Comcast beat Wall Street estimates on Thursday for second-quarter earnings and revenue. Yet the company saw a loss of broadband customers even as it pivoted its market strategy for the segmen
Comcast and its cable peers have been suffering from a slowdown in broadband growth, which has impacted company stocks. Comcast stock was up about 4% in premarket trading.
Here’s how Comcast did in its second quarter compared with Wall Street estimated, according to LSEG:
- Earnings per share: $1.25 adjusted vs. $1.18 expected
- Revenue: $30.31 billion vs. $29.81 billion expected
Revenue of $30.31 billion was a 2% increase year over year.
For the second quarter, the company’s net income took a leap due to the sale of its stake in streaming service Hulu to Disney. As a result, net income was $11.12 billion, or $2.98 a share, compared with $3.93 billion, or $1 a share, in the same period last year. Adjusting for one-time items, including that Hulu sale, Comcast reported earnings of $1.25 per share.
Adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, or EBITDA, were up 1% to $10.28 billion.
Revenue for Comcast’s connectivity and platforms business, which includes the Xfinity-branded broadband, mobile, pay TV and other services, totaled $20.39 billion, up nearly 1% from the same period last year.
The company lost 226,000 total broadband customers during the quarter – the majority of which came from its residential customers. Comcast recently pivoted its broadband strategy – including new pricing plans – to address the continued industry woes and heightened competition from alternative providers like 5G, or so-called fixed wireless.
Meanwhile, Comcast added a record 378,000 mobile customers, bringing its total lines to 8.5 million, or 14% penetration of its broadband customers. Comcast and Charter have been leaning on their mobile businesses for growth.
The loss of pay TV customers continued for Comcast, with 325,000 dropping the bundle during the quarter.
The company’s content and experiences business – which includes NBCUniversal, its film studios and theme parks – saw revenue rise 5.6% to $10.63 billion.
In particular revenue for the film studios was up 8% to $2.43 billion – lifted by the release of “How to Train Your Dragon,” which debuted in June and has taken in more than $600 million at the global box office so far.
Universal theme parks revenue was up 19% to $2.35 billion, following the opening of Epic Universe.
The media business, or NBCUniversal, reported revenue of $6.44 billion, up nearly 2% from the same period last year.
Domestic advertising revenue was down 7% to $1.85 billion as the industry continues to suffer from a weak ad market for the pay TV business. Despite this, NBCUniversal announced a record Upfront this year as advertisers gravitated toward its upcoming slate of live sports programming.
NBCUniversal’s streaming platform, Peacock, saw subscribers stay flat from the first quarter at 41 million. Revenue for Peacock grew 18% to $1.2 billion – helping to offset the domestic advertising decline for the media segment.
Peacock reported losses of $101 million for the quarter, an improvement from losses of $348 million during the same period last year. NBCUniversal has been working to make its streaming platform profitable. Other services have already reported being in the black.
Last year Comcast announced it would spin off its portfolio of cable networks, including CNBC. The transaction is expected to be completed later this year.
Disclosure: Comcast is the parent company of CNBC.
This story is developing. Please check back for updates.
