Comcast is planning to split itself into two publicly traded companies, one focused on media that would include NBCUniversal and Sky and the other focused on broadband and wireless services.
The company said Monday that its board and management team think each company will be better positioned to pursue its own strategic priorities, invest for growth and create long-term shareholder value as independent entities.
The planned move comes after Comcast announced in November 2024 that it was spinning off cable networks such as USA, Oxygen, E!, SYFY and Golf Channel, as well as CNBC and MSNBC into a new company. Movie ticketing platform Fandango and the Rotten Tomatoes movie rating site were also included.
Like other cable companies, Comcast in recent years has shifted its business emphasis away from traditional cable toward streaming and other sources of revenue, such as its movie studio, theme parks and home wireless and internet services.
Media and entertainment company NBCUniversal includes a theme parks division, Universal film and television studios, NBC and Telemundo networks, Peacock, and Bravo. Its portfolio will now include European media business Sky.
Comcast, based in Philadelphia, will continue providing internet services to residential and business customers.
Comcast co-CEO Mike Cavanagh will become the CEO of NBCUniversal. Comcast’s former Chief Financial Officer Michael Angelakis will become the CEO of Comcast, following completion of the separation. In the interim, he will serve as a strategic adviser.
Comcast Chairman and co-CEO Brian Roberts will continue to be actively involved in the leadership of Comcast and NBCUniversal, working in partnership with the CEOs of both companies.
“Comcast will continue to build on its leadership in connectivity, while NBCUniversal, together with Sky, will have the scale, brands, content and financial resources to compete as a premier global media and entertainment company,” Cavanagh said in a statement.
Once the transaction is complete, Comcast shareholders will own shares in both Comcast and NBCUniversal. The separation is expected to be completed in about a year. It still needs final approval from Comcast's board and is subject to regulatory approvals.
Comcast expects to keep a stake of up to 19.9% ownership position in NBCUniversal for up to one year after the spinoff is complete.
In premarket trading, Comcast shares surged 24%.
FILE- A Comcast truck is shown on Jan. 24, 2019, in Pittsburgh. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar, File)
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — Pakistani forces' ground operations and strikes killed at least 36 civilians in Afghanistan overnight and wounded more than 160 others, Afghan officials said Monday, as tensions between the neighbors escalated. One Afghan official said the attacks would be met with retaliation.
Pakistan said the operations were launched in response to militant attacks across Pakistan. Security forces carried out a ground operation along the border late Sunday, followed by strikes against militant hideouts and safe havens, killing 29 fighters, Pakistan's Information Minister Attaullah Tarar said.
Afghanistan condemned the strikes in Paktia, Paktika, and Kunar provinces as a “cowardly act of aggression” and an “act of brutality.” Hayatullah Mohajer Farahi, the deputy minister for publications at the Ministry of Information and Culture, said Afghanistan would respond “in due time.”
Hamdullah Fitrat, the deputy spokesperson for Afghanistan’s Taliban government, said Pakistani forces targeted a home in Paktia's Chamkani district, killing an older man and a child, while other family members were wounded. When residents gathered to rescue people, the area was struck again, killing 28 villagers and wounding 158, he said.
Six people, mostly women and children, were killed in a village in Giyan district, Paktika province, when another home was struck, he said. A civilian home in Kunar province was also hit, causing no casualties but killing some 30 livestock.
Pakistani officials said an uneasy calm prevailed along the border Monday, with security forces remaining on high alert.
On Monday, Afghanistan and Pakistan summoned each other's top diplomats to protest the attacks.
Zia Ahmad Takal, the Afghanistan Foreign Ministry's deputy spokesperson, accused Islamabad of repeatedly blaming Afghanistan for security incidents inside Pakistan without “credible evidence.”
Pakistan’s behavior “seriously harms the atmosphere of trust between the two countries, good neighborly relations and the security and stability of the region,” Takal said.
Pakistan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said it summoned Afghanistan’s top diplomat in Islamabad to protest the involvement of Afghan nationals in recent attacks, including one in Karachi over the weekend.
