Matt Bond, chairman of content distribution at NBCUniversal, has announced his exit from the Hollywood studio ahead of a spinoff of Comcast’s cable channels.
“In the spirit of leaving on a high note, I have decided that it is the right time professionally and personally for me to retire,” Bond said in an internal memo obtained by The Hollywood Reporter. Bond has, however, agreed to serve in an advisory role for a few years at NBCUniversal.
Comcast plans a spinoff of most of its cable networks into a separate entity, led by Mark Lazarus as CEO. Structured as a tax-free spinoff to Comcast shareholders, the transaction is expected to take around a year to complete.
“NBCUniversal has never been in better condition with respect to distribution,” Bond declared in his exit announcement.
The full internal memo from Matt Bond follows:
Hi everyone,
Happy New Year.
First, I want to congratulate you all for your work in this epic deal cycle through 2023 and 2024. These 17 deals were accomplished at a pivotal moment for NBCUniversal, spanning the intersection of streaming and linear cable and the creation of new packaging paradigms. We exceeded all our financial objectives while leaving flexibility for the growth of Peacock. As we’ve done every year for the last 13 years, we achieved this without a single distribution dislocation. NBCUniversal has never been in better condition with respect to distribution. In the spirit of leaving on a high note, I have decided that it is the right time professionally and personally for me to retire. However, the company has asked me to serve in an advisory role for the next few years, and I have agreed to do so. As many of you know, I have been considering this for a long time, weighing my own personal challenges. But, as Lisa always told me, “You always want to leave just as the party is getting good.”
Matt Schnaars and I will be working through a transition, and we are working closely with Matt Strauss on how our team will fit into the new Media Group structure. As we work through those details, we will certainly share them with you. I could not be more grateful and honored to have been part of the Comcast NBCUniversal family for over 20 years. Once I came to Comcast in 2002, I never once looked for another job. Comcast is a wonderful family that cares about all its people, and that attitude starts with Brian and goes through the whole organization. The company has always treated me better than I expected or deserved.
I also feel blessed to have worked with all of you – the smartest and most capable people in the industry. Together with many of you, we’ve seen many changes in the television business, and we will see many more. But people love the content we produce, and the future looks exceptionally bright as new technologies expand the reach of our content. Through all of this, our team has remained nimble and found ways to navigate this change in a way that added value to NBCU, building a truly unparalleled reputation for success amongst our industry peers in the process. And I know this work doesn’t come easy – it’s the result of thousands of hours of late nights, often over weekends and holidays.
I couldn’t be prouder of the work that everyone has done over the last decade. It truly is a remarkable accomplishment. We have a small team, every one of whom is crucial to success of the whole. To paraphrase Winston Churchill, it’s not often so many owe so much to so few. I won’t be going far and look forward to continuing to work with you all in my new capacity.
Thank you for everything.
Matt
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