At Cable Communications, overall customer relationships increased 156,000, a 90% improvement compared to last year, video subscriber results were the best for a third quarter in nine years, high-speed Internet subscriber results were the best for a third quarter in six years, and churn across all product categories continues to improve. This is a decrease from the 99 cents reported in third-quarter 2014, which was the result of a one-time $724 million, or 28 cents per share, benefit due to favorable income tax adjustments, according to the company.
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Roberts’ comments come after a top Verizon executive said last week on Verizon’s earnings conference call that one of the cable companies involved in a 2011 spectrum deal, which also allows these cable companies to resell Verizon wireless service, had chose to exercise this part of the contract. In April, the feds quashed Comcast’s $45 billion bid for Time Warner Cable, partly out of concern that the merged company might undermine online video rivals like Netflix. During the third quarter of 2015, Comcast added an additional 320,000 broadband customers. The company cited a 33.5% spike in revenue from content licensing and a 2.8% rise in ad revenue, along with higher retransmission fees.
The analysts at Evercore said that Comcast’s average revenue per basic customer was up 7 percent to $175.63, slightly above their expectations.
Cable division CEO Neil Smit added that there is nothing new to report.
“We feel great about the runway for business services”, CFO Michael Cavanagh said during Tuesday’s earnings call, encouraged by Comcast’s recent addition of a business services unit focused on Fortune 500 customers.
Comcast’s core TV-video business cut its losses from a year ago – losing 48,000 down from a loss of 81,000.
I’m pleased to report that our businesses generated outstanding revenue and operating cash flow growth for the third quarter of 2015.
In the third quarter of previous year, 189,000 TV customers canceled service, according to the research firm SNL Kagan.
At NBCUniversal revenue jumped 21% to $7.2 billion, powered by strong growth at the filmed entertainment division and theme parks.
Not surprisingly, Comcast CEO Brian Roberts was asked about Comcast’s wireless plans, eight days after Verizon (NYSE: VZ) confirmed that Comcast is acting on an option to purchase MVNO rights to its wireless network. Operating cash flow at the theme parks segment increased 14.1% to $458 million. Sell-side analysts are projecting earnings of $0.96 for the quarter. A small but growing number of consumers are skipping cable subscriptions as hours spent watching video shifts online.
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Three years after Comcast began offering unlimited home-Internet usage, the cable giant is moving in the opposite direction.
