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A new eSIM focused virtual mobile provider has recently launched called Fuse Mobile, which as the name suggests is designed to provide consumers with mobile data plans than can automatically harness the 4G and 5G networks of EE, Three UK, Vodafone, and O2 through a single eSIM plan.

The service, which will automatically connect your mobile phone to whichever network has the strongest signal, is intended to help overcome the areas of weak signal that often exist in certain areas between different mobile networks. In addition, on the operator’s Pulse and Surge plans, your data allowance will also work in 130+ countries abroad “at no extra cost“.

The catch with multi-network operators like this is that their plans often have fairly limited data allowances and don’t come with the usual unlimited calls + texts features. Fuse currently has just three monthly plans, all on a multi-network eSIM: Spark (5GB of data at £5.99 a month), Pulse (10GB + roaming in 130+ countries at £9.99) and Surge (15GB + roaming, £14.99). Every plan is rolling monthly with “no contract“.

In addition, new customers are being invited to try the service free for its first 7-days of service and Tethering (Hotspots) are supported on all plans. We should point out that Fuse aren’t the first eSIM provider to come up with such a product, with Anywhere eSIM being able to do something similar, albeit based around more of a pre-paid model (i.e. you pay £50 for 12-months and that gets you 1,000 minutes, 1,000 texts and 10GB of data) – acting as a secondary SIM.

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The Conservative MP for Hinckley and Bosworth, Dr Luke Evans (Shadow Health Minister), has tabled a new Private Members Bill (PMB) that seeks to “prohibit” mobile, landline (phone) and broadband providers from increasing their prices mid-way through your contract. But it’s chances of becoming law are fairly slim.

The issue centres around Ofcom’s January 2025 changes (here), which required telecoms providers to improve pricing transparency by adopting a new approach to mid-contract price hikes. The change did away with the old and sometimes confusing percentage and inflation-based model – replacing it with one that required providers to set out such price rises “clearly and up-front, in pounds and pence, when a customer signs up”.

On the surface this seemed like a good idea, but it also made it more difficult for communication providers to balance price rises across lots of different packages, which resulted in many of them adopting a flat price rise instead (usually increasing by c.£2 to £5 per month each year) – set at the same level for every package.

The catch is that this approach ends up hitting those on the cheapest broadband and mobile packages the hardest (i.e. if you pay £20/month then a £4 rise equates to a 20% price hike each year), while only giving a reprieve to the smaller portion of consumers who take more expensive packages (e.g. if you pay £60 then a £4 rise equates to a 6.67% increase) – not very fair to those on cheaper packages. A recent study confirmed that, when compared with the old policy, this had indeed inflated prices for most consumers (here).

The New Private Members Bill

The ‘Telecommunications (Fixed-term Contracts) Bill‘, as tabled by Dr Luke Evans MP, seeks to address this problem by banning mid-contract hikes in law and describes itself as follows: “A Bill to prohibit the increasing of charges payable under certain fixed-term telecommunications contracts within the duration of those contracts; and for connected purposes.”

At the time of writing this bill is still in its early stages and so hasn’t yet been fully drafted (i.e. it’s not yet fully published for the public), which makes it tricky to analyse. However, the reality is that only a minority of Private Members Bills ever become law (they can be tabled by any MP, not only those from the Government), but they do often serve a purpose by creating publicity around an issue and encouraging wider debate.

The key things to watch thus centre around how much support the new Bill picks up from other MPs as it progresses and whether its provisions are focused on consumers or also extend to businesses, as well as other areas of service provision (e.g. optional paid add-ons or calling charges). We suspect it would not be workable to include optional extras or call charges, as well as business connections, but that doesn’t mean to say the bill won’t try.

In addition, it’s worth remembering that broadband, phone and mobile providers are NOT immune to cost increases. Providers, much like consumers, are also suffering under the burden of rising supplier (e.g. wholesale) and lease costs, high inflation, high energy prices, the cost of adding all sorts of new services (e.g. FTTP) and catering for new regulations etc.

