Comcast reported healthy third-quarter revenues driven by an increase in ad sales during the Paris Summer Olympics, strong box-office receipts for its films and fewer broadband internet cancellations.
Philadelphia-based Comcast reported overall revenues of $32.07 billion, beating Wall Street’s estimates of $31.66 billion. The Paris Games boosted Comcast’s NBCUniversal media business by $1.9 billion, a record for the Olympics, the company said. Studio revenues increased to $2.83 billion, a 12.3% increase compared to the same quarter a year ago, mostly on the strong performances of summer hits “Despicable Me 4” and “Twisters.”
The revenues from the media and studio divisions helped offset a 5.3% decline in revenues at Comcast’s theme parks. The company hopes that the opening of its new Universal Epic Universe in Florida in the spring of 2025 will help boost its bottom line in that market sector.
Streaming service Peacock added 3 million new paid subscriptions; the service now counts 36 million subscribers. Peacock revenue increased 82% to $1.5 billion.
Broadband and video subscription declines were not as steep as expected, with Comcast’s cable unit losing 87,000 subscribers during the quarter. That was much lower than the anticipated 143,200 losses forecasted due to the end of the Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP), which subsidized internet access for low-income U.S. households. If not for the termination of that program, Comcast said, it would have added 9,000 broadband subscribers in the quarter.
Comcast video subscriptions declined by 365,000, lower than the expected 420,300.
