Comcast beats first-quarter earnings estimates despite losing broadband customers

Comcast surpassed first-quarter expectations on Thursday at the same time as the corporate misplaced broadband customers amid heightened competitors.

Whereas home broadband income was up 1.7% to $6.56 billion, Comcast misplaced 199,000 whole home broadband customers, reflecting the continued strain on the cable big’s cornerstone enterprise. Competitors has ramped up lately as a result of rise of different house web choices, together with 5G, or so-called mounted wi-fi. 

In the meantime Comcast’s less-than-10-years-old cell enterprise remained a vibrant spot through the quarter. Income for the unit was up roughly 16% to $1.12 billion, and it added 323,000 strains. There at the moment are roughly 8.15 million whole Xfinity Cellular strains. 

Comcast reported 427,000 cable TV buyer losses through the quarter as the normal bundle continues to bleed customers. Comcast gives its broadband, cell and pay-TV providers underneath the Xfinity model. 

Right here is how Comcast carried out for the interval ended March 31, in contrast with estimates from analysts surveyed by LSEG:

• Earnings per share: $1.09 adjusted vs. 98 cents anticipated
• Income: $29.89 billion vs. $29.77 billion anticipated

For the primary quarter, Comcast’s web earnings was down 12.5% to $3.38 billion, or 89 cents a share, in contrast with $3.86 billion, or 97 cents per share throughout the identical interval a yr earlier. Adjusting for one-time objects together with earnings tax bills and prices associated to the worth of property, amongst different objects, Comcast reported earnings per share of $1.09. 

Adjusted earnings earlier than curiosity, taxes, depreciation and amortization, or EBITDA, rose almost 2% to $9.53 billion. 

The corporate’s income was down barely to $29.89 billion in comparison with $30.06 billion in the identical interval in 2024. 

Income was helped by what Comcast refers to as its “progress companies,” together with cell, streaming platform Peacock, the enterprise providers unit, residential broadband, studios and theme parks. 

Income for the media section, which incorporates NBCUniversal, was up about 1% to $6.44 billion, and income within the movie studios unit was up 3% to $2.83 billion. 

The media unit acquired a lift from Peacock, with adjusted EBITDA for the section up 21% to $1 billion pushed by the streaming platform. Income for Peacock itself was up 16%. The streamer’s quarterly loss narrowed to $215 million, in contrast with a lack of $639 million in the identical quarter a yr prior.  

Peacock had 41 million paid subscribers, beating analyst estimates of 37.21 million for the quarter, based on StreetAccount. Peacock ended final fiscal yr with 36 million paid customers. 

NBCUniversal’s theme parks income was down 5% to roughly $1.88 billion – pushed by decrease visitor attendance throughout 1 / 4 suffering from the Los Angeles wildfires – weighing down the general enterprise. 

Disclosure: Comcast owns NBCUniversal, the dad or mum firm of CNBC.