So, if providers can’t raise their prices mid-contract (spreading their risk to consumers), then they’ll probably front-load them instead, which may raise the general pricing of packages across the market to balance against the risk they take over longer terms. But we imagine that competition would still ensure plenty of diversity and choice, while pricing would also be a lot clearer for consumers.

The reality is that providers, at least among most of the largest market players (not all providers adopt mid-contract hikes), currently seem to be abusing Ofcom’s policy to increase consumer prices in a way that is now unfair – particularly for those least able to afford the most expensive plans. One way or another, this needs to be addressed. Credits to Ben for spotting the bill.

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The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has today announced that it will skip a Phase 1 review of the proposed £2bn acquisition (here) of alternative full fibre UK broadband operator Netomnia (Substantial Group) by nexfibre (Liberty Global, Telefónica and InfraVia), which will instead see them skip right to a deeper Phase 2 competition investigation.

Just to recap. The owners of nexfibre, which share some of their parentage with Virgin Media and O2, announced in February 2026 that they’d reached a £2bn agreement to acquire alternative network rival Netomnia (here), which had at the time already deployed their own full fibre (FTTP) network across 3 million UK premises (rising to c.3.4m premises and 500k customers by deal completion – expected by Q3 2026).

Nexfibre stated the deal would unlock £3.5bn of investment in the UK market and help to upgrade 2.1 million of Virgin Media’s premises from coax (HFC) to full fibre (FTTP). The combined nexfibre and Netomnia footprint is expected to reach 8m premises (FTTP) by the end of 2027, which when combined with Virgin Media’s network could collectively reach 20m premises (c.10m if only looking at FTTP) and create a “scaled, financially secure challenger” to Openreach (BT Group).

However, critics of the deal, particularly CityFibre, which had also been trying to acquire Netomnia before the nexfibre move was announced, stated that there was a lot of overlap between the nexfibre / Virgin Media and Netomnia broadband networks. A Point Topic study put the figure at 832,000 premises, albeit only when looking at the FTTP side of these networks (here); there’s much more overbuild with HFC (see ‘Key Points’ below).

The CEO of CityFibre, Simon Holden, warned that the proposed agreement would “significantly reduce competition and the choice available to consumers, as well as force hundreds of thousands of Netomnia customers back to VMO2” – potentially raising the prospects of the UK returning to a duopoly between Virgin/nexfibre and Openreach.

We should point out that YouFibre is expected to adopt a similar approach to giffgaff on nexfibre’s network. The brand will thus be maintained, at least initially, with some separation. But over time there are concerns that negative changes could still sneak in (e.g. mid-contract price hikes).

Key Points of the Nexfibre + Netomnia Deal

➤ InfraVia, Liberty Global and Telefónica are committing £1bn in new net funding for nexfibre to fund the transaction – made up of £850m from InfraVia and £150m jointly from Liberty Global and Telefónica.

➤ Nexfibre will sell Substantial Group’s retail business, including the YouFibre brand (Brsk has been retired), to VMO2 for £150m – covering c.500,000 customers.

➤ Nexfibre will finance the FTTP upgrade of 2.1 million homes covered by Virgin Media’s old HFC network (i.e. those that are “adjacent” to the Netomnia footprint). We’ve already seen this process begin (here).

➤ VMO2 will pay wholesale fibre access fees on its customers within the 2.5 million VMO2 homes that overlap the Netomnia fibre footprint.

➤ In exchange for the wholesale traffic commitment on the 4.6m premises, Virgin Media O2 will receive 1) c. £1.1bn in cash and 2) an indirect 15% stake in nexfibre. The vast majority of the proceeds will be available for deleveraging and the £150m to finance the purchase of Substantial Group’s 500,000 customer base.

➤ VMO2 will provide a full suite of managed services to nexfibre – including construction – in return for ongoing management and construction fees.

The big question was thus whether the CMA would throw up any major stumbling blocks for this deal or rubber stamp it, particularly as the Government had already given a broadly favourable response to the pairing. The prior expectation was that, given the size and scope of the agreement, the CMA would be likely to proceed to an initial Phase 1 review process.

