Comcast Q3 Financial Report

On Monday, Comcast released its third quarter financial reports. Below are some highlights of that report.

Brian L. Roberts, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Comcast Corporation, said, "I'm pleased to report that our businesses generated outstanding revenue and operating cash flow growth for the third quarter of 2015. At Cable Communications, overall customer relationships increased 156,000, a 90% improvement compared to last year, video subscriber results were the best for a third quarter in 9 years, high-speed Internet subscriber results were the best for a third quarter in 6 years, and churn across all product categories continues to improve. NBCUniversal also delivered terrific results, including another record-breaking box office quarter driven by Minions and Jurassic World, the highest summer attendance ever at our theme parks, and maintaining the #1 broadcast network ranking for the 5th summer in a row. These outstanding results from our unique portfolio of complementary businesses underscore our confidence that we are well positioned to compete, continue our strong performance and drive shareholder value."

Cable Communications:

Revenue for Cable Communications increased 6.3% to $11.7 billion in the third quarter of 2015 compared to $11.0 billion in the third quarter of 2014, driven by increases of 10.2% in high-speed Internet, 19.5% in business services and 3.3% in video. The increase in Cable revenue reflects increased customer relationships (see below), customers receiving higher levels of service and customers taking additional services, as well as rate adjustments.

For the nine months ended September 30, 2015, Cable revenue increased 6.3% to $34.9 billion compared to $32.8 billion in 2014. Customer Relationships increased by 156,000 to 27.4 million in the third quarter of 2015, a 74,000 or 90.2% improvement compared to the third quarter of 2014, primarily driven by increases in double product relationships. Video net losses improved 40.6% year-over-year to 48,000 and were the best result for a third quarter in nine years. High-speed Internet customer net additions of 320,000 improved versus last year and were the strongest for a third quarter in six years, while voice customers grew by 17,000.

NBCUniversal:

Revenue for NBCUniversal increased 20.8% to $7.2 billion in the third quarter of 2015 compared to $5.9 billion in the third quarter of 2014. Operating Cash Flow increased 17.0% to $1.7 billion compared to $1.4 billion in the third quarter of 2014, driven by strong results at Filmed Entertainment and Theme Parks.

For the nine months ended September 30, 2015, NBCUniversal revenue increased 11.5% to $21.0 billion compared to $18.8 billion in 2014. Excluding $376 million of revenue generated by the broadcast of the NFL's Super Bowl in the first quarter of 2015 and $1.1 billion of revenue generated by the Sochi Olympics in the first quarter of 2014, revenue increased 16.4% (see Table 5). Operating cash flow increased 16.9% to $4.9 billion compared to $4.2 billion in the first nine months of 2014.

Cable Networks
For the third quarter of 2015, revenue from the Cable Networks segment increased 7.0% to $2.4 billion compared to $2.3 billion in the third quarter of 2014, driven by an 8.6% increase in distribution revenue and a 2.0% increase in advertising revenue, partially reflecting the introduction of NASCAR on our sports network, NBCSN, as well as a 17.6% increase in content licensing and other revenue. Operating cash flow decreased 3.9% to $835 million compared to $868 million in the third quarter of 2014, reflecting higher revenue, more than offset by increased sports programming costs, driven by the impact of NASCAR.

For the nine months ended September 30, 2015, revenue from the Cable Networks segment decreased 0.2% to $7.2 billion. Excluding $257 million of revenue generated by the Sochi Olympics in the first quarter of 2014, revenue increased 3.5% (see Table 5). Operating cash flow decreased 2.7% to $2.6 billion in the first nine months of 2015 compared to $2.7 billion in 2014.

Broadcast Television
For the third quarter of 2015, revenue from the Broadcast Television segment increased 11.3% to $2.0 billion compared to $1.8 billion in the third quarter of 2014, reflecting a 33.5% increase in content licensing revenue, higher retransmission consent fees, and a 2.8% increase in advertising revenue. Operating cash flow increased 6.1% to $150 million compared to $142 million in the third quarter of 2014, reflecting higher revenue, partially offset by an increase in programming and production costs associated with the timing of content provided under our licensing agreements and studio production costs.

For the nine months ended September 30, 2015, revenue from the Broadcast Television segment decreased 2.8% to $6.0 billion compared to $6.2 billion in 2014. Excluding $376 million of revenue generated by the NFL's Super Bowl in the first quarter of 2015, as well as $846 million of revenue generated by the Sochi Olympics in the first quarter of 2014, revenue increased 5.5% (see Table 5). Operating cash flow increased 11.8% to $563 million compared to $504 million in the first nine months of 2014.