Time once again for moi to fit in a little crow with my increasingly selective diet.
In hindsight, we’ve probably been a little harsh on the Artists Formerly Known As NBC Cable, a.k.a. Versant. In the first days of their technical self-existence we were admittedly more than a tad bearish on how they were faring. We made particular note of how they were received–or not–by the investment community; those first hours freed of the encumbrances of Comcast’s declining businesses producing a double-digit dip in their NASDAQ price over what they had launched at. We took the opportunity to remind our readers that such a drop was consistent with how its bigger-ticket cable networks had fared the year before’ for a change we didn’t take a potshot at how much cost and effort was put into the process of renaming itself. We had already gone down that rabbit hole a few months earlier.
Well, yesterday we all found out why I’m particularly loath to do any gambling of my own these days. THE DESK.net’s Matthew Keys provided his usual deep and nuanced dive:
Versant Media Group on Tuesday released its first earnings report as an independent company, revealing a profitable but declining legacy television business as the company begins a transition toward digital and direct-to-consumer growth.
The company, which was spun off from Comcast’s NBC Universal earlier this year, reported full-year revenue of $6.69 billion for 2025, down roughly five percent compared with the prior year. Despite the revenue declines, Versant maintained strong profitability. Adjusted EBITDA reached about $2.4 billion, representing a margin above 30 percent, though that figure declined 14.5 percent from the prior year.
In last night’s newsletter THE WRAP’s Adam Chitwood weighed in with still more rosy observations:
(A) 
bright spot was the platforms segment, which includes Fandango and Rotten Tomatoes. Revenues climbed 3.9% to $826 million, led by GolfNow and Fandango. That’s particularly noteworthy as Versant looks to expand Fandango, a platform that sells movie tickets but also allows you to rent and buy movies from home, into a free ad-supported streaming offering in the second half of 2026. MS NOW will also launch a direct-to-consumer service this summer, another expansion beyond cable.
“We have a clear strategy and the infrastructure, operating discipline and leadership required to win. We enter this next chapter from a position of strength — profitable, scaled and disciplined,” Versant CEO Mark Lazarus told analysts on Tuesday. Shares jumped as much as 5.3% in pre-market trading after the earnings release. Not too shabby.
And to be still fairer, Keys had already taken note of how a couple of lesser known moves had already begun to bear fruit. A week after that infamous NASDAQ debut he reported this:
Versant has finalized the acquisition of Free TV Networks, the broadcast-focused media company founded by industry veteran Jonathan Katz. The deal will see Katz move to Versant in a full-time role, reporting to the company’s Chief Revenue and Business Officer David Pietrycha. His title was not announced in a press release on the acquisition, but Versant said he will continue to oversee the Free TV Networks business.
Free TV Networks includes four multicast networks — Outlaw, Defy, Busted and 365BLK — along with the free, ad-supported streaming television (FAST) channel Pam Grier’s Soul Flix.
Katz is a seasoned and respected programmer who had previously held significant positions with Scripps, being one of the scions of ION, and at FREE TV he put his talents to work and curated lineups of compelling programming that resonated with both advertisers and platforms. That track record has already born fruit, as Keys further reported a few weeks later:
Free TV Networks has inked new distribution agreements with Paramount and Dish Network’s Sling TV for three of its networks, the company announced on Friday. Two networks — 365BLK and Outlaw — are now available on Paramount-owned CBS television stations in more than a dozen markets, Versant said. The networks are taking the place of Fave TV, a network that Paramount abruptly closed at the beginning of the month. The Desk was the first to report on the deal between Versant and Paramount for the two multicast networks. The other distribution agreement covers the free streaming channel Pam Grier’s Soul Flix, which is now available on Dish-owned Sling TV and Sling Freestream. That channel launched around this time last year, and has already amassed more than 13 million hours of viewing, Versant said in a press release.
With Turner, Katz oversaw a pretty impressive array of channels that at the time were far bigger players than they are now. Little more than encumbrances that ultimately soured Netflix enough on acquiring Warner Brothers Discovery and saving the world from the Frankenstudio that the Ellisons now control. But with that verdict the specter of those networks existing as a stand-alone company that could ultimately drag down the valuation of Versant has now gone away. Not that the guys who were supposed to steer that ship are complaining, mind you. DEADLINE’s Jill Goldsmith updated us as to how they are drowning the crocodile tears they expressed to their employees on Friday with actions they took after a weekend of mind-clearing:
Warner Bros. Discovery chief executive David Zaslav is selling stock worth north of $114 million, according to an SEC filing Tuesday, with the company’s sale to Paramount pending and the cash starting to flow…Several other top WBD execs also shed shares worth seven figures this week including CFO Gunnar Wiedenfels, Chief Revenue & Strategy Officer Bruce Campbell, Chief Accounting Officer Lori Locke, President of International Gerhard Zeiler, Global Streaming President & CEO JB Perrette, Chief Legal Officer Priya Aiyar and HR chief Amy Girdwood.
So Lazarus does indeed have a few more reasons to be sprinting his way to his new offices than he may have had when he was schlepping through 30 Rock. And with the news last night that despite her omnipresence on MS Whatever Jasmine Crockett nonetheless was upended in her bid to be Texas’ democratic nominee for Senate there’s no doubt some additional ratings upside for even that supposed rebranded albatross. There’s no doubt gonna be a lot of whining and bitching; knowing Crockett, possibly a lawsuit or ten. You know who’s gonna get first dibs on that.
Now add that to the ratings upticks another Versant zombie network just saw with its Olympics coverage courtesy of its “supplier”, which NBC SPORTS’ spin-meisters took full liberties to crow about:
USA Network was the top destination for sports and entertainment programming on cable from the first day of competition on USA Network on Feb. 5 through Feb. 17 (latest data available in Nielsen NPower).
- USA Network has delivered an average of 1.7 million primetime viewers from Feb. 5-17 – topping all sports and entertainment cable networks.
- USA Network has delivered an average of 1.3 million Total Day viewers from Feb. 5-17 – topping all sports and entertainment cable networks.
- USA Network delivered an average of 1.64 million Total Day viewers across consecutive weekends (Feb. 7-8 and Feb. 14-15) – the best average viewership across successive weekends since December 2014.
So yep, crow’s on my plate today. I suppose I can take my lead once again from Lazarus, who’s indeed living up to his name so far this year. He appears to be quite healthy dining on Peacock.
Until next time…