Comcast announced its third-quarter results, posting a revenue of $31.2 billion. This reflects a year-on-year decline largely attributed to challenging comparisons with the previous year's Paris Olympics. However, there were bright spots within the report.
NBCU’s streaming service, Peacock, generated $1.4 billion (approximately €1.30bn) in revenue. The adjusted EBITDA loss narrowed to $217 million (approximately €202m). The number of paid subscribers remained at 41 million. Comcast highlighted upcoming NBA rights as a potential driver for subscriber growth.
Within the Connectivity & Platforms segment, including the Sky business, international connectivity revenue increased by 10.8% year-on-year, partially offsetting domestic pressures. Comcast is actively reshaping its European footprint following the finalized sale of Sky Deutschland to RTL earlier in the year.
While media revenue decreased due to the Olympic comparison, it showed a 4.2% increase when excluding the Olympic impact. Domestic advertising rose by 2.6% excluding the Olympics, supported by Peacock. Domestic distribution increased by 1.5% excluding the Olympics, with Peacock gains partially mitigated by weaker performance in linear networks. Media adjusted EBITDA increased to $832m, due to lower sports costs year-on-year.
Comcast's cable broadband division reported its tenth consecutive quarter of subscriber losses. Regarding Technology & network strategy, Capex reached $3.1 billion, driven by scalable infrastructure and CPE. This is part of Comcast's HFC upgrade roadmap (mid-split now, DOCSIS 4.0 next) under “Project Genesis”. Management noted anticipated near-term ARPU pressure from simplified, price-lock broadband offers as they prioritize fixed-mobile bundles.