The cable-TV spinoff being put together by Comcast - which is called Versant and will include USA Network, Syfy, Oxygen, E!, Golf Channel, CNBC and MSNBC - should be well set financially to start.

Over the succeeding years, News Corp offloaded its coupon-insert businesses, News America Marketing, as well as its Australian satellite-television company, Foxtel. It has also made headway in ...