Transcript:
Conway Gittens: I’m Conway Gittens reporting from the New York Stock Exchange. Here’s what we’re watching on TheStreet today.
There was a lot of focus on retail on Wednesday. Shares of Target plunged 20 percent after it cut its full-year outlook. It was a different story, however, for TJX. The parent company of TJ Maxx, Home Goods, and Marshall’s, beat quarterly forecasts and said the holiday shopping season was off to a strong start.
On Thursday, attention will turn to existing home sales, jobless claims and results from BJ Wholesale Club.
Related: You're probably paying more for cable TV than you should — FCC has a plan to change that
Shifting now to other business headlines - Comcast is breaking into two separate companies. Company one, keeps the Comcast name and will include Comcast’s legacy broadband, cable, and wireless hardware operations, along with the Universal movie studio and theme parks, NBC News, the Peacock streaming service, the Bravo cable channel and Telemundo. Company two, called “SpinCo,” will include E!, CNBC, MSNBC, USA Network, and a number of other cable channels.
The move splits the faster growing part of the company from the cable TV content business, which is losing out viewers to streaming. Comcast is betting that it can get consumers to pay more for broadband and internet access by pushing more content from NBC, Telemundo, and Bravo through the pipes of its Peacock streaming service.
Peacock has both a time and cost appeal to consumers. Streaming means consumers can watch whatever they want whenever they want. And then there’s the money issue. Peacock’s cheapest plan is $7.99 a month plus the cost of internet access. Compare that to the average monthly cable bill, which costs around $100 a month.
That’ll do it for your Daily Briefing. From the New York Stock Exchange, I’m Conway Gittens with TheStreet.
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