Importantly, other than the Olympics, all of these sporting events are exclusive to Versant. So viewers can't get them in any other way.

Now whether it's through sports or news or entertainment, Versant's brands reach the entire U.S., and they really connect people to what they love. Our programming resonates broadly across various demographics and also attracts some of the most sought-after audiences. It's really what makes our network so valuable when you're talking about audiences, distributors or marketers. So in Americas Heartland, it might be NASCAR and the WWE. In urban areas, it could be the premier lead PGA Tour or CNBC. And of not there, the Golf Channel and CNBC feature audiences with the highest household income across both all TV networks and the largest streamers. Or if you're looking to reach women and also a lot of men, it's the WNBA, MS NOW or E!. The point is, no matter what part of the country or what kind of audience, Versant is the place for hugely popular, exclusive and live programming. And that's just our existing audience. Our brands and market leadership enable us to reach new audiences, expanding and growing our business. These new audiences will be from outside pay TV. So pay TV today comprises 67 million households where we are very well positioned. We've broadly distributed networks and a profitable business model. And yet, this is still only about half of U.S. households.

So to reach the other half, we are going beyond pay TV through things like AVOD and SVOD, over the air and social media and also entirely different non-video formats like audio and live events. And through these new distribution channels, we can nearly double our audience reach and monetize our content in new ways. That's going to evolve our revenue mix and drive growth. And finally, this isn't just some kind of aspiration or future plan, but rather it's an effort already well underway. And on this, we have momentum. So whether it's our news digital sites, apps, YouTube presence, live events, all of which are market leaders to adding over-the-air distribution to Oxygen network.

So we reach new viewers who can access the network through an antenna. And that now currently accounts for about 20% of Oxygen's audience. And as Versant, we're now investing in a new set of growth drivers to further expand the audience. Things like a D2C service for MS NOW fans, a Fandango ad-supported streaming offering and an acquisition of a company called Free TV Networks. You're going to hear about all 3 of these today, but let me spend a little bit of time on that very last one.

I mentioned that about half of U.S. households are not pay TV subscribers and help address these households. We recently entered into an agreement in principle to acquire Free TV Networks. If you're wondering what the company does well, the name kind of says it all, it offers free ad-supported networks delivered on a digital broadcast over the air. So consumers access these networks at no cost, either through a physical antenna or through certain video distributors. And then through its long-term carriage agreements with local stations across the country, Free TV Networks reaches basically all U.S. households with a TV. The company was founded by Jonathan Katz, and he had built a similar business, which he sold to Scripps Networks back in 2017. So he has a proven track record of growing these businesses rapidly. The company currently has 4 networks, each of which target a distinct audience with relevant library titles from third-party studios. And over time, we plan to adverse in series to the programming schedule as well. And we potentially will add new networks too.

While Free TV Networks is only 2 years old, it's already seeing really good traction with audience and advertising. Now as to why we're bullish on this business, it's really because the fundamentals of the business and the industry are very strong. So the aggregate over-the-air audience is increasing industry-wide. There's about 20 million households today access TV exclusively over the air, and that represents about 16% of all households in the U.S. And importantly, this represents just viewers who use their antennas exclusively. The available market for OTA networks is much larger than that because it also includes, for example, those who can access the OTA networks through their video distributors. And with home antenna is now costing as little as $20, and streaming service prices continuing to increase over-the-air has emerged as a very cost-effective option for consumers. And we see these favorable trends in ratings. So 2 of the top 25 rated networks in all of TV are in this over-the-air category. And competitor over-the-air networks are realizing double-digit ratings growth year-on-year.

The audience strength then is translating to healthy monetization with scaled OTA portfolios generating hundreds of millions of revenue. And to be clear, Free TV Networks is small today but we plan to invest. And the growth potential is significant and the business naturally extends to fast channels, too. And then more broadly, this business is aligned with the strategy, our strategy of expanding audience addressing non pay TV homes and driving growth. So I just reviewed now some plans on how we're going to reach new audiences.

I'd now like to cover how we're thinking of launching and scaling our digital platforms because that's also a way that we expect to meaningfully grow and evolve versus revenue mix. So today, we operate 2 large popular platforms in GolfNow and Fandango. These platforms have done really well, but there's still a lot of untapped opportunity. Just to take one example. Despite its leadership in golf course management software and tee time reservations, GolfNow is only used by about 1/4 of golf courses and represents less than 10% of total golf grounds booked. It's a very similar story for Fandango in terms of its relative share. With the strength of these products and the size of the relevant markets, the opportunity to gain share is clear, and that's the focus of our investment and execution plans.

You're going to hear more specifics on exactly how we plan to increase share from Will McIntosh, the leader of those platforms later today. At the same time, we are also focused on developing new platforms. So for Fandango, we're moving into the business-to-business services, much like we did with GolfNow. We're doing so through the acquisition of Indy Cinema, which makes a software platform for cinema operators. For GolfNow, we're expanding internationally. And we will take our expertise to new markets, including a CNBC subscription service focused on the retail investor. You're going to hear more about the CNBC and golf opportunities later.

So let me dig into that first example Indy Cinema. So Indy offers the only full-service operating system for cinema operators. It's a comprehensive solution addressing all operator needs be going from ticketing to point of sale to inventory management to real-time analytics and more. It basically encompasses everything a cinema operator needs to run their business. We think Indy Cinema has the best product in the market with a great opportunity to win significant share. So most existing technology services for cinema operators, their legacy base, they're challenging to implement, and they're fragmented.

In contrast, Indy offers a modern cloud-based platform with significant native functionality as well as integration to top third-party services. So it offers a unified one-stop solution. It's also global in scope as Indy brings customers from around the world. So with Fandango's deep relationships with cinema operators, we're well positioned to grow Indy by offering it together with our existing Fandango ticketing service. Indy is already generating significant cost savings and incremental revenue for its customers, and we are confident that we will now do so for a much larger universe. And that includes more than just cinemas even if that's our initial focus. We see potential to support thousands of other entertainment venues, which taken together, comprise an over $50 billion marketplace. Financially, our acquisition of Indy Cinema and pending purchase of Free TV Networks don't impact our capital position and liquidity much at all. And we expect them to positively and quickly contribute to the P&L. These deals underscore how we identify and execute upon strategic opportunities to drive versus growth.

We look for businesses that are aligned with our 4 core markets, focused on natural extensions of our brands and help transition our business model because that's how we win. As Mark said, we win with more premium content reaching more people as we expand our audience and driving more experiences, services and platforms. Then that translates to a strong dynamic business that can drive value in the short, medium and long term. Now you're going to hear from each of our business leads about where we're headed, and we're going to start with CNBC and KC Sullivan.

[Presentation]

Good afternoon, everyone. That video captures everything that I love about this brand. I've been lucky enough to be part of CNBC for more than a decade as CFO, Head of our International business and the leader of the global ad sales strategy and for the last 3 years as President. Every day, I'm reminded that now more than ever, CNBC is a powerful, essential global brand. You may have noticed our new logo. It's a symbol of the direction where we're headed and the exciting new chapter we're headed into.

We are the #1 destination for global business media. Our insights reach 500 million people around the world every month. And we see the passion and loyalty of our audience in many different ways, from the most Google searches to the highest brand favorability. And in my mind, just as important as our scale is who we reach. As you've heard already, the most influential CEOs and leaders turn to CNBC with more than 200 CEOs of S&P 500 companies appearing on our air in the past year. And it's not just the business world. We've had over 180 interviews with top administration officials, including President Trump in 2025. They all come to CNBC because they know what we stand for, reporting that is fast accurate, actionable and unbiased. Our balance perspective has made us the epicenter for all things business.

We're the leaders of major public and private companies come to set the global agenda. And as a result, for 30 years, we've cultivated the most highly educated and most affluent audience in all of cable television. The numbers confirmed. CNBC is winning the decision makers that move markets and shape the global economy like financial industry professionals, retail investors and high net worth individuals. These are the valuable sought-after viewers that our guests, partners and advertisers want to reach and no one else can attract. But our relationship extends far beyond just TV.

We enjoy a leading scale with our global digital assets as well with the most visitors and most times spend. We want to super serve our audience wherever and whenever they turn to us, whether that's on our network, global digital platforms, YouTube channels, newsletters or through subscription products like CNBC Pro. And I want to be clear, while the business news space may be crowded, the unique combination of brand strength and engagement with CNBC in a class of its own with no meaningful competition in our space. It's why CNBC is already making headway towards diversifying our revenue mix. And we're just going to keep that momentum going.

Now that all starts by continuing to deliver premium business news content. Whether that's Joe Kernen, Becky Quick and Andrew Ross Sorkin holding a Fortune 500 CEO to account right here at the Nasdaq for Jim Cramer and Carl Quintanilla broadcasting live from the floor of the New York Stock Exchange or David Faber breaking news on a major M&A deal on The Faber Report. That unrivaled access of our world-class talent means that we can deliver exclusive timely information in the moments that matter. We're committed to reaching even more consumers with this information through video and other formats like events and podcasts.

Now we have many vehicles to drive that growth. But today, I'd like to focus on 2 specific areas. First, given the value of our platforms, brands and audiences, CNBC is a compelling partner for premier business and financial firms. So we'll continue to develop strategic partnerships that accelerate our growth. And second, we see an opportunity to expand our own platforms to address broader consumer needs and interests. I'll start with the partnership approach. We're constantly evaluating partners that value the strength and credibility of our brand, the quality of our journalism and the power of our audience. But we're also looking for companies that are leaders in the sectors driving today's economy so that we can extend our offering to the areas our audience cares about most.

We've done this by aligning with AI companies to develop new products for our consumers, exploring audience needs around crypto. And today, by stepping into an exciting emerging asset class, the prediction markets. If you've been watching CNBC, you know that prediction markets are quickly shaping how investors and business leaders think about important events, whether the Fed will increase interest rates, who win the next presidential election. So today, I'm pleased to announce that CNBC has entered an agreement with Kalshi, the leading prediction market platform. There's 3 ways this relationship will work. First, it will enhance our editorial coverage. Every day, our anchors and analysts unpack the biggest questions facing companies and the economy. And now they have access to exclusive data from Kalshi to more deeply understand public consensus in real time. Second, there's a significant growth opportunity for our business.

As part of this deal, Kalshi's prediction markets will be profiled across our platforms. We've also agreed to a multiyear commercial relationship around advertising and customer acquisition. Finally, Kalshi will help us connect with a generation of younger, digitally native audiences since many of Kalshi's users are under the age of 40, and increasingly consume business news through data-driven formats. We will also have an exclusive markets page on Kalshi's platform. And I should say, this is just one example of how CNBC is forging new strategic partnerships to deliver accelerated growth.

Another way that we'll deliver growth is by investing in new services that expand both our audience and monetization. We're taking deliberate steps to evolve our entire digital ecosystem with a clear priority around subscription, reflecting our deep belief in the value of quality journalism. So we ask ourselves, where do we have a right to play and the resources to offer a compelling, differentiated and superior solution? And the answer could not be clear, the retail investor. You've heard earlier about the rise of retail investing. This is an impressive growing market with millions of active retail investors who represent over $5 billion in weekly trading inflows, and many are already CNBC fans.

We know these investors already subscribe to services to support their investing in financial needs. In fact, households earning over $200,000 pay for, on average, 3 finance-related subscriptions. And there is a market of 18 million people who are both active retail investors and business news subscribers. That tells us something important. There's a major opportunity here. With CNBC Pro, we already have the foundation in an established audience that is able and willing to pay, but we're ready to go further. Here's what investors have told us. Current subscription products are fragmented, subscale, narrow and focus and lack the trust and depth that CNBC can provide. What they want is stock recommendations, tools and data, real-time information and a smart actionable analysis from a brand that they trust. And get this, half of consumers we surveyed say that all 4 of those elements matter most in the business news product.

So we're evolving CNBC Pro in launching a new product that brings all of this together plus robust portfolio tracking, advanced charting, AI-powered quantitative analysis and community tools. Supporting all of these features is a deeply personalized experience that harnesses the power of AI to deliver content feeds that are tailored to each individual user. Work is already underway to build this comprehensive must-have service for the retail investor. And over time, we'll explore other areas of interest like wealth, energy options.

So in closing, let me say this. It's not lost on me that most in this room, know CNBC intimately. It's a privilege to play such an important role in what you all do day in and day out. And it's in conversations I've had with so many of you in this room about what CNBC needs to business and the markets and how we can raise the bar even higher. That's what gives me tremendous faith in the future of CNBC. So as you've heard today, that future is already coming into focus, and I'm proud to be part of the journey. And knowing that I'm in a room full of investors, we wouldn't be super serving our audience if I didn't give you some exclusive CNBC content.

So I'm pleased to welcome 2 people who are instrumental in our efforts. Our Editor-in-Chief David Cho and co-anchor of CNBC Squawk Box, Andrew Ross Sorkin.

Good afternoon, everybody. It's a privilege here to be with David somebody I've actually been competing against in a way for a long time. You've been in this business now 30 years.

Yes, a long time.

Long time. You've been at Barron's, you've been in Washington Post and you came to lead CNBC just about in August now. So the big question is you had a pretty good gig before this. Why did you decide to take on this opportunity and to come to Versant.

To hang with you, of course, on this stage. No, I mean, listen, there's a lot that went into it, but I would say a big reason why decided to come -- it's actually because of the spin. That may sound strange. But to me, the spin represented opportunity, it represented -- we would be free to go for it, to innovate, to form partnerships, some of which KC talked about, whether it's Kalshi or artificial intelligence company, we would be free to sort of go for it. But the spin to me also meant that you'd be urgent for us to do it. There'd be pressure, I kind of wanted that start-up mentality. It's just the great thing about CNBC is we're well capitalized, and we also have an established name brand. We don't have the same struggles of other startups.

My only question really was -- is the leadership team right? Is it the right group of people? And as I got to know KC, Anand, Laz, I felt this was the right team to join. They were urgent, they're idea oriented. They've got to really operate on egos like in the discussions, we get to truth and ideas. It's been a great team. So I think we can take some really big swings.

