Intersecting Stories Help Better Explain Why Comcast Is Downsizing Golf Channel

Last week The Athletic’s Brendan Quinn detailed the rather stunning changes at Golf Channel and the likely blurring of editorial lines as the network is moved to Connecticut, with offices in the PGA Tour’s new expensive new headquarters.

The confounding implosion of Arnold Palmer and Joe Gibbs’ successful vision is coming into better focus after two stories emerged connecting more dots.

Palash Gosh at International Business Times reports on activist investor Nelson Peltz acquiring 7.2 million shares in Golf Channel owner Comcast, as first reported in the Wall Street Journal. Peltz’s Trian Fund now holds 20 million shares and a 0.4% stake in the company, believing the stock is undervalued, looks forward to discussions about improving the company, yada, yada.

The Journal commented that Trian is known for “encouraging changes at companies it targets, such as a breakup or sale of underperforming divisions or moves to improve efficiency and better use capital. It often seeks board representation and tries to avoid public spats, unlike some of its more pugnacious rivals.”

However, Comcast may be difficult for Trian to influence as Brian Roberts, its chairman and chief executive officer, controls about one-third of the stock’s voting rights.

Another Wall Street Journal story on the same day—mitzvah time!—not coincidentally details Comcast and NBC’s plan to essentially wind down several key cable channels they see as an “albatross” and put their focus into “individual franchises” for the Peacock app.

Thanks to reader Todd for Lillian Rizzo and Joe Flint’s story that included this:

The future is also dimming for sports networks like the Golf Channel and NBC Sports Network. Hockey and soccer games are likely to appear more frequently on USA Network and Peacock, the people say.

The move to downsize cable networks comes as the pandemic weighs on NBCUniversal’s business. Movie-theater closures hurt its film operation, its theme parks were closed and TV ad spending fell off. NBC’s second-quarter revenue shrank 25% compared with the same period last year.

When Comcast acquired control of NBCUniversal nearly a decade ago, Chief Executive Brian Roberts cited the cable entertainment networks as a key attraction in the deal.

And now those channels, along with sagging numbers at NBC would seem to be part of Peltz’s desire to see Comcast consider shedding the units via breakup or sale. Budget cuts seem unlikely since, as last weekends bare bone U.S. Open telecast showed, NBC has already trimmed so much.

Sadly, as Quinn noted last week, any outcome of this corporate arm wrestling appears too late for the several hundred who lost jobs. Worse, for viewers who appreciated the vision of Palmer and Gibbs, the damage has already been done.