Comcast gained 180,000 broadband subscribers in the quarter, compared to 203,000 during the same period previous year.
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Shares fell $1.67, or 2.6 percent, to $62.83 in morning trading. “In Cable, high-speed Internet and business services continued to perform extremely well, and, significantly, this was the best second quarter video customer results we’ve had in nine years”, Chairman and CEO Brian Roberts said.
The provider lost about 69,000 of its 22.3 million TV households, versus the average prediction of 116,000.
The cable giant has been refocusing after emerging in April from 14 months in limbo, when it walked away from the ill-fated $45 billion acquisition of Time Warner Cable because of stiff regulatory resistance.
Comcast now has more broadband households than cable TV households – a turning point that observers have seen coming for years, but officially showed up in the company’s data for the first time in the second quarter of the year.
While broadband subscribers may outnumber video subscribers, the video business still brings in far more revenue even as growth slows. Net income was up 8% to $4.3 billion. Consolidated revenue increased 11.3 percent to $18.74 billion. Revenue from NBCU’s filmed-entertainment segment rose 92.7% to $2.3 billion, driven by what Comcast said was record performances of “Furious 7” and “Jurassic World“. Revenue dipped 1 percent for the company’s cable networks, which include CNBC, Bravo, USA Network and E! Operating cash flow-a measure of profitability-declined 4.6% amid continued ratings pressure. That said, in Q2 2015, NBC finished the traditional TV season rated No. 1 among its broadcast competition for the second year in a row, so the baseline was solid. While any public comments about upfront ad sales are notoriously full of posturing and fuzzy math, declines this year are likely at least as bad as last year. The increase in Cable revenue reflects increased customer relationships, customers receiving higher levels of service and customers taking additional services, as well as rate adjustments. Operating cash flow at NBCU increased 19%.
A slight increase in ad revenue and higher retransmission consent fees were offset by lower content licensing revenue, keeping Broadcast Television segment revenue at $1.8 billion.
The NBC broadcast network and related operators fared slightly better, with revenues off 0.2% to $1.81 billion and operating cash flow down 3.7% to $231 million. “Jurassic World” is now third on the list of biggest box-office hits, behind only “Avatar” and “Titanic”.
Local advertising revenues were flat at $582 million versus $587 million in the second quarter 2014.
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