Comcast beats first-quarter profits estimates regardless of shedding broadband shoppers

Comcast surpassed first-quarter expectancies on Thursday at the same time as the corporate misplaced broadband shoppers amid heightened festival.

While home broadband income used to be up 1.7% to $6.56 billion, Comcast misplaced 199,000 overall home broadband shoppers, reflecting the ongoing power at the cable large’s cornerstone trade. Competition has ramped up in recent times because of the upward thrust of different house web choices, together with 5G, or so-called fastened wi-fi. 

Meanwhile Comcast’s less-than-10-years-old cell trade remained a vivid spot all through the quarter. Revenue for the unit used to be up kind of 16% to $1.12 billion, and it added 323,000 traces. There at the moment are kind of 8.15 million overall Xfinity Mobile traces. 

Comcast reported 427,000 cable TV buyer losses all through the quarter as the standard package continues to bleed shoppers. Comcast supplies its broadband, cell and pay-TV services and products beneath the Xfinity emblem. 

Here is how Comcast carried out for the duration ended March 31, in comparison with estimates from analysts surveyed via LSEG:

• Earnings in step with percentage: $1.09 adjusted vs. 98 cents anticipated
• Revenue: $29.89 billion vs. $29.77 billion anticipated

For the primary quarter, Comcast’s web source of revenue used to be down 12.5% to $3.38 billion, or 89 cents a percentage, in comparison with $3.86 billion, or 97 cents in step with percentage all through the similar duration a yr previous. Adjusting for one-time pieces together with source of revenue tax bills and prices associated with the price of property, amongst different pieces, Comcast reported profits in step with percentage of $1.09. 

Adjusted profits prior to passion, taxes, depreciation and amortization, or EBITDA, rose just about 2% to $9.53 billion. 

The corporate’s income used to be down somewhat to $29.89 billion in comparison to $30.06 billion in the similar duration in 2024. 

Revenue used to be helped via what Comcast refers to as its “growth businesses,” together with cell, streaming platform Peacock, the trade services and products unit, residential broadband, studios and theme parks. 

Revenue for the media phase, which contains NBCUniversal, used to be up about 1% to $6.44 billion, and income within the movie studios unit used to be up 3% to $2.83 billion. 

The media unit were given a spice up from Peacock, with adjusted EBITDA for the phase up 21% to $1 billion pushed via the streaming platform. Revenue for Peacock itself used to be up 16%. The streamer’s quarterly loss narrowed to $215 million, in comparison with a lack of $639 million in the similar quarter a yr prior.  

Peacock had 41 million paid subscribers, beating analyst estimates of 37.21 million for the quarter, in step with StreetAccount. Peacock ended ultimate fiscal yr with 36 million paid shoppers. 

NBCUniversal’s theme parks income used to be down 5% to kind of $1.88 billion – pushed via decrease visitor attendance all through 1 / 4 plagued via the Los Angeles wildfires – weighing down the whole trade. 

Disclosure: Comcast owns NBCUniversal, the mother or father corporate of CNBC.