[5] It is primarily involved in the media and entertainment industry, and is named for its two most significant divisions—the National Broadcasting Company (NBC), one of the United States' Big Three television networks, and Universal Pictures, one of the major Hollywood film studios.

It also has a significant presence in broadcasting through a portfolio of domestic and international properties, including USA, Syfy, Bravo, Oxygen, E!, Telemundo, Universal Kids, Golf Channel, CNBC, Universo, the streaming service Peacock and ownership stakes in Snap Inc. and Vox Media.

[6] Since 2018, its sister company under Comcast's control, Sky Group, holds its media and telecommunications assets alongside Xfinity.

In the late 1980s, NBC began pursuing a strategy of diversification, including the formation of two NBC-owned cable-television networks: CNBC and America's Talking.

The following year, NBC announced an agreement with Microsoft to create an all-news cable television channel, MSNBC (using its subscriber base from America's Talking network).

[10] In 1998, NBC partnered with Dow Jones & Co.[11] The two companies combined their financial news channels outside the United States.

The formation of NBC Universal saw the establishment of NBC Universal Cable, which oversees the distribution, marketing, and advertisement sales for thirteen channels (Bravo, Bravo HD+ (eventually renamed Universal HD), Chiller, CNBC, CNBC World, MSNBC, NBC Universo, Syfy, ShopNBC (which became ShopHQ after NBCUniversal sold its stake in the network), Telemundo, Cloo, USA Network, and the Olympic Games on cable).

In 2005, NBC Universal joined HANA, the High-Definition Audio-Video Network Alliance to help establish standards in consumer electronics interoperability.

[18][19] One year later after Sleuth's debut, NBC Universal announced that the company would launch a horror-themed cable channel, Chiller, on March 1, 2007.

In the summer of 2008, NBC Universal, Blackstone Group and Bain Capital announced their intentions to buy The Weather Channel from Landmark Communications.

[25] The summer of 2008 marked NBC Universal's first venture into the United Kingdom by acquiring English television production company Carnival Films.

"[33][34] On December 3, 2009, after months of rumors, a deal was formally announced in which Comcast would buy a stake in NBC Universal from GE for $6.5 billion after the spin-off of certain businesses, pending regulatory approval.

The company also began to stylize its name in CamelCase as "NBCUniversal" rather than "NBC Universal", to reflect the unity of its two main divisions.

[45] That same year, Comcast sold their stake in A&E Networks to Disney and Hearst, making the company a 50-50 joint venture.

[51][52] On August 22, 2016, the deal was completed, and DreamWorks Animation is now a wholly owned subsidiary of NBCUniversal and was integrated into Universal Pictures.

On February 28, 2017, NBCUniversal announced that it would acquire the remaining 49% stake in the Universal Studios Japan theme park that it did not own.

[55][56][57][58][59] On May 10, 2017, NBCUniversal announced that it had acquired Denver-based online platform Craftsy for its Cable Entertainment Group division.

[60] On November 16, 2017, NBCUniversal's parent company Comcast made a bid to acquire 21st Century Fox's filmed entertainment, cable entertainment, and international assets, ten days after The Walt Disney Company (at the time, owners of rival network ABC, cable sports channel ESPN and theme parks Disneyland and Walt Disney World) was reported to be negotiating with Fox for the same assets.

[61][62] However, on December 11, 2017, Comcast officially dropped the bid, saying that "We never got the level of engagement needed to make a definitive offer.

[64] On April 25, 2018, Comcast launched its takeover offer for Sky plc at £12.50 per-share, or approximately £22.1 billion.

[67] On June 5, 2018, Culture Secretary Matt Hancock cleared both 21st Century Fox and Comcast's respective offers to acquire Sky plc.

[68][69] On June 15, 2018, the European Commission gave antitrust clearance to Comcast's offer to purchase Sky, citing that in terms of its current assets in Europe, there would be limited impact on competition.

On September 26, 2018, Fox subsequently announced its intent to sell all of its shares in Sky plc to Comcast for £12 billion.

[78][79] On October 4, 2018, Fox completed the sale of its shares, giving Comcast a 76.8% controlling stake at the time.

[80] On October 12, 2018, Comcast announced it will compulsorily acquire the rest of Sky after its bid gained acceptances from 95.3% of the broadcaster's shareholders with the company being delisted by early 2019.

[83] On January 14, 2019, NBCUniversal announced that it will launch an over-the-top streaming service to compete with Netflix, CBS All Access, Amazon Prime Video, Hulu, Apple TV+, HBO Max, and Disney+.

The company plans to add content from the NBCUniversal programming library and the company's various television networks as well as use it to upsell its free/subscription hybrid service Peacock, akin to ViacomCBS's utilization of Pluto TV to offer content from its cable networks following the former Viacom's purchase of the rival streamer in the Spring of 2019.

Following Jeff Shell's exit in 2023, NBCUniversal announced that corporate management will be led by a leadership team while Michael J. Cavanagh continues to oversee Comcast as a whole.

[95] On November 20, 2024, Comcast announced that it will spin off most of its cable networks and selected digital properties into a new publicly-traded company, referred to under the interim name "SpinCo"; the spin-off seeks to separate the networks from businesses such as the NBC and Telemundo broadcast networks and its divisions, Peacock, Universal Pictures, Universal Studio Group, its international channels and Universal Destinations & Experiences, while providing them with the ability to make their own further investments and acquisitions.

[96][97][99][100] When asked about the impact of the spin-off, NBC Sports president Rick Cordell stated that the division would "fulfill every obligation" it has with networks that are part of the spin-off (such as USA Network and Golf Channel), implicating they will still carry NBC Sports programming covered under current contracts (such as the Olympic Games and PGA Tour).