Brian Roberts, CEO of Comcast, arrives at the Allen & Company Sun Valley Annual Conference on July 9, 2019 in Sun Valley, Idaho.
Drew Angerer | fake pictures
Comcast reported its second-quarter earnings before the bell on Thursday, beating analyst estimates in the bottom line. This is the first earnings report since Comcast’s NBCUniversal, the parent company of CNBC, launched its new ad-supported streaming service, Peacock, and the first to reflect the full extent of the pandemic in Comcast’s business.
Comcast’s share rose more than 2% in premarket trading after the report.
Here are the key numbers:
- Earnings per share (EPS): Adjusted 69 cents vs. 55 cents expected, according to Refinitiv
- Income: $ 23.72 billion, vs. $ 23.57 billion expected, according to Refinitiv
- High speed internet clients: 323,000 net additions vs. 247,000 expected, according to FactSet
Despite pandemic blocks that persisted for much of the second quarter in many parts of the world, Comcast reported some positive signs. In addition to increasing high-speed Internet customers at a faster-than-expected rate and reaching a cable record in the second quarter with more than 217,000 net customer relationship additions, Comcast said it has retained 95% of Sky Sports customers since the start of the pandemic despite the postponement of major live sporting events. As Internet customers grew, Comcast saw total video customer losses of 477,000.
Comcast has extended the promotions it offers to customers to help them overcome the new conditions imposed by the crisis, including making Internet Essentials free until the end of the year and keeping their Xfinity WiFi access points away from home free until the end of the year. .
The company said Peacock has already seen 10 million subscriptions to date since its launch in April for Comcast subscribers and more widely this month.
But Comcast’s NBCUniversal division received some successes in the second quarter, as advertisers pulled back on spending and theme parks had to close entirely. NBC Universal’s revenue decreased 25.4% year-over-year to $ 6.1 billion.
Theme parks had the largest drop in revenue in the quarter, decreasing 94.1% to $ 87 million. Universal’s parks in Orlando, Florida and Japan were able to reopen with limited capacity in June, but the increase in the number of cases in Florida could jeopardize any progress already made.
Filmed entertainment was affected by theater closings, but its content licensing revenue grew 19.5%, in part as a result of shifting releases like “Trolls World Tour” to premium video on demand. General segment revenue decreased 18.1% to $ 1.2 billion.
Advertising revenues for cable networks decreased 27% and for television broadcasting 27.9%, reflecting the decrease in spending and canceled sports events. In both divisions, content licensing revenue increased 23.1% and 58.5%, respectively, due to the timing of license agreements, including transactions with Peacock.
Here’s how Comcast’s divisions did for the quarter:
- Cable communications accounted for $ 14.4 billion in total revenue, a 0.2% decrease year-over-year
- Cable networks accounted for $ 2.5 billion in total revenue, down 14.7%
- Open television generated $ 2.4 billion in total revenue, 1.6% less
- Filmed entertainment generated $ 1.2 billion in total revenue, down 18.1%
- Theme parks generated $ 87 million in total revenue, 94.1% less
This story is unfolding. Please check for updates.
Disclosure: Comcast is the owner of NBCUniversal, parent company of CNBC.
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