Versant's second-quarter revenue falls 3.8% to $1.64 billion

Versant Media Group, which began trading as a standalone company in January, reported revenue of $1.64 billion for the quarter to 30 June, down from $1.7 billion a year earlier. Net income attributable to Versant dropped 30% to $211 million. Versant blamed lower revenue and one-time separation costs, including higher tax expenses after the divestiture of SportsEngine. The results give investors a measure of how the cable networks perform without Comcast's broader group.

Linear distribution brought in $954 million, down 6.3% from a year earlier. Advertising revenue was $423 million, down just under 1%, after a 13% drop in the year-earlier quarter. Content licensing was unchanged at $43 million. Linear is the largest and weakest of the three; advertising is close to flat after a hard comparison.

Platforms revenue rose 0.8% to $212 million. Versant said that excluding SportsEngine, which it divested, platforms revenue grew 9.3%. Anand Kini, chief operating officer and chief financial officer, told analysts platforms were the fastest growing part of the group, helped by Fandango and GolfNow. Adjusted EBITDA fell 9% to $624 million.

The split and the ratings

Comcast completed the separation at 11:59pm ET on 2 January 2026. Shareholders received one Versant share for every 25 Comcast shares held on the 16 December 2025 record date. Comcast first revealed the plan in November 2024 as it looked to focus on Peacock rather than declining cable TV audiences. Deadline reported that the split reflected the declining value of linear television amid streaming and cord cutting.

S&P and Fitch assigned Versant BB credit ratings, citing stable outlooks and headwinds from pay TV subscriber declines. S&P said linear distribution and advertising from its networks accounted for more than 80% of total revenue. Versant's assets generated $7.1 billion of revenue in 2024, down from $7.4 billion in 2023 and $7.8 billion in 2022, according to an SEC filing. Profit fell 24% to $749 million in the first nine months of 2025, according to a filing.

Mark Lazarus, chief executive, said 62% of the portfolio sits in news and sports. At the December investor day, he said 62% of audience comes from live programming across sports and news. The two figures measure different things.

The networks reached as many as 65 million households at the end of 2024. Versant expects around 70 million US households.

What happens next

Two distribution agreements come up for renewal this year, the first time Versant's networks face distributors without Comcast behind them. More than half of its pay TV subscribers sit under agreements running through 2028 and beyond, Kini said at the investor day. Versant is building direct-to-consumer extensions for CNBC and MS NOW and has overhauled Fandango to compete with Tubi, Pluto and Roku Channel in free ad-supported streaming.