However, rather than take the risk of delays from needing to go through a Phase 1 and then, possibly, Phase 2 competition review, the parties involved have instead opted to request a fast-track right to the deeper Phase 2 investigation. The move could be seen as suggesting that they were anticipating the CMA finding competition concerns in Phase 1, which would thus have necessitated a Phase 2 probe.

According to the CMA’s decision to refer (PDF): “On 11 June 2026, the Parties requested, pursuant to section 34ZD of the Act, that the CMA make a fast-track reference for an in-depth investigation at phase 2. The CMA has concluded that the conditions to accept a fast-track reference request under section 34ZF(3) of the Act are met. Further, the CMA has decided that it would be appropriate to accept the fast-track reference request and proceed to a phase 2 investigation.”

Rajiv Datta, CEO of nexfibre, said:

“We requested a fast-track to Phase 2 to get to the right answer faster; ensuring due process, while recognising urgency. We look forward to continuing our constructive engagement with the CMA.

This deal would create the scaled, sustainable alternative to the BT Openreach monopoly, something the UK market still lacks. Every day of delay reinforces the incumbent’s advantage and slows the progress of genuine competition.”

The fast-track path normally requires that there also be sufficient evidence for the CMA to conclude that the legal test for a Phase 2 reference (i.e. that a merger is or may be expected to result in a Substantial Lessening of Competition (SLC)) is met, although this question will be fully analysed as part of the Phase 2 investigation.

The move makes it much more likely that the CMA will be able to complete their competition probe in 2026, rather than 2027. In addition, given the CMA’s recent flexibility toward big telecoms mergers (e.g. Three UK and Vodafone) and the Government’s position, it’s not unreasonable to expect that they may ultimately allow the deal through. But this is certainly not guaranteed.

However, if the deal is allowed to proceed then it’s possible that the CMA may still extract some concessions from the merging parties. As we’ve said before, we would not be surprised if those included stronger wholesale requirements for Virgin Media’s consumer broadband network and nexfibre, which is something that those operators already seem to be preparing to try and deliver (here and here). Time will tell and at present there’s still a fair bit of uncertainty over the final outcome.

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The government’s Building Digital UK (BDUK) agency has posted a contract modification for Openreach’s (BT) £42m (public subsidy) Project Gigabit Call Off 7 contract for Worcestershire (England), which originally aimed to expand their full fibre (FTTP) broadband network to around 22,600 hard-to-reach premises, but will now cover around 23,000.

The additional scope being added to the contract means, according to the notice: “The contract has increased in value from £41,919,176 to £42,488,268. This is a cost change of + £529,092. The awarded premises have increased from 22,598 to 22,983. This is a scope change of +385 premises.”

The tweak comes only a week or so after Openreach finally began to connect the first homes under Call Off 7 (here), which itself follows the original contract award announcement in January 2025 (here). The latest June 2026 data from BDUK indicates that Openreach has so far covered 170 premises under this contract (here), but that is now expected to ramp-up and, as above, has just been slightly expanded.

The contract forms part of Openreach’s wider Single Supplier Framework deal – now valued at c.£1.2bn, which is focused on Cross-Regional (Type C) procurements (no other suppliers tackle Type C). Type C typically reflects remote areas where no or no appropriate market interest has previously been expressed before to the BDUK agency, or areas that have been descoped or terminated from a prior procurement (examples here, here, here and here) – Openreach have recently absorbed several previously failed Project Gigabit contracts with different suppliers.

However, such contracts are not static and their scope, as well as committed levels of public funding, can change over time for a number of different reasons – informed by regular ‘Open Market Reviews’ of existing UK deployment plans. For example, commercial operators may expand or reduce their roll-out plans in the same region(s), which can reduce or grow the scope for public investment within those same areas.

The contracted operator could also find the deployment to be more expensive, or possibly even cheaper, than previously envisaged. Such adjustments may occur due to changes in build costs and interest rates / inflation, as well as any unexpected obstacles to street works or greater efficiencies of build than planned or expected. Suffice to say, there can be various reasons why the contracted scope of related builds and the level of allocated public funding may change over time.

Otherwise, the additional scope for Worcestershire is to be welcomed, albeit with the catch that there may be further changes in the future, which could go in a different direction. So, it’s not always easy to tell what the final picture will be until you actually reach the end.

