Comcast Corp is planning to spin off a large part of its NBCUniversal’s cable TV channels into a separate publicly traded company (SpinCo).

In a move that could portend more changes in the declining business of traditional television, Comcast, the parent company of NBC, announced plans on Wednesday morning to break off several of its cable channels and put them into a separate company.

The mood of staffers at the NBCU cable networks Comcast intends to spin off is anxious and uncertain — but some are also cautiously optimistic.

Comcast said it will spin off most of its cable networks into a separate company, the first move in what likely will be a spate of deals transforming the media landscape.

Comcast said on Wednesday that it plans to spin-off the bulk of its fading NBCUniversal cable TV networks, including MSNBC and CNBC, as the company said it is repositioning itself for growth in the streaming era.

Comcast may be proceeding with a transaction as a signal to the rest of the media industry that consolidation is necessary.

The new publicly traded company is set to debut next year, with a bundle of channels that also includes Oxygen, E! and Syfy.

The split would cleave off some of NBCUniversal’s best-known brands, which face the same cord-cutting challenges as many other major cable channels.