Okay. So here's the question that I have for you because you -- and we -- as I said, we've both been competing against each other in this space for a long time. I don't know how you think business journalism has fundamentally changed over the period of time that you've been in it now. But maybe more importantly, where you think it all goes, what it actually ends up looking like as we're all sitting here trying to figure out the future?

Yes. Well, listen, it's journalism and business journalism in particular, is always changing. It's been changing for all the entire 30 years I've been in it. But if you look at the landscape now, actually, there are news organizations that are doing very well. They're like growing revenues, they're growing in prominence. And they're -- what they're doing is they're putting up and we've seen this kind of increase over the past couple of years, they are increasingly emphasizing exclusive high-quality content. And they're asking people to pay for it.

And I don't think everybody can do this. Like I think local journalism has really struggled in this regard. And there are some that just chase cheaper clicks and now they're struggling to put up paywalls. Let me tell you, CNBC definitely is worth paying for. It's definitely worth -- if you think about by the time Jim Cramer wraps. We've got about 80 to 85 interviews a day. Many of them are exclusive. The stuff that you can only get at CNBC and those stories, those journalists of that they move markets. Let me give you a couple of examples from the past few weeks. So a few weeks ago, Kraft Heinz announced that they were going to explore splitting. So Mac & Cheese was divorcing from ketchup basically.

Now later that afternoon, your cohost Becky Quick, she called me and said, "I have an exclusive here, that the guy who put ketchup and Mac & Cheese together and is their biggest shareholder, Warren Buffet is not happy about this. So we broke that story on air. We published a story. We alerted it at that moment, and the stock moved 7% off that story. And it moved because that story came from a trusted brand and a trusted journalist. And you've probably experienced this a lot of times, too, as you've sort of done this.

Around that same time, actually, we broke one of the biggest stories in technology, which was the $100 billion deal between OpenAI and NVIDIA. And when we broke that story on air, and we broke it online, too, the markets were down 1%. And the markets ended up, up 1%. That story literally moved the markets 2%. And if you're anywhere in business or in technology or in the markets, you -- that information isn't nice to have. It's essential to have. You have to have that in the moment it's breaking. If you love Mac & Cheese, you probably want to read that story, too. So I think if you look at that, I'm pretty confident people will pay for that. companies will pay for that. There are partnerships to be done with artificial intelligence firms on all of this. The future is bright on that front.

Okay. So here's a question for you. One of the craziest things that I find about my job is not just who we have on our broadcast and the exclusive news that we're able to bring people, but actually who's watching it in real time, which is to say, I think myself, Joe and Becky every single morning, as we're looking down at our e-mail and oftentimes our phone are getting literally text messages from some of the leading CEOs in America to the White House. And you can feel it. You can see it. Sometimes they're writing in real time about a guest that's coming up or a question that was asked saying, I can't believe this is happening or you should really go figure this out. And my question to you is, not just how important it is to be able to capture that audience, but what you think you're going to need to do to keep and grow that audience?

Yes, that's a great question. I mean I was in the control room, I think, when I was watching you guys down at the NASDAQ. And literally, this morning, you were talking about housing and the Fed, there were Trump administration officials tweeting at you, answering the questions that you're raising on air in real time. It's amazing to see just our power to convene and to gather that influential people. And I saw it at your 30th squad party, too. Just the people in that room, it was like the power brokers of business and politics and Bill Murray.

Bill Murray and Warren Buffett.

Warren Buffett, there we go. But that's a very unique part of CNBC, this power to convene. And so I'll say how do -- we have to keep that and continue to put out high-quality programming, no question. But I also think a big part of CNBC's future is that you take the greatness of what we're doing on cable and you bring it before the massive audience we have online, but you've got to bring it into forms that digital audiences will consume it. Not all digital audiences will just take in the cable stream raw. So that may be part of it. But I think if you put it in forms they can really absorb it, then we're going to expose huge audiences to our highest quality content.

A final question. We talk about leadership on Squawk Box all the time, the philosophy of leadership and who's good at it, who's not good at it. And I'm curious, right now, when you think about the leadership in the world of news of live, what does it actually take to be effective now? And how is that different than before?

Yes. I mean there's -- listen, there's many answers to this. I think the guests on Squawk would have many answers to this. I mean, I guess, to me, right now in this moment, what you see is essential over and over again is leadership in the midst of change. And we've got to be adaptable. We got to understand how platforms are changing, the rise of LLMs. We've got to be flexible and adapt to that. Let me give you like an example of this. KC talked about this outreach to retail investors. I think we have incredible expertise on air on shows like Halftime and Fast Money. Some of the biggest names in investing are on our air every day.

One of our keys is to take that greatness, those names because investing, like you can get investing information, but investing decisions are often made because you trust the person that's telling it to you. When Jim Cramer says, buy this dip or don't buy this dip, it creates waves because people know him and they trust him. And he's been around in investing for so long. So taking all of that and bringing it into the digital space will be one of our keys, but that's going to take a change in how we do things. The 2 newsrooms are going to really have to work together, communicate see this future together. And so leadership at CNBC will be bringing that kind of unity in the newsroom.

David, I want to thank you. I know you're excited. I'm here because I'm excited about this. I genuinely am. And now I want to turn it over to our colleagues from MS NOW.

Great.

Which I'm also very excited about.

Thank you. Appreciate it.

Thank you.

[Presentation]

Please welcome Rebecca Kutler, President of MS NOW.

I think I might have seen that video about 1,000 times, and I still say wow, every time. And that is why we are just so thrilled to be here with you and share with you our vision for MS NOW and tell you about what we are building. It's about the power of democracy and what it means to be both an informed and an engaged audience. And that is what will be at the core of everything we do as a brand moving forward because our audience knows that we, MS NOW, is the place for politics. I spent my entire career at the intersection of politics and news, covering breaking stories, producing presidential debates and election nights and leading newsroom innovations in a rapidly changing media ecosystem. And I am leveraging every ounce of that experience as we write this next chapter for MS NOW. This is an exciting time for our business. As you all just heard from Mark, political news is a growth category. So let me walk you through a few facts that might surprise you.

Let's start by looking at the entire $59 billion cable business. We often hear about the impact of sports, which is important. But did you know that it's news programming that accounts for 25% of all hours watched on cable, including billions of hours on MS Now. Right now, 3 of the top 5 cable networks in the United States are all political news. It's also true on podcasts, YouTube, TikTok, 3 important platforms where we are active and we are growing. There is so much energy and interest in political media right now, and that is only going to ramp up as we look ahead to 2026, a pivotal midterm election and 2028, the next presidential race. And MS NOW, we are poised to capitalize on all of this momentum. While the challenges of cord cutting are real, our viewers are bucking some of those trends. In fact, MS NOW viewers are 60% less likely to cut the cord, making our network must carry for pay TV distribution partners.

And over the last decade, as much of the industry saw substantial declines, we at MS NOW have nearly doubled our audience in prime time. Let me repeat that. We have doubled our audience in prime time. And beyond viewership numbers, our business is strong. Over the last 5 years, we have delivered the highest revenue in our network's 3-decade history. In other words, despite the headwinds of cord cutting, when you look at the 2 metrics that matter the most in our business, the dedication of our audience and our financials, MS NOW has a strong story to tell. Let me show you another fact that I think is going to surprise you. The MS NOW audience is a lot more politically diverse than most people realize. Yes. Democrats are and always will be essential to our brand and our DNA, but they're actually only about half of our audience. The other half, independents and Republicans. And when we look at the growth of our audience, the broad appeal that we talked about, that has been a big driver of our recent success.

MS NOW has seen double-digit growth from Democrats, independents and Republicans, and we are the only news network that can say that. Of course, there are still ebbs and flows in television viewership. You already heard about the attention we command during an election year. And while it has hardly been a slow year for news, it is what I actually like to call the off-season for politics. In 2025, we are seeing exactly the level of volatility in our audience that we would expect after a presidential campaign. But that volatility, it does not diminish MS NOW's track record of growth over the long term. Look at this. 20 years ago, we were averaging 375,000 viewers in prime time. 10 years ago, 686,000. Today, that number has grown to nearly 1.2 million viewers. That is a steady growth trajectory over the past 2 decades. And as the midterms take center stage, in our political conversations, we expect viewership increases to follow once again.

We're already getting a glimpse of our potential. A few weeks ago, on election night, as the results rolled in and candidates took the stages around the country, MS NOW, we were #1 across all of cable, not just cable news, all of cable. And that momentum, it did not end on that Tuesday night. In the weeks following the election, our viewership was up 34% across the day in total viewers. So in many ways, this is just the opening act for what we expect the potential for the next 3 years to look like. At the same time, we are rapidly growing in ways that go beyond traditional ratings. Let's look at the entire MS NOW ecosystem, which is designed to reach our audience on a growing number of platforms. One example that comes to mind. A recent interview we did with speaker, Mike Johnson, it was right before the longest government shutdown in history. He sat down with our Senior Capitol Hill reporter, Ali Vitali. It was a conversation they had at aired on Morning Joe.

And then we put that same interview, we put it on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, YouTube, and that powered the entire news cycle. And the numbers bear this out. When we consider the whole MS NOW ecosystem, we have one of the most loyal and engaged audiences in all of media. Let me give you a few stats. Our fans, they are loyal. They consume an average of 8 hours of MS NOW on cable each week. We call that engagement, and MS NOW has ranked first or second in engagement in all of cable for 8 consecutive calendar years. Our fans, they are online. They spend more time on our website than any other political news site, and our fans are social across TikTok and YouTube. In 2025, our YouTube channel has driven more views than CBS News, NBC News and ABC News combined. We are running neck and neck with Fox for first place this year. And nowhere is that cross-platform appeal of MS NOW more evident than in our growing podcast business.

This is allowing us to reach new audiences and monetize our content in new ways. We are quickly building a strong slate. This includes audio native megahits and showcasts that extend the reach of our top programming. This year, MS NOW is on track to see more than 135 million podcast downloads, far more than many of our digital-first competitors. And we are excited to continue investing in this space with new shows continuing to drop. Just this week, Rachel Maddow Presents: Burn Order. It dropped just a few days ago. It's already near the top of the Apple podcast charts. In short, MS NOW enters a new era as a proud Versant brand. We are starting from a position of strength. So much of our strength is derived from our trusted talent. They reach loyal audiences across multiple platforms. Let's look at this example. Nicolle Wallace, she also launched a podcast this year, The Best People. It shot to the top of the Apple charts. It stayed there for 3 consecutive weeks in #1.

And now we can take each of those podcast episodes. Of course, we put them on YouTube, but we also give them a weekend slot on linear television. This makes us more efficient and more effective at reaching our audiences everywhere they consume content. And then there's Morning Joe. It's the most watched cable morning show in the nation's capital. It's where the country's top politicians and policymakers turn to see and be seen by their colleagues Joe and Mika's high-profile viewers are a premium demographic, which is why as the show prepares to mark its 20th anniversary, they have just launched a newsletter to extend their influence into the afternoon and further engage one of the most coveted audiences in all of television. But beyond our headliners, we are building something new, independent news gathering operation. It is driving the headlines. It is led by the Emmy, Murrow, Pulitzer and Peabody award-winning journalists that you see here.

And our reporters are already making an impact. We are breaking exclusive stories ahead of our competitors and delivering essential coverage to our audience. So as you can see, we are building something here with a plan to expand by pulling multiple growth levers for our business over the next few years. First and foremost, the path to the 2028 presidential election will run through MS NOW. And if recent history is any guide, that means double-digit audience growth. I want everyone to remember that right after the midterms, basically 1 year from today, the 2028 election kicks off. We expect MS NOW to be the home to many of the cycle's biggest live moments across 2 contested primaries and the general election. And I think it's fair to say that every candidate will need to spend time with our audience. On top of that, next year, we will be unveiling the first-ever D2C offering for the MS NOW community.

You already heard how this fits into Versant's overall strategy, but let me speak to what this means for MS NOW. This is an inflection point for our brand and for our business. In MS NOW's 30-year history, there has never been a serious investment in digital. And our audience has never been given the chance to engage with a direct-to-consumer product that is built for them. It's kind of crazy that no one has built something to reach this incredibly valuable audience until now because the opportunity and the potential audience is significant. From the 24 million Americans who currently pay for a political news subscription to the 130 million political news consumers in the U.S. The appetite is there. But why do we think our product will stand out? Well, we think about the marketplace, and there are a couple of strategies that we believe show promise for us. Fox, yes, Fox, they have proven that you can build a subscription model catering to super fans.

Meanwhile, the New York Times has built a digital business by investing in verticals, audio, games, cooking, we have taken those lessons, and we are building a product that will include the best of both. Our D2C offering will allow users to watch MS NOW's linear feed live on the app, which our super fans will love. But let me be clear, this product is not your typical streaming service, and it's not just another news subscription. It will be a membership community designed to serve our core audience in 3 ways: First, unlocking access to our talent through live and virtual events, providing curated insights just for them, not another endless doom scroll and empowering communities with new moderated spaces for intelligent discussion because while others are attempting the same old SVODs, MS NOW is building a membership community.

So what does that mean? We know in this fragmented landscape, people are craving connection. We see it in our live events, which, by the way, we expect to triple next year. So when our fans sign up for MS NOW's D2C offering, they will be able to interact with people who share their interests and their passions, whether that's neighbors in their local communities or people from across the country. Right now, we are doing consumer research, and we are talking to super fans and future fans to find out exactly what they want. We are aiming to launch this product next summer just as the midterm elections are heating up. Our D2C product will be an important part of the overall MS NOW ecosystem.

This will help amplify and connect the different parts of our business, cable, digital, newsletters, podcasts, live events because in every arena, we have the runway and the strategy to grow. So if you take anything away from this presentation, let it be this. We are focusing on gaining market share across our entire ecosystem, and we are committed to dominating the election cycles over the next 3 years, and we are going to turn these strengths into the ideal launchpad for our new products and platforms. There has never been a more important time to do the work that we are privileged to do. We are built for the future and the future for MS is now.

