Comcast Revenue Tops Estimates as Super Bowl, Olympics Lift Media Business | Investing News

By Helen Coster and Eva Mathews

(Reuters) -Comcast Corp’s very first-quarter income defeat Wall Road anticipations on Thursday, as the media huge benefited from its broadcasts of the Super Bowl and Beijing Olympics, as effectively as a rebound in theme park attendance.

Total revenue rose 14% to $31.01 billion in the quarter, beating analysts’ normal estimate of $30.53 billion, in accordance to Refinitiv info.

Comcast, the largest U.S. cable operator, attained 262,000 broadband consumers in the quarter, when compared with Factset estimates of 229,000.

Broadband subscriber advancement slumped 43.1% from a 12 months in the past, the 3rd consecutive quarter of subscriber declines immediately after record progress all through the pandemic. The firm has attributed the slowdown, in aspect, to less men and women altering households.

Profits at Comcast’s NBCUniversal media device rose 36.3% to $6.87 billion, such as $1.48 billion in income from broadcasting the Super Bowl and Beijing Olympics.

NBCU promoting revenue jumped 59.2%, benefiting from the sporting situations as very well as the advancement of the Peacock streaming provider.

Peacock extra 4 million paid out subscribers in the quarter, bringing whole paid subscribers to 13 million. In a connect with with traders Thursday, Chief Executive Officer Brian Roberts reported the business does not anticipate viewing that type of progress each individual quarter.

NBCUniversal’s media division final results integrated $472 million of profits and an altered earnings ahead of desire, tax, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) decline of $456 million relevant to Peacock, “including quantities attributable to the 2022 Beijing Olympics and the NFL’s Super Bowl,” in contrast to $91 million of revenue and an altered EBITDA decline of $277 million a 12 months previously.

NBC’s Tremendous Bowl broadcast captivated an ordinary tv viewers of about 101 million viewers, roughly 10% earlier mentioned the 2021 championship, according to Nielsen facts, with advertisement fees up 18% over ad charges for the 2021 game.

Nonetheless the Wintertime Olympics in Beijing captivated the smallest primary-time audience considering that NBCUniversal began broadcasting the online games, amid a time period of shifting Television-viewing practices.

Web profits attributable to Comcast rose to $3.55 billion, or 78 cents per share, from $3.33 billion, or 71 cents per share, a yr before.

Comcast shares ended up trading down 3.37% at $42.95.

(Reporting by Helen Coster in New York and Eva Mathews in Bengaluru Enhancing by Arun Koyyur, Bernadette Baum and David Evans)

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