The Wrap broke a story Wednesday evening that cable giant Comcast is in talks to purchase all or part of NBC Universal from General Electric. But in a statement to several media outlets, a Comcast spokeswoman said that “the report that Comcast has a deal to purchase NBC Universal is inaccurate.” Still, other sources said GE was entertaining offers from companies including Comcast.
NBC Universal runs a number of television stations including NBC, USA, Bravo, MSNBC, CNBC, and Syfy, as well as the Universal Studios movie studio and its related theme parks in California, Florida, and Japan. The company is jointly owned by GE and the French media conglomerate Vivendi, with GE owning 80 percent and Vivendi controlling the remaining 20 percent. Comcast is the United States’ largest cable-service provider. It also owns a number of networks, such as E! Entertainment, G4, MLB Network, and The Golf Channel, and partially owns MGM Studios and its subsidiary studio United Artists.