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Mobile operator O2 (Virgin Media) has warned customers that fraudsters are using a “new” phishing tactic to steal their private personal and security details (i.e. granting them access to their MyO2 accounts), which involves criminals posing as the telecoms company while claiming that the customers’ SIM cards are about to expire.

The operator’s customers are being sent messages that falsely claim to be from O2, which often contain content like this: “O2UK: IMPORTANT: Your SIM Card(s) will be inactive on XX/XX/2026, because you have NOT signed our Terms and Conditions. Logon to sign.”

Customers that click the link are then directed to a fake but authentic looking O2 site, where they’re asked to ‘login’ in order to accept new Terms and Conditions (T&Cs). The fraudsters can then steal the login details of those who make the mistake of falling for it, which enables them to take over your MyO2 account.

O2 has already blocked over 1 billion scam messages from reaching customers to date, including thousands of messages linked to this latest scam. The telecoms company has also taken action to block customers from visiting known fraudulent URLs on both the O2 and Virgin Media networks. But scammers are constantly evolving their tactics and creating new websites and messages to target victims.

The operator is once again encouraging consumers to remain vigilant and to report suspicious messages to the 7726 service (many modern Smartphones will have a button to help you do this). These reports are used by the telecoms companies to investigate and block mobile numbers used by fraudsters, so help to refine their blocking services. This makes it easier to identify new trends and block messages faster.

Murray Mackenzie, Director of Fraud Prevention at Virgin Media O2, said:

“Scammers are becoming more sophisticated, using increasingly believable and urgent requests to target victims alongside convincing fake websites, demonstrating just how clever their tactics can be.”

At Virgin Media O2, we’re doing all we can to help Brits swerve the scammers, from blocking scam texts and malicious websites to rolling out enhanced fraud monitoring on online accounts. Every report to 7726 helps us act faster to shut down scams at source, so we’re urging everyone to play their part and forward suspicious messages.”

VMO2’s Scam Advice

• O2 is not contacting any customers via text asking them to sign updated Terms and Conditions or face their SIM being deactivated – messages like this are a scam
• Be wary of threatening or urgent language designed to pressure you into acting quickly
• If you receive any messages from a number you don’t recognise, be cautious as it could be a scam. On many popular smartphones, genuine messages from O2 will appear under a verified ‘O2’ contact rather than a standard mobile number.
• Never click a link in an unexpected message. Instead, go directly to the MyO2 app or call 202 on an O2 device to check if what you’re being asked to do is legitimate
• Report suspicious messages to 7726
• If you think you may have clicked on a suspicious link and entered your login details, change your password immediately.

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A Worcester-based community hall was left without a working broadband connection for several weeks after Sky Broadband and Openreach managed to mess up a copper to full fibre network upgrade. The process resulted in the wrong house getting the connection instead and confusion over whether the Hall was a commercial or residential property.

According to a local volunteer at the Christadelphian Hall on Saint George’s Lane, Dan Jones, the site is a commercial address and has long had a copper-based broadband connection (most recently via NOW Broadband (NOW TV)). But NOW recently informed the property managers that they could no longer renew their existing service and needed to upgrade to a full fibre (FTTP) connection via parent company Sky Broadband.

However, this appears to be where it all went wrong, as the community placed an order for a 500Mbps service with Sky and on the date of the “go live” the copper went off, but nothing else went on. “Turns out they had the address details wrong, they turned on an [Optical Network Terminal] somewhere else in Worcester (they suspected our neighbours, I jest you not),” said Dan to ISPreview.

At one point Sky even asked the property managers to check if their neighbour had “a small box next to the sofa that has a light on it“, which wasn’t possible as the individual concerned happened to be in hospital. Openreach later sent an engineer out who was able to confirm the address and what they already knew, that the Hall didn’t have an ONT.

The property managers then shared various utility bills and UPRN details to try and get the problem resolved, but that didn’t work either. At this point the community decided to put in a fresh broadband order with BT instead, but they couldn’t help and ending up making the situation even more confusing.