[Presentation]

Yes, that's a hard act to follow for real. Welcome back, everyone. First, a disclosure, because many of you may know me in my role as senior media and technology reporter for CNBC. In that role, I cover many of the topics and dynamics that you've heard discussed on the stage here today. But today, I'm here as a member of the Versant team. So as you could tell from that video, leading up to this, we're now going to shift gears and talk about Versant's strategies, specifically in entertainment and sports. And we're going to dive in with the 2 leaders of those businesses. Please welcome Val Boreland and Matt Hong. Hi.

How are you?

It's nice to see you, Julia.

Good to see you. I have to tell you, I tried to convince Matt to come out in a towel, but I couldn't get him to go for it.

It's not on brand. It's not on brand for him.

I guess not, I guess not, yes.

So I want to start off and hear a little bit about your backgrounds and how your various experiences is informing the way you're approaching your new roles. Val, let's start with you.

Sure, sure. Hi. I'm Versant's President of Entertainment, and I was at NBCUniversal for the last 9 years, where I led programming strategy and content acquisition for the cable networks and for NBC. I was also part of the original team that started Peacock. Prior to NBCUniversal, I led programming strategy at other cable networks like Viacom that we now know as Paramount and Life Time Television, which is part of A&E Networks. And I've led all aspects of programming, including original programming, live content, content strategy and acquisitions.

So what about you, Matt? What's your background? And how does it play into your approach to this new role?

Yes. Well, I'm the new kid on the stage. I joined Versant this past June to oversee USA Sports, which is the new name for our Sports division. I previously was the President of PlayOn Sports, which is a streaming and ticketing platform in the high school space owned by KKR. And then I previously worked at Turner Sports, now TNT Sports for 11-plus years, the last role as COO. And then prior to sports, I worked in digital at Thomson, which is now Thomson Reuters and then 6-plus years at AOL prior to that.

In a different era of this media ecosystem. Val earlier, we heard a little bit about what's going on in entertainment. And one thing that I report on every day, including today, is how incredibly competitive this market is. And the fact that Versant is going to be a smaller player relative to these media giants raises questions about how you're going to approach that? What's your strategy?

Yes. So Julia, I wouldn't say we're a small player. We're actually a big player. We have really big brands. Versant's viewers watched billions of hours of content on their entertainment networks last year. And that's because we spent decades building these networks and a deep connection to our fans. So we're going to continue to do the things that we do exceptionally well with these big brands. So let's first talk about E!. You heard Mark and Anand talk about the importance of live programming. Well, E! is going to cover the live red carpets of the Oscars, the Grammys, the Emmys, the Met Gala and more.

And next month, we're actually kicking off award season with a live broadcast of the Critics Choice Awards ceremony, which will be hosted again this year by Chelsea Handler, which is great because she's not only a brilliant comedian, but she does her best work in live. And tomorrow, for the first time ever, we'll be announcing the Critics Choice Awards nominations live on E! with a simulcast on USA Network. So let's talk about USA Network. It's a top 5 cable network for 30 years running. Matt and I actually work as teammates programming USA Network, which caters to an audience that enjoys both sports and entertainment content.

And the types of entertainment content I look for rely on recognizable IP and well-known personalities. So this summer, we had our original scripted series based on the John Grisham novel, The Rainmaker, which premiered stupendously, had a really great first season, and we've actually already announced that we're picking up the second season of that show. We have another scripted series that is based on a very popular book series called Anna Pigeon that will be premiering next year. And of course, USA Network does unscripted content. Currently, we have a show called Everything on the Menu with Braun Strowman. Braun is a very popular and very large WWE legend.

Favorite show.

Yes. Matt loves the show. It's doing really well. Actually, tomorrow is our season fine, but I'm pretty optimistic that we'll pick up the second season of that show as well. And third, we have true crime. We have a long history of serving this audience on oxygen. And as a result, we've built a large library of content. Our most popular show Snapped is about to celebrate its 700th episode next year. And the great thing about this content is that we own it. So we're able to monetize it by selling second window rights to third-party platforms. And then finally, we have Sci-Fi.

It's another discrete and passionate fan base that loves our science fiction, fantasy and action content. And we're excited about the original scripted series we have a third season of returning next year called The Ark. So simply put, our strategy is to keep super serving these fandoms with our scripted, unscripted live and sports content and to continue to build our content library so that we can leverage them in new ways through licensing, distribution and building our own AVOD content so we can continue to grow our audiences.

So maybe not as large as some of the other media conglomerates, but with these dedicated fan bases and really deep in each of these areas. The true crime category, whenever I see these stats, it's just fascinating. How obsessive those fans are. But when you look, though, at this idea of competing with the larger giants, Matt, walk us through here what your strategy is for sports because you're competing not just for eyeballs, but also for sports rights.

Yes. I mean, Julie, I'd say like Val in entertainment for sports, we're taking a very targeted approach. So really, our strategy is to align with sports programming that we're confident that we can be ROI positive with, so that we can generate returns via distribution revenue and advertising revenue. And then from there, we go deep in both quality and quantity with the leagues that we partner with. So to illustrate, on USA Network, we'll have 1,400 hours of live sports in 2026, which is about 4 hours a day of live sports on USA Network. As you've heard, this includes top-tier programming from NASCAR, from WWE, from Premier League, from the PGA Tour and for many others. Plus, we'll have 17 hours -- or excuse me, 17 days of the Winter Olympics in 2026 on USA Network.

So that's over 2-plus weeks of Team USA on USA Network. Switching to golf channel. We'll have 3,200 hours of live golf and studio coverage in 2026. So that's 9 hours of live per day. from the PGA Tour, the LPGA Tour, the DP World Tour and then from innovative new programming that we'll try such as the golf channel games in a couple of weeks with Rory McIlroy and Scottie Scheffler, and then the reboot of the super popular reality golf show, Big Break later in 2026. So as Val noted, our audiences watch well over 1 billion hours of live sports across Versant Networks in the trailing 12 months. And so really, what these numbers show is that the strength of linear continues to be substantial and for live sports, it's unmatched.

And these deep passionate fandoms, and I know we're going to be hearing more about golf coming up right after this conversation. So you mentioned some of the sports you mentioned are going to be broadcast in partnership with NBC. How are you going to manage sharing those rights and not just the rights, but also the production and the talent?

Yes. I mean the short answer is we will be quite independent from NBC in all of these areas going forward. So I think Anand and Mark talked about rights, and we'll start there. So with the exception of the Olympics, Versant has direct contractual relationships with each of the sports leagues that we've talked about today. So whether it's NASCAR or the PGA Tour or WWE, we're independent from NBC going forward and have direct contracts with each of these networks. And most of these deals are long term, too, so lasting well beyond 2030. It's the same thing for our talent.

So our on-air commentators and announcers, direct relationships for every on-air person that you'll see on USA Network or Golf Channel with the exception of the Olympics coverage. So -- but for every other sport, direct relationships with talent going forward. And then last is production. So here, I'd say we're not only distinct from NBC going forward, but we're, I would say, differentiated from the rest of the industry, including the streaming companies. And so really, that's about the model that we have for production going forward, which is a combination of quality, but also efficiency.

And so one of the things that the spin has done has allowed us to essentially build our production team from scratch. So we started with a core group of, I would call them, industry experts and well-renowned production personnel that will serve as the core of our production team going forward. And then because we didn't inherit a large legacy employee base for production, we're really supplementing and adding to this core team, a large network of freelancers, which really then speaks to the efficiency and the nimbleness that we'll have going forward. So in the past few months alone, other networks and streamers have approached us about producing live sports for them, which is, I think, a testament to our model of both quality, but also efficiency.

Now Matt just mentioned the strength in linear, but also talking about the context of competing in this streaming world as well. I want to hear from you, Val, a little bit about your plans to build your entertainment division beyond linear. You've mentioned how many billions of hours have been viewed, but a lot of that is happening outside the cable ecosystem. What are your plans and your strategy when it comes to building these brands outside of linear?

Yes. Well, obviously, I'm very excited about our linear networks, but we have real opportunities in digital, social and streaming. Our E! Digital Studio creates original programming and pop culture moments, not only for fans, but also for talent. You saw Eyal and Lonnie and their towels from their sauna. Well, that show Hot Goss, was created by our E! Digital Studio, and it became viral. It's generated approximately 90 million video views and has become our fastest-growing short-form franchise on E! Digital. And as a result, we're going to develop a longer-form version for YouTube. Another great example is the very popular Glambot.

So the Glambot is a high-speed robotic camera that captures these dramatic slow motion video portraits of celebrities on the red carpets. You can actually see some of them in your screens. This has blown up on social. It's a social media sensation. And again, not just with our fans, but also with the celebrities who can't wait to have their red carpet looks captured. So I have to tell you, I've witnessed some of the most famous stars, film, TV and music stars, waiting in line to get their picture taken by the Glambot. And Julia, you and I know that celebrities rarely wait for anything, but for Glambot, they make the exception.

And then I have one last example, which would be streaming on our Fandango at Home AVOD service. We're currently developing a content strategy that leverages our substantial library assets. We're working on strategic content acquisitions with third-party studios and eventually will create original programming. Fandango at Home is going to present a valuable opportunity to reach streaming audiences, and we can effectively use our linear networks to promote back to the AVOD service. And I work very closely with Will McIntosh on Fandango at Home, and I know he's going to come out a little bit and talk more about it. So I'll stop there. I didn't even get into FAST channels and podcasting. We really have a lot of opportunities to grow beyond linear.

All of these different platforms, and I'm excited to try out that streaming platform. As a media reporter, very curious about that.

Yes. No, it's exciting.

So in terms of growth opportunities, Matt, you have talked about wanting to partner with the sports leagues. And Versant did just sign an 11-year deal with the WNBA, which is a very fast-growing league, something I've reported on a lot for CNBC. What happens next in that deal? Where do you see that going?

Yes. So we'll start with what attracted us to the WNBA. To your point, Julia, it's a league that is experiencing, I would say, hockey stick-like growth, both in terms of audience and revenue and all of the metrics that we would track. For us, importantly, it's a property that we feel like we can get ROI from the various sources of revenue that we talked about earlier. So in terms of what that property looks like for us, starting in 2026, which is the first year of an 11-year deal, we'll have 50-plus games. We'll launch a regular season franchise of Wednesday Night Double Headers on USA Network. And so that will be the franchise that we build relative to the sport and to the league. We're also covering the playoffs.

And then in 3 of the 11 years, we'll have the WNBA finals. And so really, our strategy is to make the WNBA appointment television. And I think part of why the league chose us is because of our history and our expertise and our ability to have done this with other of our league partners and programming in the past, whether it's Premier League, which is aired on USA Network since 2013 or the PGA Tour, which first aired on Golf Channel in 1999. I would say that our leadership team at USA Sports has a lot of experience doing this in terms of quality of production, how we program the assets, marketing, character development and storytelling. So we have a lot of experience helping a league to grow their fan base and really creating a sticky connection with fans. And so that's what we're looking forward to doing with the WNBA.

Yes.

That's the one I'm the most excited about. It's WNBA. It's huge, right?

It's huge. And it really does seem like this is a tipping point here for women's sports.

Yes. Absolutely.

And I do cover sports media rights. And one thing we've seen with all these rights negotiations is that Amazon, Apple, all the tech giants are getting involved in bidding for these rights. How are you going to compete with those bidders?

I mean I'd say not only are we currently competing, but we're having quite a bit of success. So we talked about the WNBA deal, which was a competitive marketplace for those rights. You also heard that in the last 5 months, we've locked in a long-term renewal with the USGA and the 11 championships and the majors associated with that property and then another competitive deal that we won relative to the Pac-12, which will allow us to have college football and men's and women's college basketball. Again, all of these deals are long term, so they're somewhere between 5 years and 11 years. If I'm looking at it from a marketplace perspective, what are some of the reasons that we as Versant or we as USA Sports are attractive to league partners. First of all, I'd say we will go after sports that we feel like we can help grow, again, with that overlay of ROI.

So we'll continue to be disciplined about where we can generate a return from distribution and advertising revenue. We talked about the unique reach that television provides and how that's attractive to league partners. I'll reiterate our success that we've had with other programming in terms of production and marketing and promotion and how we've been able to grow other properties. And last, I'll say that sports is a very relationship-based business. And our leadership team at Versant as well as at USA Sports has deep and long-standing relationships with a lot of league partners, 2 of which you'll hear from or we'll hear from soon here. So I think we're very much competing and competing well for the properties that make sense for us, and we'll continue to do so.

So before we hear more about those relationships in the golf channel, I want to ask a final question of you both because this is a new business. What do you think is the biggest misconception for each of you about your business and their future at Versant? Do you want to start first?

Yes, sure. I would say the biggest misconception about our business is that we'll be challenged without NBCUniversal. And I can argue that what we built as part of NBCUniversal wasn't very successful and very profitable, but we weren't a priority for that company, for the company. And as Mark mentioned earlier, we, at Versant, get to invest back into our businesses and create more opportunities to experiment and move quickly. I talked earlier about the faster green lighting like the Season 2 of Rainmaker. We can create new partnerships. We just announced that we have a new partnership with the Screen Actors Guild Awards to cover their red carpet next year, which is great because that adds yet more live programming into our slate. We're going to create more licensing opportunities. We're currently in negotiation with multiple streamers about licensing our content library.

And actually, just this week, we closed a really big licensing deal with a major streamer that we're going to announce in a couple of days. So please keep an eye out for that announcement. And Julia, it's just revenue opportunities like these that are going to be easier to develop as an independent company. And actually, I have a great analogy to describe this, and I know Matt loves this one. I say that it's like being part of a popular singing group that being part of NBC is like being part of NSYNC or Destiny's Child. And at Versant, we're solo artist. We're just in Timberlake and we're Beyonce. And they both achieved great success within their groups. But at solo artists, they had the freedom to make decisions that best suited them and allowed them to thrive without limitations. And that's the kind of experience I'm really excited to have at Versant.

