Comcast beats earnings estimates as broadband revenue rises despite customer losses

Comcast topped Wall Street's fourth-quarter estimates on Thursday as revenue from the company's broadband business gave it a boost despite losing customers. 

Here is how the company performed for the quarter, compared with average analyst estimates from LSEG: 

For the quarter ended Dec. 31, net income attributable to Comcast rose roughly 47% to $4.78 billion, or $1.24 per share, compared with $3.26 billion, or 81 cents per share, a year earlier. 

Adjusting for one-time items, Comcast reported earnings per share of 96 cents for the period. 

Adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization was up about 10% to $8.81 billion. 

In addition to higher broadband revenue, Comcast's overall revenue was up 2% to $31.92 billion thanks to an increase in segments including its mobile business, the film studio and revenue growth at streaming service Peacock. During the fourth quarter of 2023, Comcast reported revenue of $31.25 billion. 

While the cable industry has seen broadband customer growth slump in recent quarters, the business has remained a key driver on balance sheets like Comcast's as pricing has gone up and average revenue per user has risen. 

Comcast reported Thursday that it lost 139,000 domestic broadband customers during the fourth quarter, as Comcast Cable CEO Dave Watson had warned during an investor conference in December. 

The broadband unit is part of Comcast's Connectivity and Platforms segment, which also includes Xfinity Mobile wireless, which was launched in 2017. The company surpassed 7.8 million mobile lines and revenue from the unit helped propel overall residential connectivity revenue. 

Comcast lost 311,000 cable TV customers during the fourth quarter. 

Meanwhile, revenue for the company's Content and Experiences business, which includes NBCUniversal's TV networks and streaming, the film studio and theme parks, was up 5% to roughly $12.08 billion during the fourth quarter. 

Revenue for the media segment, which includes the TV Networks, was up 3.5% to about $7.22 billion, namely due to higher revenue for streamer Peacock due to an uptick in paid subscribers on the platform. Overall domestic advertising for the media segment was flat as ad dollars for Peacock increased but the TV networks saw a smaller haul. 

Peacock has been moving toward profitability in recent quarters. The streamer, which has been driven by live sports like the Summer Olympics and NFL, reported $1.3 billion in fourth-quarter revenue and an adjusted EBITDA loss of $372 million, compared with $1 billion in revenue and an adjusted EBITDA loss of $825 million in the same period last year. 

Universal Studios' revenue was up 6.7% to $3.27 billion and the segment's adjusted EBITDA was up 85% to $569 million, boosted by the box office successes of films including "Kung Fu Panda 4," "Despicable Me 4," "The Wild Robot" and "Wicked." 

Meanwhile, Theme Parks revenue was flat as lower attendance persisted at domestic locations. 

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.