BT took the order, but an engineer never turned up and later, only after querying, were the community finally informed that this was because the installation had been organised by BT as a residential, rather than commercial, install by the provider and they couldn’t do it. BT then transferred Dan to another team to re-make the order for a commercial property, but they ended up making the same mistake again and placing it as residential.

A BT spokesperson said:

“We’re sorry the customer’s experience fell short of our usual standards. Residential and business services are set up differently and in this case, following a survey for full fibre, the property was identified as a business location.

This meant the residential order could not progress through to installation as expected. We recognise this resulted in repeated order cancellations and we are in direct contact with the customer to put things right. We have offered a goodwill gesture to compensate for the inconvenience caused.”

A Sky Broadband spokesperson said:

“We’re sorry for the disruption experienced by Mr Jones. The upgrade to full fibre was affected by an issue with the address which meant that the new service could not be set up.

We acknowledge the overall experience fell short of the standard we aim to provide. We have updated the account to ensure Mr Jones will not be charged a non-return fee for the hardware, the Subject Access Request is being actively progressed, and a gesture of goodwill was offered in recognition of the circumstances.”

In the end the community gave up trying with anything Openreach based and instead managed to get a full fibre connection installed via Zzoomm’s alternative broadband network, which went without a hitch. “I called Zzoomm and despite it not shown as a property they can service on their website, they pulled all the stops out and enabled an installation within 7 days of my call to them,” said Dan.

However, it appears as if part of the confusion may have arisen because the Hall had previously been provisioned with a residential broadband connection in the past. “It was amazing that the data at Openreach and their suppliers is so poor … the UPRN is commercial, always has been, they shouldn’t allow the order to be placed on a residential system nor should they have supplied residential services to it for years,” added Dan.

Credits to Worcester News for the ISP comments above.

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Rochdale-based ISP Zen Internet has recently begun notifying customers of yet another migration of Internet Protocol (IP) addresses for a small subset (under 2%) of user IPv4 allocations, which for most subscribers should only result in a brief service disruption (c.30 seconds) and possibly the need for a router reboot. But others may find it more of a pain.

Most consumers tend to connect via broadband providers that use dynamic IP addresses (or shared addressing via CGNAT), and so a change in your IP – however often it may occur – is somewhat par for the course. But in Zen’s case it’s worth remembering that they’ve long sold their broadband packages alongside Static IP (IPv4 and IPv6) addresses as standard (i.e. the IP address shouldn’t change or won’t change very often).

Static (or Fixed) IPs tend to be more associated with premium / business packages for advanced users, where customers are more likely to desire a fixed address because they’ll be hosting servers or domains, using bespoke VPNs or VLANs, have specific security requirements (e.g. the need to whitelist a specific IP to firewalls) or want to avoid problems with Carrier Grade NAT etc.

Suffice to say that a change of static IP assignment can create problems for some network admins and users with more complex IP needs (casual users need not worry), although Zen are giving customers 30 days’ notice of the change (several messages will be sent) and will confirm once the new IP addresses are live. The process is running between 1st May and 30th August 2026, with impacted IPs being in the following ranges.

Impacted Zen IP Ranges

The changes are happening to a small subset (<2%) of customer IPv4 allocations that sit in the following ranges.

62.3.64.0/20
82.69.64.0/18
88.97.0.0/18
82.68.128.0/18
82.68.192.0/18
82.69.128.0/18
82.69.192.0/18
62.3.96.0/19
212.23.12.0/22
212.23.22.0/23
212.23.24.0/21
82.68.0.0/18
82.68.64.0/18
82.71.0.0/17
217.155.0.0/18
217.155.64.0/18
217.155.128.0/18
217.155.192.0/18

At this point you might well be asking, why are Zen Internet assigning new IP address(es) to some of their broadband services and customers at all? The official line is as follows.

Zen’s Statement

“Zen operates one of the largest independent data networks in the UK. We invest significantly for better performance, better resilience, and a network that operates without limits or restrictions. This means constant evaluation to ensure we are optimising resources.

To ensure we can continue to deliver a reliable service, we regularly review how our IP address space is used and make changes where needed.

This helps us use available capacity efficiently and support both existing customers and future demand.”