I like the Beyonce analogy.

Yes.

That's why I like that analogy because that makes me J. Timberlake.

That makes him Justin Timberlake.

So Matt, what's a misconception that you see out there you want to dispel?

Yes. I mean we've talked about like this amazing programming that we have that differentiates us. And sports is very much about that next rights deal, and it's a competitive marketplace and you compete to try and get that next rights deal. And it's a bit of an arms race. But I would say the biggest misconception is that we'll kind of fall victim to that competition or victim to trying to compete on programming alone.

Really, what we're going to do is we're going to focus on properties that make sense for us, that are ROI positive that may mean that we're not in the mix for properties like the NFL or NBA, which for us, we wouldn't be able to get a return on based on our current set of factors. But we'll really focus on properties that work for us. And then as you've heard today, using those properties to grow adjacent synergistic digital so GolfNow and GolfPass and then future businesses that look like GolfNow and GolfPass. And so it's about transforming the sports business. And really, it's that transformation and working with Val and Will McIntosh on that transformation that I'm personally most excited about.

Well, certainly a fascinating and exciting time for the industry and for Versant in particular. Val and Matt, thank you so much for joining us here today and letting me be part of this conversation.

And Julia, we want to thank you because we heard that it's your birthday.

It is my birthday.

So thank you for joining us on your birthday.

It's my pleasure.

Yes, thank you.

Thank you so much.

Thank you.

Thank you. Now to continue this conversation about sports, I want to welcome and invite up my colleague, Rich Lerner. He's been a fixture on the Golf Channel since 1997. Please welcome, Rich. Thank you. Thank you.

Julia, thank you. Great to be here. It is my privilege now to introduce you all to the leaders of 2 of Versant's most significant sports league properties, partners. Please give a warm welcome to Steve Phelps and Brian Rolapp. Gentlemen. Steve, good to see you.

Good to see you as well.

Hi, Brian.

Hey, Steve.

Just having a fun golf conversation out in the lobby.

Are there any other kind?

No. Talked some Golf. So for those of you who don't know, Steve is in his 20th year now with NASCAR. Congratulations, nice milestone. Just became his sports first ever commissioner, overseeing everything from strategic growth to media partnerships to racing competition and track ownership. Brian Rolapp, welcome, Brian. He is the newly appointed CEO of the PGA Tour and just completed a very successful 20-year run at the NFL. His last role was Chief Media and Business Officer. So Matt was just talking a moment ago about helping sports leagues grow. So let's start there. And Brian, begin with you. What are your goals for the PGA Tour over the next 24 months?

Great question. I've been there 150 days. I feel like we've made some progress. I mean my first goal was clearly had a bit to learn. And I promised I would spend time with 100 players, and I think I'm close to 60 at this point having conversations, so I've learned a ton. But it's clear over the next 24 months, what we need to do is improve the competitive Golf is growing. It's one of the fastest-growing sports in the world. The PGA Tour is in a very strong spot when you look at viewership and ratings, yet we think we could do a much better job making the sport much more accessible to sports fans in general.

And so the first thing I did was we're going to really look at the competitive model to improve it for players, for fans and for our partners and created a committee called the Future Competition Committee, which Tiger Woods is chairing. And we're bringing all of our partners, including Versant to come in and say, "Hey, it's a blank sheet of paper. The PGA Tour is looking to improve its competitive model. What would you do? And it's been a really good discussion, and we think in the very near future, we'll be able to unveil a sport that not only honors the tradition of golf, but also improves it and makes it much more accessible for golf fans and for sports fans in general.

Yes, it's an exciting time. Steve, a similar vein, what growth opportunities are you looking at in NASCAR?

Well, for us, we see significant growth opportunities, both domestically and internationally. I think we're behind a number of other sports from an international footprint perspective. We do have racing series in Canada, Mexico, Brazil and Europe. So I think broadening that is going to be important for us. We had our first ever race in Mexico City at our Cup level and our -- what was then called our Xfinity series, which will be the O'Reilly's Auto Parts Series. I work in NASCAR, you have to get the sponsor deal in there. But I think there's lots of domestic opportunities for us as well. And I think it really comes down to a little bit, like Brian was saying to the product. For us, we worked really hard fine-tuning our product. We have a new car and arguably, the car has done everything we'd ask it to do and improve driver safety. The racing itself is the best racing a we've ever had. And the bill of materials, building that car has saved our race teams about 40% versus the old car.

But it's also about schedule variation. And I think schedule variation is really, really important for us and doing things that are bold and innovative. Again, I think what Brian is looking at as well. So if you look at traditional races at like a Charlotte Motor Speedway or Daytona International Speedway, they're great. Our fans expect that. There's great racing there. They're great facilities. But A few years back, we built a 0.25 mile racetrack inside the L.A. Coliseum, and we tore it up, so they could play football. And the last 3 years, we raced in the streets of Chicago. We had never raced in a street race ever. So right downtown by Grant Park and on Lake Michigan, it was a very cool thing. So for us, it's kind of the old and the new, right, is you're trying to make sure you have history and what goes on to make sure that existing fan base or legacy fan is happy, but we also have to attract new people.

Clearly, Steve, your choice of a media partner has a lot of bearing on growth. So what factors go into that decision? And how much do the relationships and leadership play a role?

Well, I'll take a step back quickly. So we have 5 media partners. And so we extended with -- for 7 years with Fox and NBC. And then obviously, Versant coming on board with the spin-off. And those were great partnerships, but we wanted to expand. So our Xfinity series then is relationship with the CW. And then we brought on Amazon Prime and then Turner Sports. And so we have an unbelievable mixture of media companies, all do things incredibly well for us, all promoting the sport. But we wanted to have a mix of broadcast, cable and streaming.

And we thought that was really important because there was a lot of question whether our fans would find a streamer. We knew they find broadcast and they do. We knew they'd come to cable and they do. So the question was what would happen to a pure streamer. So we're very pleased with it. I'll go to the leadership question next, Rich, which is, listen, I've known Mark Lazarus for 30 years back to my days at the NFL, and I've known Matt for 15. They are unbelievable professionals. They're people that build things and build them really well. We're excited about this opportunity with VERSANT and USA Sport. So just thrilled with that leadership. It makes a big difference.

And Brian, to you as well, your broad view of media partnerships and the leadership.

Well, I think media partnerships when it comes to professional sports is vital. It's the way that the majority of people experience your sport. So who your partner is, how they market it, how they position it, how they produce it, Golf is probably the most important relationship you can have. And look, in sports, and you can hear what Steve says and what I said and maybe it's our NFL training kicking in, but the sports business isn't that complicated. You get the competitive product right, you then find the best partners to distribute that and market that. And then just when you get it right, you continue to innovate.

And if you do that right, fans will reward you with their time and their attention. And the media partners is extremely important. And I would echo what Steve said is over the last 20 years, there's fewer better sports leaders than Mark Lazarus, who we've all done business with, who sort of gets this. And if you don't have a relationship with your partner. If it's just purely transactional, you're not going to get what you need to do to build the sport and build your property. And I think Mark and his team get that.

You both had long runs at the NFL. Steve, you spent the earlier part of your career there, we're just talking about the late great Paul Tagliabue and what an influence he had on the two of you. NFL we know is a dominant force in sports. NFL is at a very mature stage, I would say, in its growth trajectory, NASCAR and the PGA TOUR have it seems more headroom. So are there lessons from their continued rise that you think are transferable? Steve?

I was hoping you'd start. Now listen, they're an unbelievable -- I mean their product is unbelievable. And what they've built is incredible. I was there for almost 14 years, and it was great training. It's just such a great brand. It's interesting when you think about the NFL, this unbelievable product and distributed broadly and they've expanded internationally and done all the things really, in my opinion, really well, first under Pete Rozelle's leadership and then Paul's leadership and now Roger. And they just keep getting better and they keep getting stronger. I think they have more headroom in my opinion as well. We have to try harder, right? So we have to innovate more. We need to be bolder. They can be second to the market or third to the market. It doesn't really matter because they have the capital to invest that when they decide to go, it's going to work.

For us, for the PGA TOUR in very similar situations in that we're kind of traveling circus. We don't have home teams. There are golf courses and there are racetracks. But the competitive advantage that they have with these really strong 32 markets that they do business in and really wealthy owners that are not afraid to invest in market is huge.

So what are the takeaways for us? The takeaway for me is fine-tuning the product, which they continue to do. We continue to do that. Schedule innovation, the NFL does that by going international. We are going to do the same thing. What that looks like? I'm not exactly sure. But again, as I said, the domestic footprint for us is an expansion. So next year, we're going to have a race at Coronado Island in San Diego with the Navy base there. So we'll build a racetrack there, a road course. It's already sold out. It will be a major event for us and a cultural event.

So I talked about Chicago Street race, I talked about the L.A. Coliseum, those races, the folks that bought tickets there, 80% of them had never been to a NASCAR race. So I'm not sure what that looks like because I haven't seen the data yet on Coronado, the Navy base there, but we're just -- we're thrilled to keep going.

Brian?

Yes. I -- since we were talking about Paul Tagliabue, I'll bring up a quote. He had a great quote that said, "If it ain't broke, fix it anyway."

And well, I think what I learned at the NFL, I think Steve would agree is constant innovation in constant. Just when you think you got it right, keep better, honor tradition, but don't be overly bound by it. I mean they changed the kickoff role last year, that could have been sacrosanct, but the idea of how do you make the product better, how do you make it safer, no one was afraid to do that in search of the best competitive product. And again, you get the product right and you get the right partners, everything flows from there. The rest is somewhat easy. And so I think that's one thing I learned from the NFL.

And then second, when it comes to the product, and I've said this publicly, I think the NFL does three things really well that I think translates to other sports. It doesn't translate to -- everything the NFL does, it doesn't translate, but this does when it comes to the product. And the good news is -- well, the bad news is Golf has one of them. The good news is it's fixed -- the other two are fixable. The first is competitive parity. We were talking about this. In August, if we all picked a team to win the Super Bowl, the probability is we'd all be wrong. And that's because the competition is razor thin. Golf has that. The difference between the 10th best golfer in the 90th is razor thin. And so that is a strength that can't be replicated.

Two, scarcity, how do you make the best events? How do you make them special? How do you make them feel special, for the fans, for the people on television? And three, simplicity, how do you put it in a competitive model that you understand. I think Golf suffers from the last 2 that this is what this committee is going to fix, is how do you follow the sport and do it in a way that if you've never seen a PGA TOUR event, when you turn on the television, it will take me 2 minutes to explain to you what's at stake.

And I think all the best sports do that. And I think there's a lot of that in what Steve has done is the competitive nature of the race and how you followed all year long. So I think that's one thing I think I've taken from the NFL.

Steve, NASCAR has an incredibly loyal and passionate fan base. And as we heard, you're also thinking quite a bit about reaching some new audiences. How do you balance those two goals and what roles will USA network play?

Yes. For us, I think it is a balance. I don't think they're mutually exclusive though. I really don't. I think you can nurture your existing fan base and you can attract new fans. And they want basically the same thing. They want a great product, which we just keep talking about. They want -- if they come to our events, they want the race day experience to be fantastic, right, not different from other sports. And I think serving them great content on both sides, new and existing fans is important.

How we reach the new fans we're reaching in different places typically than where we would reach, for example, a legacy fan. So we'll do it through partnerships with Fortnite or Roblox or relationship we just started with Substack. And these are places where -- or content through Netflix, Amazon, different documentaries, all of those things reach someone to at least consider who you are, it could be in your consideration set or their consideration set for us.

As it relates to VERSANT, and again, I'll go back to what I said before. Mark and Matt, I trust them. I'm excited about what they're building here. Great adjacencies from a property standpoint, and we are going to lean in with them. And I know they're going to do the same thing with us. They're -- they've been a tremendous partner for decades. Obviously, from a management perspective, this is something new and exciting, and we're going to -- we'll build together.

Matt was mentioning Golf Channel's coverage of the PGA TOUR. It's upwards of 500 live hours a year. Is that mostly for diehard fans, Brian? Or are you also using Golf Channel to grow the audience, and as Steve talked about, attract some new fans.

Yes, we're extremely fortunate in that. Our sport has a well-distributed, well-run linear channel dedicated to it. A lot of sports don't have that, and it's an envy. I think the Golf Channel does better. We had that the NFL Network. We didn't have the impact on the NFL that I think the Golf Channel has on our sport, which is fantastic. But -- and that's great, and they do a wonderful job.

But what I'm most excited about is what Mark is building here isn't a company built on linear channels. We're lucky enough that one of the pillars of his strategic plan is the sport of golf. And that's a huge benefit. And his vision is not limited to the Golf Channel. His vision is everything that touches the sport, which is exactly the type of partner we want. And I think we will benefit from, and that this new company is going to help us. And so I don't look at him in the company as just a linear channel partner. I look at him as everything else is building, which is technology, in other ways to reach current and new fans.

This last one for both of you. We know the media ecosystem is shifting so rapidly, leagues seeking out a mix of streaming and network media partners. What's the value that a cable partner like VERSANT offers to your leagues and to your fan bases, Brian, I'll start with you.

Yes. Look, I've been doing this a long time in my career, and I'll paraphrase a Mark Twain quote, which is the death of linear television has been greatly exaggerated. It still plays a really important part in the sports landscape. And if you just look at a lot of major sports leagues have shifted more of their content to broadcast and linear because it still reaches. But also, it's not mutually exclusive. You have to do that plus build out other platforms, digital and otherwise. And it gets back to what I said before about VERSANT's strategy of that's how they look at the sport of golf is that we're going to get the linear right, but then we're going to do all other things actually to build the sport. And that's what you need a partner. You need a partner who's willing to innovate and go where the fans are, not the other way around.

