Second-quarter results showed stronger TV, film and theme park revenue at NBCUniversal, while Comcast's connectivity business posted lower sales and continued broadband and cable TV subscriber losses.
Comcast's second-quarter results highlighted a widening contrast between its media and connectivity operations as Peacock reached profitability for the first time since launching in 2020 and NBCUniversal's TV and film businesses posted stronger growth. Revenue in the company's content and experiences division, which includes NBCUniversal, rose almost 23% year over year to $10.73 billion, helped by Peacock, higher advertising, a 25% increase in film studio revenue and the FIFA World Cup on Telemundo. Theme parks revenue rose nearly 3% as softer international performance partly offset higher revenue in Orlando. At the same time, Comcast's connectivity and platforms segment, which includes Xfinity broadband, mobile and cable TV, reported a 3% revenue decline to $19.8 billion and a nearly 6% drop in earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization to $7.96 billion. The company lost 167,000 total broadband residential customers and 280,000 cable TV subscribers in the quarter, while mobile additions set another record and lifted total lines to 10.2 million. Overall revenue fell 1.2% to $29.94 billion, while adjusted earnings per share came in at $1.04, above Wall Street estimates of 97 cents compiled by LSEG. Comcast said earlier this year it would separate its cable and media operations into two publicly traded companies, and co-CEOs Brian Roberts and Mike Cavanagh described the move as an important step toward creating two focused businesses with the flexibility to pursue their own growth strategies. Shares were about 1.5% higher in premarket trading Thursday.