Jeff Schell, chief executive of NBCUniversal, is leaving the company after investigating inappropriate workplace relationships, Comcast’s owner has said. said in a statement on Sunday.

In a statement, Mr Schell said Sunday would be his last day and that he had “an inappropriate relationship with a woman in the company.”

“I am truly sorry that I let down my colleagues at Comcast and NBCUniversal, they are the most talented people in the business and it has been a privilege to work with them for the last 19 years.”

Comcast’s brief statement did not say who will replace Mr. Schell at NBCUniversal, which he has been running since 2020.

But in a note to employees Sunday, Comcast chief executive Brian Roberts said Mr. Schell’s senior team would report to Mike Kavanagh, Comcast’s president, allowing Mr. Kavanagh to effectively control NBCUniversal.

“We are disappointed to be able to share this news with you,” Roberts wrote. “We built this company on a culture of integrity. There is nothing more important than how we treat each other.”

News of Mr. Schell’s departure from NBCUniversal carried the news across New York and Hollywood, where he ran Comcast’s sprawling entertainment empire. His departure comes at a pivotal time for Comcast, which is undergoing a difficult transition from its traditional TV and cable business to a future based on video streaming, broadband Internet and wireless services.

Peacock, NBCUniversal’s streaming service, has gained momentum in recent months but remains small compared to its peers. Peacock has over 20 million paying subscribers, which is significantly less than either Netflix (232 million) or Warner Bros. Discovery offering HBO Max and Discovery+ (96 million). Some big media streaming companies are still losing money, and Peacock is no exception. The company lost about $2.5 billion last year and is projected to lose another $3 billion this year.

NBCUniversal also owns many cable networks, including Bravo, E!, MSNBC and USA, which are facing declining traditional TV audiences.

The investigation into Mr Schell began in recent weeks after a woman involved in the relationship filed a complaint, according to two people familiar with the investigation’s timeline. Mr. Schell continued to carry out his duties while the investigation was ongoing, holding previously scheduled meetings with lawmakers in Washington and working on other issues. Mr. Schell was also scheduled to attend a White House Correspondents Association dinner in Washington with his wife next Saturday.

The third-party law firm’s investigation was not widely known within Comcast until after it was completed, according to three people familiar with the matter. Mr. Roberts and Mr. Kavanagh called the executives who work directly with Mr. Shell this weekend to inform them that Mr. Shell is leaving and to inform them of the abrupt change in leadership.

Although Universal Pictures is not the largest film studio in Hollywood, it is quite successful. 2022 highlights include Jurassic World: Dominion and Minions: The Rise of Gru. This year started off even better: The Super Mario Bros. Movie approached $900 million in worldwide ticket sales in just three weekends in theaters, making it the company’s highest-grossing animated film of all time.

Other highly anticipated films due for release this year include the 10th installment of the Fast & Furious franchise and Christopher Nolan’s highly anticipated Oppenheimer about the famed nuclear physicist. The studio has also launched a flexible distribution strategy that uses a phased rollout between theaters and its big-movie streaming service Peacock. For smaller films like Marry Me starring Jennifer Lopez and the horror film Pyro that came out last year, theatrical and streaming debuts are happening at the same time.

The company’s theme parks have also been a bright spot, with higher attendance and guest spending resulting in record profits last year. The company plans to open theme parks in Las Vegas and Frisco, Texas in the next few years.

The company will report quarterly earnings this week and it will be a conference call that will be scrutinized.

Inflation in the UK slowed in March, but less than economists had expected, keeping the figure in double digits.

Consumer prices rose 10.1% in March from a year ago, the Office for National Statistics said on Wednesday, slightly slower than the 10.4% in February. But economists had expected the country’s inflation rate to fall below 10 percent for the first time since the summer.

The UK’s annual inflation rate peaked at 11.1 percent in October, but its downward trend was broken in February when the rate rose unexpectedly. The Bank of England then raised interest rates for the 11th consecutive time in March to 4.25 percent.

A return to a downward inflation path may bring some relief to households and policy makers, but UK cost of living issues remain acute. Food prices rose about 19% year-over-year in March, with prices for bread, meat and cooking oils continuing to rise rapidly. According to the statistical agency, price inflation for bread and cereals is at a record high. Core inflation, a measure that excludes food and energy prices that tends to be more volatile, was 6.2 percent, the same as the previous month.

And headline inflation is still high compared to international peers. In the United States, the consumer price index slowed in March, up 5 percent from a year ago, while inflation in the euro area fell to 6.9 percent.

While inflation is expected to slow sharply later this year due to lower energy prices, uncertainty remains about how quickly price growth will return to the 2 percent target set by the central bank. Bank of England policymakers are closely monitoring private sector wage growth and service prices for signs of how much inflationary pressure is taking root in the economy.

On Tuesday, data from the statistical agency showed wages before bonuses rose 6.6% in the three months to February from the same period a year earlier, beating economists’ expectations. But there were also signs that the UK labor market was starting to lose ground, supporting bets that the Bank of England was close to stopping rate hikes. In February, private sector wage growth slowed slightly for the second straight month as job openings fell and more people returned to work, data showed on Tuesday.

Inflation in the services sector, which is heavily influenced by companies’ payroll costs, remained unchanged at 6.6%.

Bank of England policymakers will meet again in early May to decide whether to raise interest rates again.