Comcast On Thursday, he outlined changes to its broadband strategy as businesses continue to abandon their customers in the face of growing competition.
This argument occurred during a call with investors during the company’s first quarter revenue call. Despite customer losses, Comcast’s revenue exceeded analyst expectations.
Comcast’s stock fell approximately 4% in early trading.
Here’s how Comcast runs for the period ended March 31st, compared to the analyst estimates investigated by LSEG:
Earnings per share: $1.09 adjusted vs 98 cents forecast revaluation: $298.9 billion vs 29.777 million
Domestic broadband revenues rose 1.7% to $6.56 billion, but Comcast lost 199,000 domestic broadband customers, reflecting on the cable giant’s ongoing pressure on the cornerstone business. Competition has been increasing in recent years due to the rise in alternative home internet options, such as 5G and so-called fixed wireless.
“In this highly competitive environment, we won’t beat the market in a way that matches our network and connectivity strengths,” Comcast President Mike Cavanagh said in a company’s revenue call.
Analysts asked Comcast executives on Thursday about broadband and mobile under the Xfinity brand, and how the company pivots its business.
Cavanagh said it has identified “disconnections” that slow growth despite its strong broadband network and related products. He noted that the two major headwinds were “price transparency and predictability, and the level of ease of business with us.”
During the revenue call last quarter, Comcast executives warned investors that they would change the company’s focus to growth in their mobile business following ongoing losses in broadband.
Comcast’s mobile business over a decade ago was a bright spot throughout the quarter. Unit revenues increased by approximately 16% to $1.12 billion, with 323,000 additional rows. Currently, there are approximately 8.15 million Xfinity mobile lines in total.
On Thursday, CEO Brian Roberts said the company “evidently faces some challenges, but as you’ve heard, with a lot of passion.”
“The team has the urgency, energy and focus to resolve customer issues,” Roberts said. “This may take a little while to fully embrace, but the history of operational execution success tells us that we may not move first, but when we get started, we do it very well.”
“Increasing competition”
Igor Golovniov | Lightrocket | Getty Images
On Thursday, Comcast’s CFO Jason Armstrong said the company is “in a very strong position to successfully implement tough decisions in the face of increasing competition in certain areas.”
Broadband has blossomed as a growth engine for cable companies like Comcast as the cable television business began to decline. Thursday’s Comcast reported 427,000 cable TV customer losses in the first quarter.
Green shooting of competing products began to take hold during the years of consistent broadband customer growth, especially during the early pandemic lockdown orders when many Americans used home internet for work and school.
The main competitive edge is the rise of fixed wireless products from Verizon and T-Mobile. There was the so-called overbuilding of fiber internet and 5G, a fixed wireless high-speed internet product.
In 2022, Comcast and Charter Communications each reported their first quarter losses in broadband customer growth.
Last September, Charter announced a strategic shift. It focuses on new pricing, internet speed, driving mobile growth and customer service changes. CEO Chris Winfrey told CNBC his goal was to remove years of negative perceptions about cable companies.
When Comcast looked at the need to shift its strategy earlier this year, executives said they would follow charter leads in these areas. Comcast recently began introducing changes to mobile plans and pricing, and has hired new recruits.
Comcast Cable president Dave Watson said Thursday that the new offers introduced until the end of the first quarter, including adding a free mobile line for a year, already show benefits.
“It’s been a great quarter from the start. We’re rolling here and we look forward to continuing acceleration in the next quarter,” he said.
Watson also pointed to upgrade to existing customers’ services, saying “Innovation is the core part of our strategy.”
Despite the lack of growth, broadband unit revenues have consistently risen due to average revenue per user or the strength of the industry terminology ARPU. Analysts questioned whether it would hit a strategic shift.
“What we’re trying to do is really focus on the issues that matter this market,” Watson said. “We can do this tactically and surgically, and we don’t consider it to be a broad re-rick of the base. We still think we can drive the growth of healthy broadband ARPUs, but these initiatives require some investment and will impact our ability to grow EBITDA in the near future.
The whole picture
Guests will ride a Stardust Racer roller coaster in the Celestial Park area at the epic Universe Theme Park in Orlando, Florida, USA on Saturday, April 5th, 2025. It offers $7 billion attractions from Comcast Corporation’s Universal Destinations & Experience division, five different lands, and will be open to the public on May 22nd.
Bloomberg | Getty Images
First quarter net income fell 12.5% to 89 cents per share, compared to $3.86 billion in the same period last year, or 97 cents per share. Comcast reported earnings per share of $1.09, adjusting for one-off items including income tax expenses and expenses related to the value of the assets.
Adjusted revenue prior to interest, tax, depreciation, amortization or EBITDA increased almost 2% to $9.533 billion.
The company’s revenues fell to just $29.89 billion, compared to $306 billion for the same period in 2024.
The revenue was supported by what Comcast calls a “growth business” including mobile, streaming platform Peacock, business services units, residential broadband, studios and theme parks. Comcast is in the process of spinning out its portfolio of cable networks, including CNBC, with transactions scheduled to be completed this year.
Revenue for the media segment, including NBCuniversal, rose about 1% to $6.444 billion, while film studio units revenue increased 3% to $2.83 billion.
Media units were boosted by Peacock, with the segment’s tuned EBITDA rising 21% to $1 billion, driven by streaming platforms. The Peacock itself increased by 16%. Streamer’s quarterly losses shrunk to $225 million compared to a loss of $639 million in the quarter a year ago.
According to StreetAccount, Peacock had 41 million paid subscribers, breaking analyst estimates of 37.21 million in the quarter. Peacock completed last year with 36 million paid customers.
Competitors including Disney and Warner Bros Discovery Each of them saw streaming platforms reach profitability in recent quarters. Streamers shifted gear to cracking down on password sharing, focusing on ad-supported business models to reach profitability, as Wall Street investors shifted their focus to metrics rather than adding subscribers.
NBCuniversal theme park revenue fell 5% to around $1.888 billion due to a decline in attendance to a quarter of guests suffering from the wildfires of Los Angeles.
The company is preparing for its debut of the Universal Epic Universe on May 22nd. This will be Florida’s first major theme park development in 25 years. In Thursday’s release, Comcast calls the new theme park “the most ambitious park experience ever created,” and features over 50 attractions.
In August, we will be holding a universal horror unleashed in Las Vegas. NBCuniversal recently announced plans to build a universal theme park and resort in the UK
Disclosure: Comcast owns NBCuniversal, the parent company of CNBC.
