Comcast posts mixed results, weighed down by film studio, theme parks

Comcast reported mixed results before the bell Tuesday, missing on revenue estimates due to tough year-over-year comparisons for its film studio and theme parks.

The company’s streaming service, Peacock, however, continued to make gains. Comcast’s stock was down nearly 3% in premarket trading.

Here is how Comcast performed, compared with estimates from analysts surveyed by LSEG:

• Earnings per share: $1.21 adjusted vs. $1.12 expected
• Revenue: $29.69 billion vs. $30.02 billion expected

For the quarter ended June 30, net income was down 7.5% to roughly $3.93 billion, or $1 per share, compared with $4.25 billion, or $1.02 per share, in the same quarter last year. Adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, or EBITDA, fell about 1% to $10.17 billion.

The company’s revenue dropped nearly 3% to $29.69 billion compared with the same period last year. Revenue from the content and experiences segment, which includes the NBCUniversal TV business, theme parks and Universal Pictures, was down 7.5% to $10.06 billion.

While Comcast lost customers in some of its key units, the losses weren’t as deep as feared, according to Wall Street estimates.

The cable broadband industry as a whole has experienced a slump in broadband customer growth in recent quarters as fewer Americans buy and move houses and competition for home broadband from wireless providers ramps up.

The company said it lost 120,000 broadband customers — 110,000 of those residential — during the quarter, compared with a loss of roughly 142,000 expected by StreetAccount.

Revenue for the segment that includes the Xfinity-branded broadband, cable TV and mobile fell 1.5% to $17.82 billion due to further decreases in the cable TV business. Comcast shed 419,000 cable TV customers during the quarter, still below the 502,000 that analysts expected according to StreetAccount.

Revenue for domestic broadband grew 3% to $6.57 billion due to price increases.

The company’s mobile business continued to bloom, as its number of customer lines increased 20% compared to last year to 7.2 million.

Revenue for the Universal Pictures studio, in particular, fell 27% to $2.25 billion, facing a tough comparison to last year, when “Super Mario Bros.” and “Fast X” were released, one of Comcast’s best theatrical quarters ever. Comcast is looking ahead to the rest of the year’s film slate, including this summer’s box office success “Despicable Me 4,” and “Twisters,” and the upcoming “Wicked” release in November.

Meanwhile, theme park revenue dropped nearly 11% to $1.98 billion as attendance normalized compared to record-setting 2023.

Last quarter the theme park segment began its cool down from the hot post-Covid lockdown attendance surge in 2023.

However, NBCUniversal’s TV business offset the segment, posting $6.32 billion in revenue, up 2% from last year.

NBCUniversal’s answer to streaming, Peacock, remained a bright spot for the company. The streamer posted its best year-over-year improvement, with paid subscribers increasing 38% to 33 million. Revenue for the streamer increased 28% to $1 billion.

Peacock also boosted the media segment’s adjusted EBITDA, which was up 9% to $1.36 billion.

Losses related to Peacock were $348 million, a significant improvement from losses of $651 million in the same period last year.

Disclosure: Comcast owns NBCUniversal, the parent company of CNBC.