Comcast exceeded Wall Street forecasts for the first quarter, reporting revenue and adjusted earnings that topped consensus as an event-heavy sports schedule strengthened engagement across its media assets and advertising channels. The stock reacted positively, rising nearly 8% in premarket trading.
A dense lineup of live sports - led by the Winter Olympics, Super Bowl and the return of National Basketball League games - supported higher advertising revenue and helped drive increased paid subscriptions at Peacock. Management reported that Peacock added 2 million paid subscribers in the January-March quarter, bringing the service to 46 million paid users overall, even as the streaming unit's losses widened to $432 million.
The broader Comcast media segment showed a loss of $426 million in the quarter as the company increased spending tied to NBA programming. Comcast had previously indicated that the first quarter would be a peak period for NBA content, with roughly 50% of NBA games scheduled in that timeframe, a pattern the company said would lead to peak dilution of earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA).
On the connectivity side, Comcast reported that its core broadband business lost 65,000 customers in the quarter - a smaller decline than the 175,500-user loss analysts polled by FactSet had expected. Comcast attributed part of the improvement to changes in pricing, product packaging and customer experience intended to better compete with fixed wireless providers and to limit churn.
Wireless continued to be a bright spot for the company. Comcast added 435,000 wireless customers during the quarter, its best quarterly performance on record and ahead of the FactSet estimate of 361,600 net additions. The company has increasingly relied on wireless service to drive growth and deepen relationships with existing customers.
Theme parks revenue climbed 24% year-over-year, supported by stronger attendance at Universal's Epic Universe park in Orlando, which opened last May. That lift in parks revenue contributed to overall growth across Comcast's diversified portfolio.
Financially, total revenue for the quarter was $31.46 billion. Excluding contributions from cable assets that were spun off into Versant Media during the quarter, revenue rose 10.9% year-over-year. Analysts on average had been expecting $30.43 billion, according to LSEG data. Adjusted net income per share came in at $0.79, beating the consensus estimate of $0.73.
Market reaction and context
Investors responded positively to the combination of stronger streaming engagement tied to marquee sports events, constrained broadband churn versus expectations, and robust wireless net additions. At the same time, the widened losses in the media segment and elevated programming spending tied to the NBA were notable cost pressures in the quarter.