Versant Media Group, the newly minted spinout of TV networks and digital assets from Comcast, released its first earnings report Tuesday.
The company reported full-year revenue of roughly $6.69 billion for 2025, down 5% from the prior year. Versant is reporting a breakdown of its earnings from its final year under the ownership of Comcast’s NBCUniversal.
Versant’s linear distribution revenue fell 5.4% to $4.1 billion, and advertising revenue declined almost 9% to $1.58 billion.
Net income attributable to Versant was $930 million, and the company reported $2.18 billion in stand-alone adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization.
For the quarter ended Dec. 31, Versant’s total revenue was down nearly 7% from a year earlier to $1.61 billion, according to a Securities and Exchange filing on Tuesday. Specifically, linear distribution revenue was down almost 6% to $997 million and ad revenue declined 9% to $370 million, while platforms revenue was roughly flat at $202 million.
Stand-alone adjusted EBITDA for the quarter was $521 million, down 19% from the same period last year.
The company’s board also declared a 37.5 cents per share quarterly dividend, which represents an annualized dividend of $1.50 per share, and authorized a $1 billion share repurchase program. Due to its low debt load and high-margin business, Versant executives have said they plan to return value to shareholders.
“Returning capital to shareholders remains a top priority for us, alongside disciplined investing to support long-term growth,” said Versant COO and CFO Anand Kini during the company’s earnings call on Tuesday.
Versant marked its first day as a standalone company earlier this year, and started trading on the Nasdaq in early January. However, Versant’s management had been working throughout 2025 on the separation of the assets from Comcast.
The company is made up of a portfolio of pay TV networks including CNBC, MS Now, USA Network, Golf Channel, Syfy, E! And Oxygen, as well as digital properties such as Fandango, Rotten Tomatoes, GolfNow and Sports Engine.
The traditional TV business, while still profitable, has seen continued losses over the years across all media companies as viewers exit the bundle for streaming alternatives.
More than 80% of Versant’s revenue leans on the pay TV business, but its executives have told Wall Street that 2026 will be a year of transition for its business model. The company aims to eventually reach 50% of its revenue from digital, platform, subscription, ad-supported and transactional businesses.
On Tuesday, Versant reported that its non-pay TV revenue reached 19% of total revenue in 2025, with roughly $826 million in platforms revenue. Versant’s platform business — mostly made up of Fandango, GolfNow, Sports Engine and some of the already launched direct-to-consumer businesses — was the only revenue segment to grow revenue year over year.
In the next three to five years, Versant is looking to increase that share of revenue to 33%, with the goal of getting “closer to 50%,” CEO Mark Lazarus said during the earnings call.
Versant considers its growth drivers in that unit to include MS Now’s upcoming direct-to-consumer product, CNBC Pro and a new retail investor product for the brand, and the launch of the ad-supported Fandango at Home service in 2026.
“We’re going to continue to report, of course, kind of good visibility in the platforms revenue line, which we think provides a good, meaningful indicator of how that business is scaling,” Kini said.
Disclosure: Versant is the parent company of CNBC.
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