Comcast’s current shareholders will be given stock in the new company. Mark Lazarus, who has presided over NBC Sports and NBCUniversal’s networks business for about a decade, will lead the new ...

Comcast will spin off many of NBCUniversal’s cable television networks, including USA Network, CNBC and MSNBC, into a separate public company.

NBCUniversal executives Mark Lazarus and Donna Langley, and Comcast chairman Brian Roberts (center). (Christopher Smith/TheWrap) As legacy media navigates the transition from the declining linear ...

Mike Cavanagh, left, with Brian Roberts, the chief executive of Comcast, in 2019. The two have final say on the big issues facing NBCUniversal. Drew Angerer/Getty Images

In the media business, at least, breaking up can still be hard to do. MSNBC will have to take a new name in months to come as it seeks to carve out an identity that will have it competing for scoops and news with current corporate sibling NBC News.