Comcast defies Wall Street estimates but falls down on broadband
Comcast defied Wall Street estimates today, reporting fourth-quarter earnings of $3.06bn (£2.29bn), and boosting streaming numbers.
This placed earnings per share at 77 cents adjusted, in parallel to the 73 cents estimated.
The owner of Sky increased its dividend by eight per cent to 27 cents per quarter, and Brian L. Roberts, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, said the move showed “confidence in the future”, as it marks the 14th year in a row that dividend has been increased.
Year revenue hit $30.34bn (£22.66bn) for the media giant, compared to the $29.61bn (£22.11bn)estimated, according to Refinitiv.
Theme parks, for instance, delivered its most profitable fourth quarter on record, driven by strong domestic attendance in the U.S. and Japan. This is despite the fact that international travel was still halted.
NBCUniversal streaming service Peacock reached 24.5 million monthly active accounts in the US at the end of 2021, around 4.5 million more than it last reported back in July.
However, these figures did not necessarily translate into success.
While revenue at the company’s Media segment, which includes Peacock, increased 8.4 per cent, a $559m (£417m) loss related to the streaming service provided a big blow to the bottom line.
Peacock lost $1.7bn (£1.3bn) over the entirety of 2021, more than 2.5 times its 2020 loss of $663m (£495m), as reported by Yahoo.
Revenue for Sky also decreased 2.4 per cent to $5.1bn (£3.8bn) in the fourth quarter of 2021.
Direct-to-consumer revenue decreased one per cent to $4bn (£3bn), primarily reflecting an increase in customer relationships and average revenue per customer relationship in the UK. offset by a decrease in customer relationships and average revenue per relationship in Italy mainly due to the negative impact of the reduction in Sky’s broadcast rights to Serie A.
President and CEO of Comcast Cable, Dave Watson, had previously warned about a lower than expected broadband growth, suggesting that the company expects to add 1.3 million high-speed internet customers for the year, as opposed to the expected 1.4 million subscribers.
However, advertising revenue increased 1.4 per cent to $712m (£432m).
Comcast acquired the entirety of Sky in 2018 for £17.28 per-share after a longstanding bidding war with Disney.
Commenting on today’s results, Roberts added: “Our top priority is increasing the capacity of our network in the U.S. and further improving our world-class broadband experience.”
“We are producing more of the premium content that our viewers love and continue to provide them with multiple ways to access it, including on Peacock while ramping construction of Epic Universe and welcoming even more guests to our Theme Parks.”
“And, significantly, we are expanding the reach of our proprietary global technology platform and addressable customer base, starting with Sky Glass and XClass TV.”