And I totally agree with that, what Brian talked about there, and I won't repeat it in the interest of time. The one thing I would say though is that cable television is -- that's the largest distribution that we have with FS1 and with Turner and USA Network. And it is alive and well for us. And I think the good news for us is that our fans tend to be slightly older, and they find cable. They will find it where it is. So even though the cable universe has declined over the last decade, our numbers haven't. And it's odd, right? You think it would go down in percentage-wise, the same. We don't see that at all. And so we're bullish on what they're building here.

Steve and Brian, thank you both for this conversation and your partnership. We really appreciate it. Best of luck in your new roles, and have a great holiday. Steve Phelps, Brian Rolapp. So you've heard a lot about the sports and entertainment strategy. Next up, you're going to hear about the digital platforms that are taking VERSANT beyond media.

[Presentation]

Please welcome President of Digital Platforms and Ventures, Will McIntosh.

So good afternoon, everyone. What I really like about that video is in about 57 seconds. I think what it does is it really demonstrates what you've heard repeatedly today, that VERSANT's brands can evolve into full funnel digital platforms, deepening engagement, expanding monetization and serving all of our audiences in new ways.

And as part of VERSANT, what we're really excited about is we now have the access to the dedicated resources, investment capacity and organizational focus to execute at a scale and speed that, quite frankly, was not possible in the previous corporate structure.

So what I really want to spend my time walking through now is how we're already doing that inside our Digital Platforms and Ventures Group, but more importantly, how we intend to grow from here. We're going to start with Golf, where our ecosystem is most developed, and then we're going to move into entertainment.

In Golf, as you heard Mark talk about earlier today, our business is centered around GolfNow, which is one of the world's largest online tee time marketplaces and GolfPass, which is our membership layer. Together, they connect every part of the golfers' journey, finding a golf course, booking a tea time, reviewing your experience, learning and earning rewards. GolfPass and GolfNow members also watch more Golf Channel. And it's this combination amongst the three properties that creates a virtuous cycle with each business driving the others.

And here's the other exciting piece. We didn't just stop at connecting golfers to courses. We became a technology partner to the entire golf industry, powering tee sheets, point-of-sale systems, payments and analytics for all of our golf course partners. But rather than walk you through every platform detail and there are many, here's the headline. We now operate the most comprehensive digital platform in golf, serving both the golfer and the course. We generate demand, we streamline operations and the more we scale in each area, the stronger the overall platform becomes.

So now I want to focus on what comes next and go deeper on all of our growth levers. So our growth story is all about platform, leverage across these four areas: growing our core business, growing share of wallet, expanding into the broader golf economy and finally, scaling internationally. So let me take each in turn.

So even as a category leader, we still represent less than 10% of public course rounds in North America. Growing the core is all about execution. And as part of VERSANT, we now have the resources to drive the execution focused on three concrete actions. First, we're simply going to expand our sales force with more focus on specialization. We're adding more sales reps and forming dedicated teams for specific areas like private golf clubs, municipal courses and our large enterprise customers. This specialization is going to allow us to focus on our customers in a way that will directly improve conversion and penetration.

Second, we're enhancing our product to drive adoption. We've already done a lot of work to modernize our tee sheet and point-of-sale system. We've added membership tools, and we've improved our food and beverage and analytics capabilities. We're also going to roll out lower friction modular bundles for smaller and mid-market courses, making it easier for them to say yes.

Finally, we're going to expand distribution. Golfers increasingly find tee time through Google, Apple, Map surfaces and yes, now AI assistant. We're deeply integrating into those surfaces to drive incremental transactional volume. This is how we accelerate penetration in a category where we already have scale.

And it's not just about adding courses. We're working to convert more of our members into -- more of our users into paying members. Today, nearly 4 million golfers book rounds through GolfNow each year, but fewer than 10% are GolfPass members today. And here's the thing. GolfPass members generate 2 to 3x the lifetime value of non-members. That's a meaningful opportunity. So we plan to increase conversion in a variety of ways. Through streamlined upgrade flows, pricing and perks tied directly to booking, personalized offers based on the golfers booking behavior and new membership tiers. We're highly confident this is a lever that drives immediate opportunity.

And the golf market is bigger than what happens on the course. You saw it with some of Mark's data earlier. Golf participation increasingly includes off-course experiences, simulators, putting venues and new entertainment concepts. In the last year since we launched this category, we've added over 500 new off-course partners. And with more than 3,000 of these locations in the U.S. alone, we're in the very early stages. These experiences do a few things for us. They expand our usage. They introduce new audiences to our platform, and they opened up new paths for membership and recurring revenue.

Finally, we're really excited about the opportunity to continue our global expansion. GolfNow began its story outside of North America in 2013 when we acquired the market-leading software provider in the U.K. and Ireland. Our market penetration, as you can see here, now exceeds 50% in that territory. But again, we have plenty of opportunity to add new courses and grow same-store sales to increase our average annual revenue per course.

And in Continental Europe, we're just getting started. A couple of years ago, very similar to what we did in the U.K. We acquired the market-leading software provider in Germany and France to further fuel expansion in the territory. And it's been a great addition as we grow GolfNow into a truly global platform.

Our focus outside of North America is on pace and sequencing of new market entries, creating localized bundles of our tech products with our marketplace, which is a key differentiator for us, growing same-store revenue through software up-sells, continuing to consolidate best-in-class regional platforms under the GolfNow brand. International represents one of our largest value creation opportunities over the long term.

Now turning to entertainment, the parallels are clear. Just like GolfNow leveraged Golf Channel, Fandango can leverage the full VERSANT portfolio across USA, SYFY, E!, Oxygen and more to supercharge customer acquisition via cross promotion. And then we have a great brand like Rotten Tomatoes, which amplifies that journey with cultural credibility, influence and data that is really unparalleled.

On the Fandango platform, people can watch movies and TV through Fandango at Home or find a cinema and purchase their movie tickets. They can post reviews on Rotten Tomatoes. They can become a rewards member and keep getting perks to watch even more with Fandango. In total, close to 20 million entertainment fans will transact with Fandango properties this year.

Similar to GolfNow, we have several big growth levers that will drive our next phase. From growing our market share here in the U.S. to international expansion to scaling our B2B services, as you've heard about earlier with INDY Cinema to building up our platform for customers streaming on Fandango at Home. I'll walk you through each one of these now.

So Fandango accounts for under 10% of domestic ticket sales, leaving meaningful room to expand share. We expect to do that in a variety of ways by strengthening our value proposition for exhibitors through better marketing, loyalty and data by growing FanClub, which is our membership program that's still in its very early innings, by increasing cross-promotion via VERSANT's linear networks and fast channels and establishing new major partnerships with the larger circuits and independents. This is the foundation of near-term growth and an execution priority with the resources available to us as part of VERSANT.

As it relates to international expansion, while Rotten Tomatoes is a globally recognized brand, Fandango's business remains U.S. centric. But with the combination of INDY's international capabilities, Fandango's scalable marketplace architecture and GolfNow's proven playbook for global expansion, we are now positioned to enter new markets thoughtfully and profitably.

On B2B operations on Anand talked in detail about what INDY Cinema is and what our plans are for INDY, but we believe it is a major unlock. We currently work with approximately 3,000 U.S. cinemas, but fewer than 5% of those use the INDY platform today. We expect to grow this by integrating INDY directly into loyalty payments and ticketing for our Fandango marketplace, by bundling the marketplace with INDY's point-of-sale solutions, which was a great driver of growth for our GolfNow business, and utilizing our robust sales force and activation resources to accelerate adoption.

Fandango and INDY together become the digital backbone of modern exhibition. And next year, our on-demand offering will become even more attractive to our customers with the introduction of free ad-supported streaming on the Fandango at Home platform, which we're going to launch in the second half of the year.

Over the past few years, we've watched the streaming marketplace shift from the dominance of paid subscriptions to an explosion of ad-supported viewing. According to Nielsen, more than 70% of all TV viewing today is content with ads. The reality is that ad-supported streaming options like AVOD and FAST are no longer a side category or budget option. They are mainstream. You can see that here at rivaling established subscription services, particularly among audiences who value both choice and quality.

There are several players in the space today, mainly from television and connected TV companies like Roku, Tubi and Pluto TV. And while we're just getting started in ad-supported streaming, Fandango at Home users already contribute meaningfully to those billions of hours watched across VERSANT properties. And more exciting, nearly 81% of current Fandango users express strong interest in an expanded ad-supported offerings.

So we're going to respond to our customers. And over time and with scale, we're confident this can become a meaningful business. For reference, the current market leaders generate hundreds of millions of revenue annually.

And what gives us real confidence as we enter the space is that we are not starting from scratch. We already reached tens of millions of entertainment consumers every month through our networks, Fandango, Rotten Tomatoes and our cinema partners. We offer choice, whether you're watching for free at home, going out for the movies or paying to rent or purchase your favorite content. No other service offers to you all three options.

And as you heard from Val earlier, we're working together to greatly increase the quality of our content library, leaning into films that we know will drive considerable engagement while taking advantage of VERSANT's extensive television library. And we will have a better experience with less intrusive ad formats and better targeting supported by 20 years of Fandango data. Adding a free ad-supported layer to our current offering is a natural extension of our platform. It allows us to broaden our reach, reduce friction for casual users, and ultimately grow our customer base by uniquely connecting theatrical, transactional and free streaming into one platform.

So when you take a step back, GolfNow and Fandango are two sides of the same point and proven models of how VERSANT turns audience reach into platform scale and then platform scale into profitable growth. Both platforms are category leaders with large addressable markets.

Our focus now is leveraging what we've built across both verticals, our growth is driven by penetrating the core growing membership, international expansion, new revenue services and using the full VERSANT ecosystem to drive daily engagement across both golf and entertainment. That's the blueprint for VERSANT's digital future and the key reason we're so excited about this next chapter.

And now to bring this all together and talk numbers, I'd like to welcome Anand back to the stage.

Well, thanks, Will. And so over the last few hours, you heard about our strategy, our execution plans and our business model. I'm now going to walk through the financial framework and principles that underlie all of this.

So our financial strategy has four pillars. And we've referenced these throughout the day. So let me just kind of bring it together. First, we'll continue to deliver strong profitability and cash flow anchored by our success in Pay TV; second, we're going to transform our business, allocating capital in a disciplined manner to drive growth by reaching new audiences and developing our existing and new platforms; third, we will concurrently provide strong and attractive returns to shareholders; and then finally, our goal is to maintain a strong balance sheet and healthy liquidity.

We view this as really fundamental, providing us both strategic flexibility to pursue new opportunities and sponsoring a strong competitive position regardless of the market environment.

Now we're starting this journey with a truly great foundation. So we've spent the last year separating the businesses, and we're very pleased with their results. Now you've heard some of this before, but most of our distribution deals and sports relationships are contracted long term. And our sports deals are primarily governed by contracts between VERSANT and directly with the leagues. So there is no dependency on NBCUniversal. On ad sales, we're maintaining our partnership with NBCUniversal for 2 years. NBCUniversal -- very specifically, NBCUniversal will rep VERSANT's inventory, and that's been a leading go-to-market approach for many years, and it's going to be -- continue to be beneficial for both parties. Rebecca mentioned that we've already established an independent efficient news organization since October, and we're very happy with those results. And then finally, you, of course, have met the management team today, and our infrastructure is already in place.

I'm going to provide a little bit more detail now on the distributor relationships and the sports leagues that we've referenced a few times. So on the distribution agreements, more than half of our Pay TV subscribers are governed by agreements that go through 2028 and beyond. And meanwhile, many of our sports agreements, as you can see on this slide, go well past 2030. We view this as really important because the long-term nature of these partnerships highlights the stability of our business and also provides great visibility in the years to come.

So turning from the medium and the long term to actually now which is going to happen in a few weeks, which is our spin. So just a few of the highlights of that, regular way trading is going to begin on Monday, January 5, on the NASDAQ. Comcast will distribute 1 VERSANT share for every 25 Comcast shares, and this is expected to be a tax-free transaction to Comcast and to shareholders.

So now turning to the financials. Mark shared some of these numbers at the top and they represent our results for 2025 as if we were a stand-alone company. So they're comparable to how we're going to report our results after the spin. Now just to reiterate, VERSANT enjoys financial scale, strong mid-30% margin, healthy cash flow generation with nearly $1.4 billion of free cash flow, which again is stated on a levered basis, and we are well capitalized, which enables us to drive growth and strong shareholder returns.

Now let me dig into these numbers in more detail on the next several slides. So I'm going to first review the annual trend of our major metrics. And again, to repeat, they're stated on a stand-alone basis. So for 2025, we expect revenue to decline 6% from 2024. And EBITDA, we expect to be down 10% and margins down at 10%. The decline in EBITDA then leads to a similar nominal decline in free cash flow. So there are a few key factors behind this trajectory.

First, the secular gradual Pay TV declines that everybody in the industry is experiencing. Second, seasonality coming off the presidential election, which impacts MS NOW ratings and ad sales. And then third, as part of NBCUniversal, there's historically been limited investment to evolve and grow the VERSANT businesses. Now that's, of course, a major driver of the spin, and I'll discuss shortly our plans to improve the business going forward.

Now one process note I've mentioned several times that the financial metrics are stated on a stand-alone basis. We're providing reconciliations in our postings that are going to bridge back to the financials in our Form 10.

So turning now -- I'll turn now to a little bit more detail on revenue. As you've heard a few times today, we already have a diversified revenue model, and we're laser-focused on increasing revenue by changing its mix over time. So currently, 62% of revenue is from linear distribution, and that represents fees generated from Pay TV operators to carry our networks. Based on secular trends, we expect a mid-single-digit revenue decline in this area for 2025 from moderate Pay TV cord cutting, offset by rate increases. Slightly less than 1/4 of revenues from advertising, which includes both digital and network. The projected declines in 2025 are in part due to the presidential election year seasonality I just mentioned.