Militant attacks targeting Pakistan’s police and security forces have surged in recent years. Authorities have blamed the Pakistani Taliban, or TTP, and allied militant groups for most of the violence. The Pakistani Taliban are separate from but allied with the Afghan Taliban that returned to power in 2021.
Tarar, the Pakistani information minister, shared three videos on X that he said showed projectiles striking sprawling camps and safe havens of Jamaat-ul-Ahrar and Fitna al-Khawarij in Afghanistan’s Paktia, Paktika and Kunar provinces. Tarar said the overnight strikes killed “terrorists” and destroyed weapons and ammunition stockpiles.
Pakistan uses the phrase “Khawarij” to refer to Indian-backed Pakistani Taliban and other militants. Jamaat-ul-Ahrar is a breakaway faction of the Pakistani Taliban.
Tarar said Pakistan’s counter-terrorism campaign “will continue at full pace to wipe out the menace of foreign-sponsored and supported terrorism from the country.”
India, however, denied any involvement, with Foreign Ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal calling the statements “baseless allegations.” Pakistan should “look inwards, take credible action against the terror infrastructure on its territory,” he said.
The Pakistani security operation followed a militant attack targeting the regional headquarters of the paramilitary Rangers in Karachi that killed three soldiers. Security forces killed three attackers and arrested another assailant, whom the military identified as a wounded Afghan national.
Jamaat-ul-Ahrar claimed responsibility for the Karachi attack.
Officials in Pakistan claimed one Afghan suspect was captured following the attack, saying that “Afghan soil and Afghan nationals continue to be used to orchestrate terrorist attacks inside Pakistan.” Police later released the statement of the wounded Afghan detainee, who said the Karachi attack was planned by Jamaat‑ul‑Ahrar, though it was unclear if the confession was made under duress.
Sunday’s cross-border strikes and ground operation came less than three weeks after Pakistan’s military launched airstrikes on what it said were militant hideouts in Afghanistan. They ended about a month of relative calm following what Islamabad had described as an “open war” between the neighboring countries, despite international efforts to broker a lasting peace.
The escalation follows months of military action. Hundreds of people have been killed in cross-border fighting since February, when Afghanistan launched retaliatory strikes after Pakistan carried out airstrikes inside Afghan territory.
Multiple rounds of talks have failed to secure a lasting ceasefire. China hosted the two sides in April and Beijing later said Pakistan and Afghanistan had agreed not to escalate their conflict and to explore a solution.
Fraser reported from Ankara, Turkey. Associated Press writer Munir Ahmed contributed from Islamabad.
Residents walk through the rubble after what Taliban officials said were Pakistani airstrikes a day earlier that killed civilians, including children, in the village of Mandokhail, Chamkani district, Paktia province, Afghanistan, Monday, June 29, 2026. (AP Photo/Saifullah Zahir)
Residents walk through the rubble after what Taliban officials said were Pakistani airstrikes a day earlier that killed civilians, including children, in the village of Mandokhail, Chamkani district, Paktia province, Afghanistan, Monday, June 29, 2026. (AP Photo/Saifullah Zahir)
Residents walk through the rubble after what Taliban officials said were Pakistani airstrikes a day earlier that killed civilians, including children, in the village of Mandokhail, Chamkani district, Paktia province, Afghanistan, Monday, June 29, 2026. (AP Photo/Saifullah Zahir)
The remains of a destroyed house are seen after what Taliban officials said were Pakistani airstrikes a day earlier that killed civilians, including children, in the village of Mandokhail, Chamkani district, Paktia province, Afghanistan, Monday, June 29, 2026. (AP Photo/Saifullah Zahir)
Residents walk through the rubble after what Taliban officials said were Pakistani airstrikes a day earlier that killed civilians, including children, in the village of Mandokhail, Chamkani district, Paktia province, Afghanistan, Monday, June 29, 2026. (AP Photo/Saifullah Zahir)
Paramilitary soldiers and police officers stand guard on a road cordoned off near the site of a militant attack at the provincial headquarters of the paramilitary Pakistan Rangers in Karachi, Pakistan, Sunday, June 28, 2026. (AP Photo/Ali Raza)
