Why did Comcast ever buy NBC?

My guest today is Peter Kafka, chief correspondent at Business Insider and host of Channels, a podcast about the media industry. And it’s a big week for the media industry — Comcast just announced that it’s splitting itself up, into the Comcast broadband company and the NBCUniversal entertainment company.

This dream, that you can combine distribution with big splashy entertainment properties, has failed time and again. But Comcast tried the content plus pipes strategy for longer than most. So Peter and I discussed what happened in the media and broadband industries over the last 15 years, and what might happen next.

Read the full interview transcript on The Verge.

Links:

• Comcast is cutting NBCUniversal loose | Business Insider
• Comcast’s split could make or break Peacock | The Verge
• Comcast and NBCUniversal will go it alone. But for how long? | NYT
• Comcast split shows bigger is no longer better | Deadline
• A cable scion’s hardest deal yet: breaking up his family’s company | WSJ

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Credits:

Decoder is a production of The Verge and part of the Vox Media Podcast Network.

Decoder is produced by Kate Cox and Nick Statt and edited by Ursa Wright. Our editorial director is Kevin McShane.

The Decoder music is by Breakmaster Cylinder.

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