Now going to platform revenue. And this is mostly from GolfNow and Fandango. That's 13% of revenue, and that's growing. And importantly, we expect to accelerate growth over time as we invest both in these existing and new platforms. Then finally, content licensing and other represents 3% of revenue. This area is inherently subject to some year-to-year volatility given the timing of licensing sales.

Just to reiterate, we are confident that we will improve the revenue trajectory by investing in the business. You've heard about several of these investments today, things like INDY Cinema, Free TV Networks, and MS NOW subscription service, Fandango, AVOD and the CNBC retail investor DTC, just to name a few. And there will be many more growth initiatives to come.

Now I'm going to turn from revenue to expenses. On expenses, about 55% comes from programming. 10% is directly related to the revenue from our digital platform businesses and then the remaining 35% are for sales, general and administrative costs. Within programming, roughly half of expenses are for sports, 30% for news and then 20% for entertainment. This cost profile reflects our emphasis you've heard today on live events and their central role in VERSANT. It's important that this cost profile I just reviewed, it's not stack. It's rather for us, continuous efficiency and productivity, that's core to our DNA. We know these assets very well because we have decades of experience running them.

So we understand how to manage the operations effectively and efficiently. We also recognize the industry headwinds and our focus in managing costs will help offset some of that pressure and facilitate growth investment. We've structured VERSANT to be cost efficient on day 1 with a commitment to drive additional savings in the years to come. You see that commitment in how we're structured, how we're harnessing technology and how we're managing our cost profile.

So taking each in turn, on structure. We have some brand-specific editorial resources with a centralized shared service model for all other areas. So even within editorial, we will deliver a superior viewing experience for customers efficiently. So to give you an example. You've heard about our separate news organization already, by tailoring it for our needs versus costs are lower than the previous allocation for NBC News. The creation of VERSANT gave us this opportunity to pursue this zero-based approach, and also to incorporate the latest technology to benefit business. We've reengineered the video stack with automation, reducing its cost profile significantly. We successfully deployed AI agentic capabilities within GolfNow call centers and the course management software. That lowers our costs and also improves the customer experience.

And we are working to deploy AI in our corporate enterprise systems to drive additional savings across the back office. And finally, we've designed our cost profile to be responsive to market conditions. The majority of our cost base, other than sports rights are addressable in the short term, which allows us to flex quickly. You've seen it in our pre-spin results with costs declining in 2025 to help offset some of the Pay TV revenue pressure. And this isn't just about reducing costs if revenue doesn't materialize in line with our expectations.

As we drive incremental revenue, we can scale our cost base and infrastructure, which supports healthy long-term margins.

So we put it all together, our goal isn't just about maintaining profitability, but rather it's to build VERSANT into a growth platform. We're going to do that by shifting the composition of revenue towards areas with strong growth potential. All the investments we've discussed today contribute towards this objective. You may recall that Mark mentioned upfront that 17% of 2024 revenue was sourced outside of Pay TV. And this is from higher-growth areas such as platforms and digital advertising. We believe that over the next several years that's going to increase to about 1/3. Then our long-term goal is to achieve parity with half of revenues from these growth areas and the other half from a still highly relevant, robust Pay TV business.

Our balance sheet is a major asset facilitating this transition. As you can see, this is our day 1 capital structure with $3 billion in gross debt, $750 million in expected cash, $1.5 billion in total liquidity, and that includes a $750 million undrawn revolving credit facility, and we will have modest leverage. Also, our business will continue to generate strong cash flow and be well capitalized, supporting our growth investment strategy and also providing a significant advantage over other market participants.

Our capital allocation approach supports and aligns with the four principles of our financial strategy. So let me just kind of recap what the capital allocation approach is.

One, we're going to invest in the transition of the business model; two, we'll maintain a strong balance sheet, targeting a modest 1.25 net leverage; three, we're planning for an attractive dividend, of course, subject to Board approval, and our target is to allocate 20% of free cash flow to that payout; and then finally, we plan to seek Board authorization for up to a $1 billion share repurchase. And within that mechanism, we'll determine the right level and timing.

I'd like to provide a little bit more detail on that first capital allocation principle I just mentioned, and that was about investing behind growth and transitioning the business model, specifically, how we will be good stewards of capital following a disciplined process for investment decisions. It's something we take very seriously. We employ several criteria to evaluate opportunities. And those on the screen are some that we view as particularly fundamental. Things like alignment with the four core markets we reviewed earlier, support of the transition towards higher-growth businesses, strengthening of existing brands or adding compelling new brands, unlocking clear synergies, driving value and returns and maintaining the strength and integrity of our balance sheet.

The two strategic acquisitions I mentioned earlier, Free TV Networks and INDY Cinema, they're highly aligned with all of these criteria and illustrate our process at work.

So with that, I'd like to share our forecast for 2026. We view 2026 as the first year of our business model transition. And that means we are focused on attractive investment opportunities to drive change. We expect revenue declines to be similar to modestly better than in 2025 between 3% and 7%, with tailwinds from the 2026 midterm elections as well as two new product launches, the Fandango AVOD and MS NOW subscription services that you just heard about.

We expect EBITDA to decline roughly in line with 2025, between 7% and 14% as we invest back in the business and support the new product launches. And we anticipate free cash flow to be between $1 billion and $1.2 billion, with conversion from EBITDA modestly lower than in 2025. That's driven by two main factors. First, some onetime working capital swings that's based on how we're handling the post-spin opening day balances between NBCUniversal and VERSANT. And then second, some incremental CapEx associated with our permanent headquarters facility build-out.

Looking at our overall trajectory. Our focus in the immediate term is to maintain strong profitability, largely from Pay TV as we invest to transition the business. That will help stabilize revenue over the medium term as we scale growth initiatives outside of Pay TV. And then over the long term, we grow both the top and bottom line, realize our vision for a more diversified revenue mix and establish ourselves as a platform for growth.

And now to close out our presentation before we head to Q&A, please welcome back our CEO, Mark Lazarus.

Thank you, Anand, and thank you. Thank you all for making time for us this afternoon. After all of that, if you're still wondering should I invest in VERSANT, let me leave you with this. Yes. But with VERSANT, from day 1, you're going to get a portfolio of iconic brands that are all established leaders in large markets, have the opportunity to expand and evolve in those growing markets. We have a highly profitable economic model, with clear financial visibility and we are well capitalized to have strategic flexibility. We have an experienced leadership team all of which you've heard from today. We're ready to seize this opportunity, and we are confident that it will be a rewarding investment for years to come.

Now to get to Q&A, let me have Anand and Wylie come on back up and we'll get to your questions. So thank you very much.

Thank you, Mark, and thank you all for your time today. We look forward to answering some of your questions. We have about 20 minutes. [Operator Instructions] And with that, let's get started. Ben, I see you in the corner.

Thanks for all the time and information today. It's is really helpful. I think when Comcast announced the spin, a lot of people probably assumed you'd be a buyer of cable networks or a seller of cable networks and participate in consolidation. And your strategy is pretty clear, you want to diversify the business. So I'm wondering if you could talk a little bit about your sort of bigger picture M&A philosophy. And Mark, if you're successful executing, like what does this company look like maybe 2030, 5 years out and getting this business back to growth.

Thanks for the question. So I think look at that sort of -- there's two ways to answer that or -- not two ways to answer, but two sides to that. One is certainly a scale question, right? So I think -- and hopefully, we were clear that we believe in vertical scale, not necessarily horizontal scale, right? So we have these four core markets and vertical markets, and we want to grow in those markets because we believe there are growth opportunities, significant growth opportunities, and we have strong brands with which to lead on. So I would say, vertical growth versus horizontal growth would be the first way that we're going to increase our scale.

And then I think the second, what do we look like into the future when you think about what we're going to do with premium content, how we're going to grow -- continue to grow our audiences, both organically with investment that we haven't been able to do much before by choices we collectively made at NBCU. And then going into those growth markets and investing into new areas, digital areas and the presentation Will gave, I think, is clear. And I would expect that, that part of our business was not well known to most people, and that, that really helps illustrate how we're thinking about growing into the markets. And in 2030, we should look a lot bigger in these four growth markets. Do you want to add?

The only thing I would add is on the horizontal scale, we're very happy with the portfolio that we have. I think a lot of people think of horizontal scale within networks. And I think what you've heard a lot from us today is that 62% live sports and news, that's the scale you need, at least in our opinion. And so we don't really feel that there's much value for us, frankly, and having more scale in that area. So that's -- and then as Mark said, the vertical scale is really our growth strategy.

Kutgun, go ahead.

Kutgun Maral with Evercore ISI. Over the last few decades, media networks and legacy cable network portfolios have improved their negotiating leverage through consolidation. Following the spin and especially without the benefit of NBC Broadcast network, can you talk a little bit about how you're viewing your negotiating leverage, relationship with the distributors and broader distribution strategy evolving going forward?

I'll start with that. I think when you -- look, first of all, we've done -- we've announced a year ago that we are spinning. So -- and we've done a variety of deals throughout this past year, all with the distributor knowing that we were spinning. And we've had -- we're very pleased with the outcomes of those deals. We believe that our portfolio, the sports and news portfolio is what is helping drive distribution. Another part of that is that our product and content today is exclusive. We don't stream our content really anywhere. We're creating some D2C, but we'll do that, and we'll work with the distributors to make sure it works within their ecosystem as well. We're not trying to go around them. We're trying to create different products.

So the strength of 62% news and sports, four networks of our portfolio live in that world. We've been placed in the sports and news skinny bundles with all of our products. So we feel very confident in our position. And the last year, the deals we've done, I think, bears that out.

Brent, do you?

This is Brent Penter with Raymond James. I want to talk a little bit about your digital strategy. From a streaming standpoint, you all talked about MS NOW going to streaming and building a platform there. You also talked about licensing content to other streamers. So how should we think about the go-to-market for you all in streaming? And how does that differ from network to network in terms of where you might want to build your own platforms and where it makes more sense to license?

So I'll start and then jump in. So I think the way you ended your question really helps frame the answer because it is -- we think of this at NBCU, we were a branded house, right? This will be marketing speak, a branded house, everything treed up into NBCU. We're a house of brands. We have individual brands, and we're focusing our digital strategy on the individual brands. MS NOW will have its digital strategy, really its first-ever digital strategy, direct-to-consumer.

In CNBC will have its direct-to-consumer digital strategy. Fandango or the entertainment side will have an AVOD strategy. So we're going to do work with individual brands. We don't anticipate creating an aggregated SVOD service. That's not -- and on the entertainment side, we think really fueling and diversifying revenues by being ad-supported as opposed to SVOD will be a winning play for us.

Gentleman right here.

Mike Ng from Goldman Sachs. It seems like a critical part of the revenue diversification goal is to grow vertical software, consumer subscription. These types of products tend to be loss-making as they scale. So could you talk a little bit about the profitability about things like GolfNow, INDY Cinema today, your willingness to incur losses to grow in scale. And then similarly, just your CapEx philosophy to support the growth in those types of businesses.

Will you take that?

Sure. So let me answer part of your question right upfront in terms of kind of the profitability profile of our platform businesses today. So as I said, we have two major kind of digital platforms in terms of Fandango and GolfNow. They're both profitable, and do very well and have been profitable for quite some time. So I think in terms of our kind of P&L trajectory on those platforms and our willingness to kind of absorb losses, I think, a, we have some advantages in terms of what that loss profile might look like because, again, we look at everything in total. So for example, let's take Golf. One of the reasons we were able to get GolfNow and kind of get it up and running quickly. And actually, even in the early days, didn't experience those loss profiles, we have the Golf Channel. So you had this audience that you could kind of take and then really get adoption, your cost per customer acquisition costs were much lower.

So I think in these four verticals, because we're coming with existing assets, that loss profile doesn't necessarily need to be as steep it is as compared to somebody who's coming brand-new into those markets. So yes, early days when you first start launching, is it going to be profitable on day 1? Not necessarily. But we're also not -- we don't think you're looking at like significant losses and you're kind of banking on profitability way, way into the future. Our plans and really for all of the -- even the acquisitions we're talking about, we're expecting them to contribute positively kind of in the near term.

Great. Let me just look left. Any questions on this side of the house? All right. Now I'm going to look right. Any questions on that side of the house? Okay. Now we'll go to the center. Perfect.

This is Jonathan Kees from Daiwa. Can you hear me, okay?

Yes.

Great. Thanks for having this event. Very helpful, very informative, very specific. I wanted to ask specifically about sports rights. I mean, you're partnering, you're distributing the Olympics with NBCU. You made it clear that for the other stuff, WNBA, the Golf, obviously, you're doing that yourself. You have your independent programming, broadcasting and all that stuff. So I'm wondering what are your decision factors to where you're going to partner with somebody else to go after the sports rights? Is it to get higher ROI? Is it to get out of these niche segments of sports back into the NBA and NFL or -- and then are you trying to also get like higher ROI? Just trying to get an understanding what the thought process is. And also like how long is this partnership with NBCU for the Olympics?

I'll answer that very specifically first. Currently, that partnership goes through the '28 Los Angeles games. It doesn't mean it might not go further. That will be their call. Those are their rights, and we are a good distribution partner for them, and we have a lot of history with that. But we're very excited to be part of the next two games for sure.

In terms of sports rights, we have a very nice set of rights with the Premier League and WWE, NASCAR, all the PGA TOUR plus all the other Golf assets. We are -- we potentially could partner with other people. We would always try to talk to our cousins at NBCU, our old friends, but we're going to be opportunistic and look for sports rights that drive three things.

I mean I look through everything in the sports world through three lenses. Does it have an audience, a built-in audience, presold demand? That's one. Does it drive differentiated and diversification of advertising revenue? Two. And three, what does it mean to our distribution partners? And does it help us either maintain, drive or increase pricing on distribution?

If you can get -- buy a property that handles all three of those, that's a big win, and the two of those three, that's probably pretty good. If it only hits one of those three, it's probably not something we're going to look at. So that will be sort of the filter that we look through as we analyze sports rights.