However, over at Thinkbroadband they’ve suggested that the change may be more reflective of a desire to free up unused IP address space, possibly for trading away (sale) on the open market (IPv4s have value due to being a finite resource). For example, Zen’s IP Address Migration Page notes that customers who already had multiple IP addresses as part of a paid package will be assigned the same amount of new IP addresses, but they also said this:

“In some instances, you may have been provided with multiple IP addresses outside of an allocated package. In this case we will adjust the amount of IP addresses down to one. If you wish to purchase additional IP addresses, please email notifications@zen.co.uk and a case will be assigned,” which seems to reflect Zen’s desire to release multiple IP blocks that were once provided for free and may have thus gone largely unused.

Regular readers may recall that this is NOT the first time that Zen Internet has conducted such an IP address migration (example), which seems to be a process that they’re doing very gradually, in phases, so as not to cause too much upset and change all at once.

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Back in May 2026 we reported (here) that broadband ISP Virgin Media Business (VMB) were preparing to introduce new packages for small business customers that would offer symmetric speeds via their latest XGS-PON based full fibre (FTTP) network at speeds of up to 2Gbps (2,000Mbps). ISPreview has spotted that they’ve now quietly introduced the new plans.

The move, which finally sees VMB catching up with their consumer division, includes the introduction of five new symmetric speed (same speed both ways) packages ranging from 200Mbps and all the way up to 2,000Mbps. Customers of this service appear set to receive a variant of the same Hub 5x router as used on Virgin Media’s consumer broadband packages and will have the option of adding Static IP addresses.

A quick test by some of our readers (special credit to Clive) shows that customers in Virgin’s Hybrid Fibre Coax (HFC) network areas are still limited to speeds of up to 1Gbps on the old packages. So as expected you’ll need to be in one of the operator’s newer XGS-PON powered Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) network areas to take the new tiers (via Virgin Media or nexfibre).

Otherwise, the new packages and prices (excluding VAT) are as follows. All packages apply a £75 one-off installation charge and £25 activation charge for new customers.

VMB’s Symmetric Speed Broadband Packages

Voom 200Mbps Full Fibre X
Unlimited downloads
Wi-Fi router with Guest Wi-Fi
28 working-hr issue resolution
Dynamic IP

PRICE: £39.95 per month (24-month contract)

Voom 400Mbps Full Fibre X
As above except..
24 working-hr issue resolution
Dynamic IP

PRICE: £44.95 per month (24-month contract)

Voom 600Mbps Full Fibre X
As above except..
20 working-hr issue resolution
1 Dynamic IP or 1 Static IP

PRICE: £48.95 per month (24-month contract)

Voom 1Gbps Full Fibre X
As above except..
12 working-hr issue resolution
1 Dynamic IP or 1 Static IP

PRICE: £53.95 per month (24-month contract)

Voom 2Gbps Full Fibre X
As above except..

PRICE: £93.95 per month (24-month contract)

Take note that Virgin’s mid-contract price hikes policy does apply, which means that your monthly prices will rise by +£3.50 (exc. VAT) every April. In addition, VMB also offers “Daisy Full Fibre” plans in areas outside of their network patch (off-net), which harnesses Openreach’s FTTP lines. But they don’t like to talk about that too much .

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Rural broadband ISP and alternative network builder Wessex Internet, which is deploying a mix of full fibre (FTTP) and fixed wireless networks across Southern England, has published their annual accounts to the end of 2025. The report reveals that revenues jumped by 47.7% to £8.5m in the year and their network coverage passed 66,000 premises.

The provider’s latest accounts, which also highlighted a gross profit of £5.69m (up 57% from £3.63m), could be said to be healthier or more stable than those of quite a few other altnets we’ve seen. Customers are also said to have increased by almost 50% in the year (similar to last year), although we haven’t yet found a solid total in the report, but were recently told that they had a base of 16,000 customers (here) and a take-up of over 30%.

Wessex also increased investment in their network to £35.6m (2024: £24.7m), which partly stems from the network expansion through their Project Gigabit contracts (currently worth a total public subsidy of £86m). On the flip side, the company reported an operating loss of £8.94m (worse than £7.85m in 2024) and suffered an EBITDA (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation) loss of £2.1m, but this is better than the £3.3m loss seen in 2024.

