Comcast profit up, but cords still cutting
April 27, 2023
Comcast has reported higher Q1 2023 profits on lower revenue. Cord-cutting continued, with the loss of 614,000 video subscribers – up from 444,000 in Q4 2022.
Meanwhile Peacock, its DTC streaming service, continued to rack losses. Peacock paid subscribers increased to 22 million, up from 20 million at the end of 2022, revenue increased 45 per cent to $685 million (€622m), but the streamer posted a $704 million loss, though down from -$978 million in Q4 2022.
Comcast net income rose 8 per cent to $3.83 billion from $3.55 billion a year ago.
The figures were at the top end of Wall Street forecasts.
Comcast’s connectivity & platforms division increased EBITDA by 3.2 per cent to $8.1 billion. Comcast added 253,000 residential broadband customers but lost 614,000 video customers.
“We accomplished all of this while continuing to invest in future growth initiatives. Also, importantly, we had solid revenue growth in our high-margin connectivity businesses, while increasing our Peacock subscribers more than 60 per cent year over year” said CEO Brian Roberts.