Comcast Tops Q3 Estimates Regardless of Powerful Comparisons With Tokyo Olympics, Wire-Reducing And Volatility In Sky Markets – Deadline

Comcast narrowly beat Wall Avenue estimates within the third quarter regardless of volatility within the UK and Europe, robust comparisons with the year-ago Tokyo Olympics quarter and ongoing cord-cutting.

Earnings per share got here in at 96 cents, six cents higher than analysts’ consensus estimate. Whole income additionally cleared the bar at $29.8 billion, although it was down 1.5% from the year-ago interval.

At NBCUniversal, adjusted EBITDA rose nearly 25% to $1.7 billion regardless of losses at streaming service Peacock. Income slid 4% to $9.6 billion.

The spotlight inside NBCU was the studios division, the place income shot up 31% to $3.2 billion, on rising theatrical and licensing fortunes. The profitable releases of Jurassic World: Dominion and Minions:
The Rise of Gru got here in the course of the quarter.

Sky encountered turbulence, recording noncash impairment prices of $8.6 billion associated to an elevated low cost charge and what the earnings launch referred to as “decreased estimated future money flows because of macroeconomic circumstances in Sky’s territories.”

The cable division shed 540,000 residential video clients within the quarter to land at a shade lower than 16 million total.

In an interview with CNBC earlier this month, NBCUniversal CEO Jeff Shell mentioned Peacock had reached 15 million paying subscribers, a quantity affirmed within the official earnings launch. Peacock has gotten off to a slower begin than a lot of its streaming rivals, partly on account of Covid launch circumstances and an preliminary strategic emphasis on its free, ad-supported tier. NBCU and Comcast have been making an attempt to goose its progress in quite a few methods, from worth reductions to pay-1 film home windows to re-routing titles there from Hulu.

Peacock losses widened to $614 million within the interval from $520 million a 12 months in the past.

“Regardless of the challenges that will lie forward, we’re in an enviable strategic and monetary place, and our future stays vivid,” Comcast CEO Brian Roberts mentioned within the earnings launch.