Comcast topped Wall Street earnings and revenue estimates for the third quarter on Thursday, despite once again reporting a loss in broadband customers.
The company said it lost 104,000 domestic broadband customers during the period, bringing its total subscriber base to roughly 31.4 million. This marked the fourth quarter in a row that Comcast failed to grow its broadband customer base.
Earlier this year the company outlined initiatives meant to drive broadband growth — the cornerstone of Comcast’s business — as it has faced fraught competition from alternative providers, namely 5G companies. The company, soon to be led by co-CEOs Brian Roberts and Mike Cavanagh, will be even more reliant on connectivity in the new year after its planned Versant transaction to offload cable network assets.
Still, Comcast’s business, which consists of the Xfinity-branded broadband, cable TV and mobile group as well as NBCUniversal, outperformed Wall Street’s estimates.
Shares of the company rose about 2.5% in premarket trading.
Here’s how Comcast performed for the period compared with average analyst estimates, according to LSEG:
- Earnings per share: $1.12 adjusted vs. $1.10 expected
- Revenue: $31.2 billion vs. $30.70 billion expected
For the quarter ended Sept. 30, net income attributable to Comcast decreased 8% to $3.33 billion, or 90 cents per share, compared with $3.63 billion, or 94 cents per share, a year earlier.
Adjusting for one-time items, such as interest expense and the value of certain assets, Comcast reported earnings per share of $1.12 for the quarter.
The company’s adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization was down roughly 1% to $9.7 billion.
Overall revenue fell nearly 3% to $31.2 billion, compared with $32.1 billion in the same period last year.
Revenue for the company’s connectivity and platforms business – or broadband, mobile, pay TV and other services – came in at $20.18 billion, down nearly 1% from the same period last year.
Comcast once again said it added a record number of mobile customers – 414,000 during the third quarter, bringing its total to 8.9 million lines. Cable companies like Comcast have been leaning on their mobile businesses for growth as broadband subscribers lag.
The exodus from the pay TV bundle continued during the third quarter, with Comcast reporting the segment lost 257,000 customers during the period. As of Sept. 30, Comcast had 11.5 million domestic pay TV customers.
Comcast’s NBCUniversal is in the process of spinning out its portfolio of cable TV networks, including CNBC. That transaction is set to be completed by the end of the year.
Revenue for the company’s media unit, which houses NBCUniversal, was $6.6 billion, down almost 20% during the period.
Excluding the impact of the Summer Olympics, which took place during the same period last year, revenue was up 4% year over year.
The media division reported EBITDA of $832 million, up 28% year over year, driven in part by streaming service Peacock.
Peacock, which had 41 million subscribers as of Sept. 30 — essentially flat for the last three quarters — reported losses of $217 million for the quarter, an improvement from $436 million in losses during the same period last year.
In October NBCUniversal’s media rights deal with the NBA kicked off, bringing professional basketball back to broadcast network NBC and introducing it to Peacock. The addition of the NBA is expected to give Peacock a boost.
Meanwhile, revenue for the film studio was up 6% to $3 billion – boosted by the release of “Jurassic World Rebirth” in July.
Theme park revenue increased nearly 19% to $2.72 billion, with EBITDA for that unit up 13% to $958 million due to the opening of Epic Universe in May.
Disclosure: Comcast is the parent company of NBCUniversal, which owns CNBC. Versant would become the new parent company of CNBC upon Comcast’s planned spinoff of Versant.
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