However, the provider said they expected to reach positive EBITDA territory sometime in the second half of 2026, but they also reported having net liabilities of £37.55m (2024: £22.27m). Finally, the company has a £68m debt facility with no capital repayments until 2031. According to the latest results, they’ve so far drawn £34.7m from that and have £33.3m available.

Overall, it seems to be a case of steady as she goes for Wessex Internet and, as usual, the main drag on profitability remains the enormous cost of financing a full fibre network build in remote rural areas. The operator is currently working to expand their rural full fibre network to 137,000 premises (here).

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American cable giant Comcast, which back in 2018 gobbled Sky’s pan-European TV and broadband ISP business with a bid of £30bn (here), has today announced that they intend to separate their media and technology businesses into public companies through a “tax-free spin-off” of NBCUniversal and Sky.

The move will create two companies – Comcast and NBCUniversal (existing Comcast shareholders will own shares in both companies). Comcast’s Board and management team claim that each company will thus be better positioned to pursue its “own strategic priorities, invest for growth and create long-term shareholder value as independent entities“.

Under the change, Comcast will naturally be the technology company, serving residential and business customers through its broadband, wireless and entertainment platforms. Meanwhile, NBCUniversal will become a premier global media and entertainment company, consisting of Universal’s film and television studios, NBC and Telemundo networks, Peacock, Bravo and Sky’s UK and European media business.

In short, Comcast believes its broadband / network business and its media business are worth more, while also being easier to run, as separate companies. But there’s no escaping that this is one of the biggest media industry restructurings in recent years.

Brian L. Roberts, Chairman and Co-CEO of Comcast Corp, said:

“This is a very exciting day for our company. The transaction we are announcing will unlock a more entrepreneurial management approach and open up a multitude of new opportunities for each business. I very much look forward to helping guide our collective growth for this next chapter.

Mike Cavanagh will lead the new NBCUniversal media and entertainment company as CEO. Mike is one of the finest executives I’ve ever worked with and a trusted partner. His vision is for a unique, independent, focused company that will be home to some of the industry’s most valuable brands and assets across theme parks, film, television, streaming, sports and news. This new company will be well-positioned to pursue the significant opportunities that lie ahead, to partner across the media and entertainment ecosystem, and will be poised to grow.

I am also incredibly pleased to welcome back Michael Angelakis as Comcast CEO. As our widely admired former CFO, Michael’s deep knowledge of the business and passion for technology – combined with the leadership of Steve Croney, Jason Armstrong and the entire Comcast management team – will serve us well as we continue to take bold actions in today’s competitive environment. Our recent momentum is the launchpad to propel our advanced network, substantial customer base, and outstanding products to even greater success. Michael’s drive, proven track record and the tremendous level of respect he commands within our organization and beyond, make me exceptionally excited to work closely with him again.”

The wider media and telecoms market has gone through a lot of dramatic changes since Comcast took the helm, such as with the rapid rise of video streaming (i.e. replacing traditional TV). By placing Sky inside NBCUniversal the new company should be better able to compete and adapt, all without having to share priorities with a US-focused broadband business. The move might also make it easier for NBCUniversal to merge with other media companies in the future.

At this stage we don’t expect there to be any sudden or dramatic changes for customers of Sky UK to worry about. The initial focus is likely to be on the separation process and establishment of independence. But over time we may start to see more changes creeping in, for either good or ill. Some questions may also arise in regard to debt and investment, since pay TV and content rights can be a very expensive business (e.g. sports rights), but NBCUniversal might not have the same security on this front as they did when being part of Comcast.

The move is particularly noteworthy given how Sky has recently been in the news over their expected £1.6bn swoop on ITV’s broadcasting and streaming arm, which we presume would now be placed within NBCUniversal. The proposed deal covers the ITVX platform, along with ITV’s free-to-air channels, but not ITV’s Studio operations.

The separation is expected to be completed through a tax-free spin-off to Comcast shareholders in “approximately one year“, subject to the satisfaction of the usual conditions, regulatory approvals and financing arrangements etc.