Broadband sends Comcast Q1 results up
Details
Michelle Clancy
| 26 April 2019

US cable giant Comcast saw 375,000 high-speed internet customer additions in the first quarter, which fuelled a 9.8% gain in cash flow for the period.

The broadband gains helped drive revenue up 4.2% to $14.3 billion, with EBITDA rising 9.8% to $5.7 billion – the highest it has been in 10 years.

Video subscriber losses rose slightly; Comcast lost about 121,000 video customers in Q1, up from the 96,000 customers the unit lost in the prior year.

At NBC Universal, revenue dipped 12.5% to $8.3 billion year-over-year, thanks to no Olympics and no Super Bowl this year. That hit the broadcast division particularly hard, where revenue fell 29.4% to $2.5 billion. For the cable nets, revenue fell 9.2% to $2.9 billion.

Comcast chairman and CEO Brian Roberts was still bullish. “Comcast is off to a terrific start in 2019, financially, operationally and strategically,” he said. “In the first quarter, we delivered strong EBITDA and earnings per share growth, as well as robust free cash flow. Comcast Cable had the best quarterly EBITDA growth in over a decade, while NBCUniversal again posted favorable results. We also continued to strengthen our leadership position in valuable customer relationships and premium content.”

At Comcast’s newly acquired Sky unit , revenue decreased 5% to $4.8 billion, thanks to unfavourable exchange rates. However, it did see content sales increase 38% to $370 million, especially wholesaling sports programming. It added about 112,000 satellite subscribers as well.