Any other questions? Thank you for your time. This concludes our formal program. We hope you'll join us for a reception, and we look forward to keeping in close touch with you.

Thank you all very much. We appreciate it.

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to Comcast's Third Quarter Earnings Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] Please note this conference call is being recorded.

I will now turn the call over to Executive Vice President, Investor Relations, Ms. Marci Ryvicker. Please go ahead, Ms. Ryvicker.

Thank you, operator, and welcome, everyone. Joining us on today's call are Brian Roberts; Mike Cavanagh; Jason Armstrong; and Dave Watson.

I will now refer you to Slide 2 of the presentation accompanying this call, which can also be found on our Investor Relations website and which contains our safe harbor disclaimer. This conference call may include forward-looking statements subject to certain risks and uncertainties.

In addition, during this call, we will refer to certain non-GAAP financial measures. Please see our 8-K and trending schedule issued earlier this morning for the reconciliations of these non-GAAP financial measures to GAAP.

With that, I'll turn the call over to Mike.

Good morning, everyone, and thanks for joining us. First, I'll start with the leadership news we announced earlier this morning, which is that Steve Croney will be elevated to CEO of our Content & Experiences business at the beginning of 2026. And at that time, Dave Watson will become Vice Chairman of Comcast Corporation.

This will be a well-earned and seamless transition for Steve, who has already made a significant impact as Chief Operating Officer leading the operational transformation of our C&P business over the past year. He has the full trust and confidence of our entire management team and is exactly the right person to take the business forward.

And I want to congratulate and thank Dave for his extraordinary leadership of the business for the past 8 years. Over more than 3 decades Dave has been an integral part of building the best connectivity business in the industry. The fact that Steve comes from inside the company also speaks to how thoughtfully Dave has developed the leaders in his organization. And I really look forward to continuing to partner with you, Dave, in your new role as Vice Chairman.

Brian will have more to say about this leadership transition later in the call, but now let me get into the quarter. I have 2 topics to discuss, convergence and sports.

So starting with convergence, the broadband environment remains intensely competitive, which we do not expect to change anytime soon. Over time though, we believe that the vast majority of the broadband market will be comprised of 2 multi-gig symmetrical providers serving most addresses, and we aim to be a winner in this segment, with the rest of the market likely being served by capacity-limited alternatives.

We've been seeing this end state begin to take shape. Fiber expansion continues at a steady pace. And as we've said before, we expect most of our footprint will eventually be overbuilt. At the same time, fixed wireless remains a durable competitor, serving price-sensitive segments with moderate performance needs.

Against this backdrop, we have adapted our approach to compete more effectively for the long term. Our strategy rests on 3 pillars: network, product and customer experience.

Our network is built to scale and now leverages AI end-to-end to optimize performance throughout the home. This enables best-in-class WiFi, which matters more than ever as usage continues to rise. We're seeing this on our network where broadband-only customers average 800 gigs a month in the third quarter, up 9% year-over-year.

In product, broadband, wireless and our entertainment OS operate as one system, integrated and designed for how customers actually connect. Taken together or individually, they deliver a seamless experience that differentiates us in the marketplace.

And finally, in customer experience, where we need to improve over the long term, our near-term focus is on price transparency and in making it easier to do business with us.

With respect to these pillars, we made meaningful progress in the quarter. First, we streamlined our organizational structure to better align with our strategy. Steve has centralized key functions such as marketing, data science and customer experience, and reduced management layers to sharpen local execution.

Second, we're pressing ahead on WiFi, an area where we are already recognized as a market leader. Strong, consistent WiFi remains the #1 factor driving customer choice, and this is where we excel. Opensignal recently ranked Xfinity the top provider in our footprint, outperforming Verizon, T-Mobile and AT&T in reliability, download speeds and streaming.

This leadership comes from the technology behind our network, especially our gateways, which power the strength and consistency of the WiFi experience. During the third quarter, we began rolling out our most powerful gateway yet, the XP10, supporting multi-gig symmetrical speeds and up to 300 devices using AI to self-optimize network performance in real time. With our new national pricing, gateways are included in every package, ensuring every customer receives our best technology and an integrated experience with mobile.

Third, we've accelerated momentum in wireless, now reaching more than 14% penetration of our broadband base and adding over 400,000 lines in the quarter, our best result yet. Xfinity Mobile is a standout growth engine for us. We're leaning in with sharper marketing, stronger brand awareness and compelling offers like a free mobile line for 1 year.

This was also the first full quarter of our new premium unlimited plan designed for higher-value customers that delivers what they want at $40 per line on a 2-line plan and the ability to upgrade devices twice a year with a guaranteed discount on a new phone. Our progress in mobile is clear, with meaningful product uptake, higher attachment rates across our broadband base and growing recognition of Xfinity Mobile as a leader in value and performance.

Fourth, video performance improved meaningfully this quarter with subscriber losses down more than 100,000 year-over-year, which is our best result in nearly 5 years. Churn is at record lows supported by our focus on delivering the right products for each customer segment. Our entertainment OS continues to lead the market, enhanced by features like MultiView, which allows our customers to view several live events simultaneously.

Fifth, we introduced a simpler, more transparent pricing model. As we detailed last quarter, we've moved to nationwide offers built around 4 clear speed tiers. Each plan includes our gateway, unlimited data, WiFi controls and cyber protection at a lower everyday price, backed by a 1- or 5-year price guarantee. It's a more predictable experience for the customer and a clearer value proposition in the market.

And finally, we're taking meaningful steps to simplify the customer experience across all channels. Our new AI engine now supports agents, technicians and customers through assisted chat, phone, our website and our AI-enabled Xfinity Assistant platform. We also launched a program that connects customers to a live agent in seconds, which is now available to half of our customer base. It's still early, but we're moving fast and executing with focus towards a simpler, smarter and more seamless customer experience.

So taken together, these efforts mark tangible progress in what is an important shift to position our Connectivity business for future sustained growth. This is a deliberate investment phase, one that will take time and carry a cost as reflected in the 3.7% decline in Connectivity & Platforms EBITDA this quarter. And we expect this decline to build slightly over the next several quarters as we continue to invest in pricing, product and customer experience.

And my second topic is sports. Last week's NBA tip-off marked the start of one of the biggest stretches of live sports in our history and drew the largest audience for an NBA opening double header since 2010. We're in the heart of the NFL and college football seasons and, in February, we'll have the Super Bowl, Winter Olympics and NBA All-Star Weekend, followed by the World Cup on Telemundo in June.

Sports remains a cornerstone of our Media business. The NBA's return to NBC and now Peacock expands both our reach and our creative opportunities. Sunday Night Basketball launches in February, modeled after the success of Sunday Night Football, which has been the #1 prime time show for 14 straight years and now averages roughly 25 million viewers.

We're proud of the sports portfolio we've built. Each property adds value across our entire Media ecosystem, driving NBC's distribution, helping Peacock attract and retain subscribers, and powering our advertising business. And as audiences continue to shift from linear to streaming, the multiple benefits of sports becomes an even greater advantage.

Live sports continue to deliver strong viewership and ad performance across broadcast and streaming, momentum at Peacock remains solid and retention has held steady even after our $3 price increase. Running linear and streaming as one integrated media business gives us real scale and flexibility. It allows us to align programming, marketing promotion and monetization across NBC, Peacock and our studios. And as we near completion of the Versant spin, NBCUniversal's media business will be more focused and well positioned to grow.

So now let me turn it over to Jason to go over the third quarter results in more detail.

Thanks, Mike, and good morning, everyone. Let me start with a high-level overview of our consolidated results before getting into more detail on our businesses.

Total company revenue declined about 3% year-over-year, primarily due to the tough comparison to last year's Paris Olympics. Excluding that impact, revenue increased nearly 3%, driven by strong performance across our 6 growth businesses, highlighted by nearly 20% growth in Theme Parks and 14% growth in domestic wireless.

EBITDA and adjusted EPS were both consistent with last year, while free cash flow increased 45% to $4.9 billion. We returned $2.8 billion to shareholders this quarter, including $1.5 billion in share repurchases and $1.2 billion in dividends, reflecting our ongoing commitment to disciplined capital allocation.

Now turning to our businesses, starting with Connectivity & Platforms. The competitive environment for broadband remains intense. As we've highlighted, we've made a significant pivot in our go-to-market strategy this year, focused on simplifying pricing, improving transparency and enhancing the customer experience. While it's still early, we're encouraged by what we're seeing in our broadband customer base: continued stabilization in voluntary churn, a healthy mix of customers opting into our 5-year price guarantee and nearly 40% of new connects choosing gig-plus speeds, which is up about 10 points from the start of the year.

We're also seeing higher utilization of our new packaging, including new everyday pricing in retention, helping transition more of the base into simplified market-based plans. And we continue to accelerate our wireless net additions this quarter to a new record high.

As we've said from the beginning, this pivot carries several costs, including rate reinvestment through pricing simplicity, which carries revenue dilution, as well as investment in customer experience, which carries additional operating costs. This quarter is the first quarter where these impacts are reflected in our financial results. You see it in broadband ARPU growth dilution as well as elevated marketing, product and customer service expense, all contributing to a 3.7% decline in EBITDA this quarter. As Mike mentioned, as these investments continue, we expect continued EBITDA pressure over the next several quarters until we lap this transition.

On the other side of this, we're positioning ourselves for growth with a more durable broadband customer base on stable market-based rate plans, combined with a larger wireless base, that gives us a very strong hand in convergence, along with meaningful monetization upside as customers roll off promotions and we expand the relationship over time. All in, our converged product offerings provide customers with substantial savings versus comparable plans from telecom competitors.

Now let me get into some further details of the quarter. Broadband subscribers declined 104,000 in the quarter. We saw the typical seasonal benefit from back-to-school activity as well as the early traction from our new go-to-market initiatives, but this was more than offset by the continued intense competitive environment. The rollout of our new everyday pricing structure at the end of June, combined with the success of our free wireless line offer, caused a deceleration in our broadband ARPU growth, resulting in 2.6% growth this quarter. As we continue to transition customers to more consistent pricing and ramp up free wireless line additions, we expect ARPU growth to step down more than 1 point in the fourth quarter. And we expect continued pressure on ARPU in early 2026 as our current plan is to not take a rate increase in broadband in the early part of next year.

As we've said, this pivot we are making will take time, but it sets the foundation for a far more stable broadband base in a more challenged competitive environment, and we're confident we're on the right path.

And while we invest to stabilize broadband, wireless is our core growth engine. On that note, convergence revenue grew 2.5%, supported by mid-teens growth in wireless. Wireless net additions hit a new record at 414,000, and nearly half of our residential postpaid phone connects came from customers taking a free line, which is a great way to bring new customers into the ecosystem. At the same time, we saw a strong uptake in our new premium unlimited plans, enhancing our position in the high-value postpaid market.

Our total wireless lines are now approaching 9 million, with penetration of our broadband base surpassing 14%, and we're pleased with the momentum in wireless net additions. Looking ahead, in the second half of next year, many of the free lines will come up for monetization. Our intention is to convert the majority to paying relationships, which should provide a significant tailwind to convergence revenue growth at that point.

Turning to Business Services. Consistent with prior quarters, revenue was up 6% and EBITDA grew by nearly 5% in the quarter. In the SMB segment, we're seeing elevated competition, particularly from fixed wireless. Despite this, we still delivered modest revenue growth by driving ARPU higher through increased adoption of our advanced services like cybersecurity, cloud solutions and Comcast Business Mobile.

Where we're seeing real momentum is in our enterprise solutions, which continues to be a key growth driver. These customers have more complex needs, and we're leaning in to deepen relationships and expand our advanced solutions mix. It's a segment where we're investing, and we expect continued strong growth.

In Content & Experiences, there are a few items I'd like to highlight. At Parks, we delivered another strong quarter with revenue up 19% and EBITDA growth of 13%, benefiting from the first full quarter of Epic Universe. We're really pleased with the early results from Epic, which are driving higher per cap spending and attendance across the entirety of Universal Orlando. We remain focused on expanding ride throughput as we build to run rate capacity and expect Epic to continue scaling over the next year with higher attendance, stronger per caps and improved operating leverage.

At Studios, we had solid theatrical results led by the strong performance of Jurassic World Rebirth early in the quarter, which has grossed nearly $900 million in worldwide box office and pushed the franchise's cumulative total to $7 billion. While this success contributed to top line growth, Studio's EBITDA was impacted by higher marketing spend tied to our larger film slate this year. Looking ahead, we're excited for a strong fourth quarter slate, including the highly anticipated release of Wicked: For Good on November 21.

In Media, excluding the comparison to last year's Paris Olympics which generated $1.9 billion in incremental revenue, revenue increased a healthy 4%. And on the same basis, Peacock revenue grew at a mid-teens rate driven by strength in both advertising and distribution. Advertising was up 2.6%, our best result year-to-date, fueled by sports with the strong return of Sunday Night Football. In fact, our 20th season is our highest grossing season to date. Distribution revenue grew 1.5%, supported by 25% growth at Peacock.

Overall Media EBITDA increased 28%, driven by nearly $220 million year-over-year improvement in Peacock losses, which landed at a loss of just over $200 million in the quarter. Peacock subscribers were flat this quarter as the strength of our content slate late in the quarter as well as our strategic distribution initiatives offset the impact of additional churn from our in-quarter $3 rate hike.

Looking ahead, the NBA just premiered on NBC and Peacock last week and is off to a great start. While we expect a positive impact on advertising and distribution revenue, it also introduces a new expense. As we've said, we'll straight-line the amortization of these sports rights, which will create some upfront dilution, particularly in the first season, with the game counts driving quarterly realization of this expense. But over time, we'll offset this through advertising growth, a recent record upfront tied to sports, including the NBA, is a good indicator, and through subscriber acquisition and monetization across both linear and Peacock. We also expect to optimize NBCUniversal programming investment across sports, entertainment and news.

