In a move that will likely make shareholders at communications giant Comcast (CMCSA) abundantly happy that it is spinning off its television content, new reports emerged about ratings at MSNBC. And the reports are disastrous, with one noting that it was MSNBC’s “worst summer since 1998.” The news did not hit shareholders particularly hard, though, as Comcast shares were up modestly in Friday morning’s trading.
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MSNBC saw substantial declines throughout the summer, as the third quarter numbers came back looking decidedly unpleasant for the network. While all of the major news networks took a hit on one level or another in the 25-54 demographic, MSNBC’s hit was worse everywhere else. There is one important point to keep in mind, though; these comparisons are all against 2024’s numbers. As 2024 was an election year, the numbers are artificially inflated.
But MSNBC found that its losses were much worse than its contemporaries. It lost about 43% of its prime time viewership numbers in year-on-year comparisons, coming in with just 810,000 viewers. That was good enough for second place, though, as Fox News (FOXA) landed 2.54 million viewers, a gain of about 1%.
“Long-Term Content Deal”
But one of MSNBC’s potential viewership sources, YouTube TV, will remain in place. The two sides struck a long-term content deal, a multi-year arrangement that will keep the full slate of NBCUniversal content going on YouTube TV for the next few years.
This was particularly welcome news, as YouTube now accounts for the largest portion of television viewing in the United States. MSNBC has already been taking losses; losing YouTube TV altogether on top of that would have made a bad situation that much worse.
Is Comcast Stock a Good Buy Right Now?
Turning to Wall Street, analysts have a Moderate Buy consensus rating on CMCSA stock based on eight Buys, nine Holds and one Sell assigned in the past three months, as indicated by the graphic below. After a 26.2% loss in its share price over the past year, the average CMCSA price target of $40.38 per share implies 30.18% upside potential.
