Comcast's cable spinoff to be named Versant, picked to emphasize corporate versatility

Comcast's spinoff of the majority of its NBCUniversal cable network portfolio will be named Versant, the company said Tuesday, ending a monthslong process to select a new corporate moniker.The new company chose Versant (pronounced like the root of the word "conversant") to emphasize its versatility and its familiarity with multiple subjects, according to Chief Executive Officer Mark Lazarus, who spoke in an interview.Versant, which had been called SpinCo until a permanent name was chosen, will own cable networks including USA, CNBC, MSNBC, Oxygen, E!, SYFY and Golf Channel. It will also house digital assets Fandango, Rotten Tomatoes, GolfNow, GolfPass and SportsEngine.The rest of Comcast's NBCUniversal portfolio, including the broadcast network, Peacock streaming service, Universal Studios, the theme parks and Bravo, will remain with Comcast.The new name isn't meant to be consumer-facing. Lazarus said he wants Versant to be viewed as a house of brands, with each asset interacting with users rather than the corporate holding entity."We're going to focus on the individual brands that we have, not the corporate name," Lazarus said. "This is a holding company name. It's going to be used for business-to-business purposes."Versant is on track to be spun out from Comcast before the end of 2025, Lazarus confirmed. The assets held by the new company generated about $7 billion in revenue last year.The company's emphasis on versatility is notable given the rapidly changing media ecosystem. Lazarus will need to build a Wall Street growth narrative for investors once the company starts trading publicly. That will include making acquisitions to build on the company's core. Some of those transactions may step outside pure media plays, he said.Lazarus cited Golf Channel's acquisition of GolfNow, a tee-time reservation company, as an example of how the brands can move beyond linear TV and streaming to build profitable businesses."Most people don't know that GolfNow is even part of our company," Lazarus said. "We are not going to be purely a collection of linear and digital media assets."Mark Lazarus at the NBCUniversal Upfront presentation from Radio City Music Hall in New York City on Monday, May 13, 2024.Charles Sykes | NBCUniversal | Getty ImagesFor a brand such as CNBC, that may include acquiring personal finance or fintech platforms, Lazarus said. For MSNBC, Lazarus said he's already had some preliminary conversations about potentially buying podcasts that cater to Democrats. He noted that if the new company were to make such an acquisition the plan wouldn't be to put that programming on air for MSNBC, but to have it operate as a separate business unit, using the cable network as a marketing funnel.Versant will not launch its own streaming service, Lazarus said. It will instead rely on brands to develop their own digital strategies.About 20% of the company's revenue is already digital, Lazarus said. Versant is also likely to return money to shareholders via a dividend, CNBC reported in November.One strategy the company isn't likely to pursue is to acquire a group of cable networks.Lazarus said he has little interest in accumulating more debt attached to low-growth assets. If a cable network also had associated businesses that had better growth prospects, that could be more appealing on a case-by-case basis, he said.Versant is also unlikely to acquire TV station groups in the current regulatory environment, Lazarus said. Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr told CNBC's Sara Eisen on Monday that national news media companies including NBC are "exercising more and more control" on local TV stations, which he said is not "a good thing for the country."Selecting 'Versant'Comcast relied on marketing employees from each of SpinCo's brands to help decide on a name.Meetings began in late December, according to people familiar with the process. After a few weeks, the company had more than 1,000 potential names. Employees were told to focus on names that drew upon New York, cable TV or passing references to 30 Rockefeller Center, NBCUniversal's headquarters, said the people.The names were then filtered for legal and trademark infringement issues and other potential problems, such as a word's definition in various languages. Comcast also hired three marketing agencies to help generate names and cull the list.Lawyers passed through just 43 of the initial names, Lazarus said. That list was shortened to about a dozen finalists, which were then each presented to the deciding committee.Lazarus and his marketing team chose Versant in the past few weeks. The word means "a region of land sloping in one general direction," according to some references.Lazarus joked that an uphill slope reminded him of "a rising stock price."Disclosure: Comcast is the parent company of NBCUniversal, which owns CNBC. Versant would become the new parent company of CNBC under the proposed spinoff.