Now I'll wrap up with free cash flow and capital allocation. As I mentioned earlier, we generated $4.9 billion of free cash flow this quarter, up significantly year-over-year. And year-to-date, we have generated $14.9 billion in free cash flow. The increase in the quarter was driven by a tailwind in cash taxes from the new legislation, along with favorable working capital timing, particularly around studio production spend, and the comparison to the Olympics. These benefits were partially offset by higher organic investment with total capital expenditures of $3.1 billion this quarter, reflecting increased spending in Connectivity & Platforms where we're investing to pass more homes, to strengthen our broadband network and to deploy our market-leading gateways into homes at a faster rate. Our gateway is now included in our broadband offers, which is a key part of our product strategy.

On the Content & Experiences side, capital spending declined as we're past the construction on Epic that elevated capital spending last year. Through our investments and our significant pivot in broadband, we have maintained a healthy balance sheet, ending the quarter with net leverage at 2.3x. We also returned $2.8 billion to shareholders, including over $1.5 billion in share repurchases, contributing to a mid-single-digit year-over-year decline in our share count.

As we look ahead to next year, our capital allocation strategy remains unchanged. Our priorities are to invest organically in our growth businesses, maintain a strong balance sheet and return capital to shareholders. That formula has served us well and it will continue to guide our approach. At the same time, we'll stay disciplined and balanced as we move through this transition.

We do have some near-term headwinds, namely the EBITDA impact from our broadband repositioning, the onboarding of NBA rights and the spinoff of Versant and its associated EBITDA and free cash flow. For those reasons, we reduced our quarterly buyback pacing a touch to $1.5 billion in the quarter. I'd point out that this remains one of the strongest absolute and percentage buybacks in our broader peer group. At the same time, our healthy dividend offers a yield that is multiple times the yield of the broader market. So we believe we are balancing strong returns back to shareholders with significant reinvestment in our business, and doing so in the context of a balance sheet that provides cushion through any operating or macroeconomic environment.

With that, let me turn it over to Brian for a few remarks.

Thanks, Jason. Mike, as you referenced a moment ago, I want to talk about our recent leadership announcements. Let's start with you, Mike.

I could not be more thrilled to have you become our co-CEO. Working side by side for over a decade, you're an incredible partner. And now especially as we manage the pivot we're making to meet the moment in all of our businesses that you just laid out so well, you are critical to navigating our plan to achieve sustainable growth for the future.

I'm also very excited and proud for you, Dave, to become Vice Chair, working with me, Steve and all the others on the strategic initiatives as we look forward. But as I step back and think about Comcast's culture, doing the right thing, caring about people, building something truly unique, so much of that started with my dad, but has actually been brought to life for decades now by you, Dave. So on behalf of thousands and thousands of employees, a huge thank you.

And Steve, who's sitting right here, not going to speak today, we're going to start him next quarter, you have been often running from day 1 when you became COO just under a year ago. All of the changes you're hearing about and have seen in our pricing, packaging, customer experience and infusing AI across the connectivity businesses have been driven really by Steve and his energized team.

We're clearly at an inflection point in the industry and transformational moment in our company. And we now have a leadership team adding on to the great successes of the past that's leaning in to change and actionize all the plans you just heard about, and we're excited about the future.

So before we get to Q&A, Mike, back to you for one last word.

Thanks, Brian. I truly appreciate the confidence that you and the Board have in me, and I couldn't be more excited to become Co-CEO at such interesting times in our industries. I know that I, and I think I can speak for the next wave of leaders across the company, are very eager to meet these challenges. And we're very confident, I'm very confident, that we will drive value over the next several years on the back of the strength of our people, our business assets and the strategies that we already have in flight. And we'll make whatever adjustments need to be made, but couldn't feel more excited and more confident. So with that, I look forward to diving into your questions. And back to you, Marci.

Operator, let's open the call for Q&A, please.

[Operator Instructions] Our first question today is coming from Michael Rollins from Citibank.

Congratulations, Mike, on being named co-CEO and, Dave, becoming Vice Chair. Just a couple of questions, so first on broadband. Just curious if you could share some more context around the evolution of ARPU and what you're seeing in terms of customers migrating to the new plans and the opportunities to build better retention, but the cost of that coming through on the revenue side.

And then on convergence, you referenced the 2.5% growth in the quarter. As you continue to market the new slate of offers and promotions, is there an anticipation that this rate of growth should improve over time?

Mike, this is Dave. So let me, if I could, just take a quick moment -- I appreciate your comments on Mike and I and Steve, but I do want to just take a brief moment to say what an incredible privilege it's been to help to lead this team in this business. Working alongside Brian, Mike, Jason and the entire management team has truly been the highlight of my career. Very proud of the progress that we've made, Brian touched on some of that. But we've built a world-class network and the products that set the industry standard. And leaning in with new businesses and wireless and Comcast business, which continue to create real momentum, I'm optimistic about the future. There's so much opportunity ahead as we bring our broadband, wireless and entertainment products together, and we'll continue to innovate.

And that's why I'm so confident in Steve. As Brian said, Steve and his team are leading these big changes that we're rolling out. Steve is an exceptional leader: thoughtful, decisive and focused on innovation, customer experience and execution, qualities that will position us for success in the years ahead. I want to thank our teams across Comcast for their relentless focus and hard work every day. It's been an extraordinary journey, and I look forward to what's ahead for all of us.

So speaking of what's ahead, let me answer your question on the revenue side, on ARPU, and then hand it over to Jason to talk a little bit about convergence. So given the investments we're making, as we've said, it's unlikely that we'll be able to grow ARPU in 2026, especially in the early part of the year. But part of it is, to your question, Mike, we're going to be very active, and we are active, migrating customers to the new pricing and packaging with lower EDPs, an all-in approach and, of course, all eligible for free -- that free mobile line.

So as Jason said, and you talked about the timing in Q4, and the current plan is to not take a rate increase in broadband in the early part of the year. But we're real confident that we can get back to ARPU growth as we migrate through and manage through the transition.

So we are very focused on the tier mix and the higher packages. So we're being deliberate and focused to the base on how we're going to the customers and through multiple ways. And most certainly, as you brought out, retention is a key one. And so tons of value that we have with the free mobile line and the all-in approach that we have in the lower EDPs.

In Q3, nearly half of our resi postpaid phone connects were free lines. So it's working, you saw it through the phone results. And it gives us longer-term growth potential as these migrate off and convert later on next year.

So we're very focused to the base and will not be hesitant to move the customers to these new packages, and we'll take every appropriate opportunity to do that. No specifics in terms of the actual migration amounts, but our focus is long-term revenue growth, that's sustaining and continuing to work on the competitive landscape and getting customers into these packages. So that's the overall view in terms of our ARPU management.

Yes, Mike, let me -- maybe I'll put those 2 questions together, just give you, as Dave said, sort of the broader strategic framework, which is we're in a transition period, we're pivoting, but the mandate here is let's get to the other side as quickly as possible. And Dave, Steve and team are driving towards that. So that's the common thread. If you look at the repackaging we're doing, whether it's 5-year price locks, whether it's free wireless lines, we're seeing good uptake. And we're moving the base along as quickly as possible and there's no mandate to slow that down. Instead, let's get to the other side.

And so as you've seen, that's going to create a little bit of ARPU pressure. You saw that in the quarter. You'll see it again next quarter. We're not taking a broadband rate hike, at least in the early part of next year, so that will compound the pressure a little bit more. Saying that, we're adding a lot of wireless lines and we're adding free wireless lines. So if you think about sort of the other side of this, vast majority of our base on super competitive broadband pricing where we're a lot more competitive than we used to be and wireless lines more broadly deployed in our base and a bunch of free lines that right now are diluting ARPU, but we are absorbing the cost for them.

We're proud of what we're seeing. We're actually seeing people activating. We're seeing them using the lines, which portends, I think, good things for the activation rates next year and our ability to translate those into paying lines. So what is a headwind right now in the form of wireless to our broadband ARPU becomes a tailwind. And so that's -- we're setting ourselves up for the other side, but there's going to be some near-term headwinds as we said.

And I'll just add, long term, I completely agree with what Jason said, but this is Mike. But we're encouraged when you look at how fiber pricing, broadband pricing is increasing across the industry. That's quite a good backdrop for where we're taking the business over the long term, as well as the continued data usage across our networks, which continued to grow this quarter, up 9% year-over-year. So continued strong growth in the use of the service. So good backdrop for, once we get to the other side, confidence that we'll have a revenue growth in the broadband business in the years ahead.

Operator, we're ready for the next question.

Next question today is coming from Michael Ng from Goldman Sachs.

I wanted to just ask a little bit more about the trajectory of C&P EBITDA next year. We obviously talked a lot about the ARPU side. Just on the OpEx side, could you talk a little bit about the investments that you're doing there, whether that be in CPE, sales and marketing or customer service to support the reset here?

Sure. This is Dave. So we talked about, and Jason, Mike themselves talked a little bit about the revenue approach being aggressive, deliberate on the getting to new and existing customers, the new packaging and the simple, transparent approach that we have. So that has an investment attached to it.

But in addition, we're also focused on making sure the media supports the strategy, the marketing sales channels, everything, and the experience, in particular, is consistent with everything that we're doing. So we are investing in sales channels and in marketing, and we'll see. But the biggest impact that -- where we will experience in terms of timing is the things that we've already talked about in terms of free mobile line, the revenue investments that we're making, that is -- there's a ton of activity, but the marketing effort connected with the customer experience improvements, making sure that every tool, every aspect of the business is going to continue to improve, those are things that are just as important.

And I think along with that, just to round out the question and cost opportunities, I think we -- the team to their credit has been fairly aggressive in cost rationalization. You've seen that more recently with some realignment around divisional structures and cutting out layers in the company. So that continues apace. A lot of that, though, obviously being reinvested in the pivot, which we think is the appropriate thing to do.

Next question is coming from Craig Moffett from MoffettNathanson.

Two questions. First, Dave, I just want to say congratulations on a an exceptionally successful and long run as President of the cable side of the business. Two questions, if I could. First, I have to ask about all the speculation about Warner Bros. Discovery. So Brian, if you could just share any thoughts about how you think about those assets, the complementarity of those assets and whether or not, in this political environment, M&A of that kind is even possible.

And then on the cable side of the business, I wonder if you could just talk about the transition at Verizon to Dan Schulman and whether you expect that to have any implications for the relationship you have with Verizon and the MVNO?

Let me kick it over to Mike as co-CEO to answer those questions. But on the second one there on Verizon, we wish him well and we have an important relationship with Verizon, and we are confident that we'll find ways to work together very successfully in the future. But Mike, why don't you take the...

Sure. Our Media M&A, or M&A generally, I mean, I think we've said repeatedly and I'll say it again, that the bar is very high for us to pursue any M&A transactions given how strongly we feel about the businesses we have, the strategies we're pursuing and the opportunities we have ahead of us. So that continues to be an important anchor point for how we think about things.

Second point I'd make is that you should expect us to look at things that are trading in our -- in the space around our industry. So we'd be -- it's our job to try to figure out if there's ways to add value. But I would point out that with the kind of Versant spin, we've set NBC Media business up pairing Peacock on the streaming side with NBC Broadcast. You've seen lots of news lately about us attracting the NBA and Taylor Sheridan and the like over the long term, and you put that business alongside one of the finest studio businesses in the industry and our Parks business, and I think the strategies we have are really sound and durable without M&A.

That said, the question about what's feasible to get any deals through, obviously, the fact that we've been taking the path of setting Versant up as our cable network business to pursue strategies that didn't fit inside the sort of the new NBC Media business, with great strength in assets and the cash flows they have with light leverage, and that is on track to happen, you can expect that any view we would have about other media assets that could be complementary to our existing Media business would be of the same sort. So in this case, it would be streaming assets and studio assets since there's no other parks assets out there, and that makes us such a unique company ourselves.

So I think in light of that, what we'll be looking for and what we're going to look like post the Versant spin, I think more things are viable than maybe some of the public commentary that's out there.

The next question today is coming from Ben Swinburne from Morgan Stanley.

I guess 2 questions. One, I wanted to get a sense a little bit of how you're thinking about the conversion of free wireless lines to pay next year. We've sort of seen this in others in the industry. But how are you guys just ensuring that the customer quality is there and making sure you're putting in kind of the right guardrails, so that when you get to that point a year from now, we see that nice uptick in convergence revenue growth?

And then, Jason, you mentioned a couple of things on Epic, focusing on expanding ride throughput, et cetera, operating leverage. Can you just talk a little bit more about what you were referring to there and kind of what we should expect as we move through 2026?

Let me start, Ben, this is Dave on the wireless migration. So we've had solid momentum leading up to this quarter. We've been in 300,000-ish net new additions prior to launching the free line package. So we just stepped up to a nice level for the first time, a new record that we've all been talking about. So -- but I can't think of too many other things that are as important as making sure quality connects coming in, and there's going to be a real focus around making the transition to paid status for those free lines as they come off next year.

So we have a lot of experience with promotional activity, very accustomed to proactive and reactive approaches. But -- and we've watched it closely in the marketplace, those that have done this. So tried to learn quite a bit. But it's our focus has been and continues to be providing real choice in the marketplace. And we've been very consistent going after quality, high-end segments. We want to compete in every segment, and so whether it's broadband and mobile or broadband and other packages. And we've launched, for example, new high-end wireless tiers that have been really attractive in the marketplace. And so that's a good sign. We've seen these new wireless plans, our gig speeds, 4K, the ultra-high-def streaming capability, more WiFi hotspots, advanced spam call protection and guaranteed device upgrade capabilities.

So you can see our focus is to stay very much, and when we go after mobile relationships, we'll maintain the history that we have going after the best customers.

And the experience itself, I think, is critical. And we continue to make sure people know we have the best along with great mobile service, great WiFi, and that it all comes together and converged and away from a product experience that it really works in. So the migration activity next year, we will be all over. That will be an important part of our plan.