Comcast posted combined outcomes for its fourth quarter on Thursday, beating analyst expectations on earnings however barely lacking on income.
As soon as once more, Comcast’s broadband enterprise confirmed indicators of serious competitors going through cable firms. Comcast mentioned it misplaced 181,000 home broadband prospects in the course of the interval, though it mentioned the losses had been offset by a rise in worldwide subscribers.
The corporate’s cellular providing remained a shiny spot, notching 364,000 additions in the course of the interval and bringing its complete to greater than 9.3 million cellular prospects for Comcast’s latest enterprise.
Final yr, Comcast mentioned it was shifting its technique to focus extra on rising its cellular enterprise after going through continued strain in broadband, primarily as a consequence of competitors from wi-fi suppliers like Verizon and T-Cell.
“The aggressive atmosphere for broadband stays intense, just like prior quarters, however we noticed wi-fi competitors step up in direction of the top of the fourth quarter,” mentioned Comcast CFO Jason Armstrong throughout Thursday’s name with traders. “Towards that backdrop, we proceed to advance our new go-to-market technique we launched earlier this yr.”
Here is how Comcast carried out within the interval ended Dec. 31 in contrast with common analyst estimates, in keeping with LSEG:
- Earnings per share: 84 cents adjusted vs. 75 cents anticipated
- Income: $32.31 billion vs. $32.35 billion anticipated
Internet revenue attributable to Comcast decreased 54.6% to $2.17 billion, or 60 cents per share, in contrast with $4.78 billion, or $1.24 per share a yr earlier.
Adjusting for sure one-time gadgets — like the worth of intangible property, fees related to investments and prior-year tax advantages that Comcast mentioned made for an “unfavorable comparability” — the corporate reported adjusted internet revenue of $3.06 billion, or 84 cents per share.
Comcast’s adjusted earnings earlier than curiosity, taxes, depreciation and amortization had been down 10% to $7.9 billion.
The corporate’s total quarterly income was up greater than 1% to $32.31 billion.
Income for Comcast’s connectivity and platforms unit – which incorporates its Xfinity-branded companies throughout broadband, pay TV and cellular – was down 1% to $20.24 billion.
Particularly, income fell 1% for the home broadband unit to roughly $6.32 billion. Whereas this mirrored the lower in broadband prospects, it was partially offset by larger common charges, Comcast mentioned.
Along with the broadband buyer losses and cellular additions, Comcast misplaced 245,000 pay TV prospects in the course of the fourth quarter. The corporate now has 11.27 million complete pay TV prospects.
In the meantime, income for the corporate’s media unit, which incorporates NBCUniversal, rose 5.5% to $7.62 billion.
This marks the ultimate quarter that NBCUniversal’s earnings report contains its full portfolio of cable networks, as Comcast spun out most of its pay TV networks, together with CNBC and MS Now, into the publicly traded entity Versant.
Home promoting income for the media enterprise was up 1.5% as a consequence of the addition of the NBA on NBC, which helped propel total income.
NBC’s streaming service, Peacock, added 3 million paid prospects after three quarters of basically no change. It ended the yr with 44 million paid subscribers. The streaming service reported losses of $552 million for the fourth quarter, wider than the $372 million in losses it recorded within the prior yr interval.
These losses had been due partly to the affect of the NBA rights deal which started in the course of the quarter.
Peacock noticed $1.6 billion in income in contrast with $1.3 billion the year-ago quarter.
Comcast’s Common movie studio income was down 7.4% to $3.03 billion as a consequence of a drop in licensing and theatrical income in comparison with the prior-year quarter. The releases of “Depraved: For Good” and “Black Telephone 2” fell wanting final yr’s “Depraved” and “The Dangerous Robotic.”
Common theme parks income, nevertheless, was up 22% to roughly $2.9 billion, pushed by final yr’s opening of Epic Universe.
Disclosure: Versant Media is the father or mother firm of CNBC. Comcast was the father or mother firm of CNBC by way of the fourth quarter of 2025.
