Comcast executives spent much of Thursday’s post-earnings conference call on the biggest news of the last few months, its upcoming cable spinoff, with president Mike Cavanagh calling a new company comprised of most NBCUniversal cable networks as “a free-standing, strong collection of businesses with lots of cash flow generation capability for many years to come, good market position and great focus.”

The spinoff is led by Mark Lazarus, with the roster of executives fleshed out earlier this month. But many details are still to come.

“When they’re ready to talk about their strategy, which will be at some point down the road, we’ll come back,” Cavanagh told analysts who pressed for details. However Lazarus and his team take that strategy forward, “I’m optimistic that [it] creates good opportunities for our shareholders.”

NBCU’s remaining media and entertainment businesses will be run by Donna Langley, chair of NBCUniversal Entertainment and Studios,...