Comcast tops earnings estimates as Olympics propel the company

Comcast beat third-quarter earning expectations on Thursday, as the Summer Olympics in Paris boosted NBCUniversal’s revenue and Peacock’s subscriber count. 

Shares of Comcast gained 6% in early trading Thursday.

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

• Earnings per share: $1.12 adjusted vs. $1.06 expected
• Revenue: $32.07 billion vs. $31.66 billion expected

For the quarter ended Sept. 30, net income was down 10% to $3.63 billion, or 94 cents a share, compared with $4.05 billion, or 98 cents a share, a year earlier. Adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, or EBITDA, fell 2% to roughly $9.74 billion. Adjusting for one-time items, Comcast reported earnings per share of $1.12 for the quarter.

The company’s revenue rose 6.5% to $32.07 billion compared with the same period last year. Overall revenue was boosted by the Summer Olympics in Paris, which NBCUniversal exclusively broadcast in the U.S., and domestic broadband revenue — despite continued slowing customer growth. 

Revenue for the media segment – mainly comprised of NBCUniversal – was up nearly 37% to $8.23 billion, largely due to the Olympics. Excluding the Summer Games, revenue was up almost 5%. 

This more than offset the decrease in adjusted EBITDA for the media segment, due to higher operating expenses related to the Olympics, as well as higher programming costs at Peacock and in other sports TV programming. 

The Summer Olympics in Paris proved to be a success for NBCUniversal, as it attracted an average daily viewership of 31 million people across NBC’s TV and streaming platforms and generated a record $1.2 billion in advertising revenue, CNBC previously reported.

This boosted the overall revenue for the content and experiences segment – which also includes the theme parks and film studios – by 19.3% to roughly $12.6 billion. That total includes $1.9 billion of incremental revenue from the Paris Olympics. 

Peacock also enjoyed a boost from the Olympics – where the entirety of the Games were exclusively streamed – with 3 million added subscribers. Paid subscribers for the platform increased 29% year over year to 36 million. Peacock revenue was up 82% to $1.5 billion. 

Losses stemming from Peacock improved for the segment, with an adjusted EBTIDA loss of $436 million during the quarter, compared with $565 million in the same period last year. 

The company’s film studios, also part of the content and experiences segment, saw revenue increase 12.3% to $2.83 billion compared with the prior year. Theatrical revenue was boosted by the recent successful releases of “Despicable Me 4” and “Twisters.”

NBCUniversal’s theme parks revenue decreased 5.3% to roughly $2.3 billion due to lower attendance. The theme parks have weighed on the company recently as surging attendance following Covid lockdowns has cooled.

Meanwhile, the broadband unit – the cornerstone of Comcast’s business – continued to reflect the ongoing industry trends. 

Cable broadband customer growth has slumped across the industry. Comcast executives have pinned this on a slowdown in the buying and selling of homes. Competition has also ramped up from wireless providers like Verizon and T-Mobile.

For Comcast this quarter, it was a mixed bag. The government‘s Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP), which had offered a discount for qualifying low-income households, ended earlier this year.

Total domestic broadband net losses amounted to 87,000, but excluding those that stemmed from the end of the ACP, the company estimates there was growth of 9,000 customers.

Domestic broadband revenue increased 2.7% to $6.54 billion compared to the prior year, and average revenue per user – the continued source of growth for the segment despite lagging additions – increased 3.6%. 

Meanwhile, Comcast’s wireless business added 319,000 customers, bringing its total to about 7.5 million lines. The company lost 365,000 cable TV customers during the quarter. 

Disclosure: Comcast owns NBCUniversal, the parent company of CNBC. NBCUniversal owns NBC Sports and NBC Olympics. NBC Olympics is the U.S. broadcast rights holder to all Summer and Winter Games through 2032.

This story is developing. Please check back for updates.