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 But the country's biggest cable provider's revenue climbed at its
fastest pace in more than a year on the strength of pricier TV
services and cable advertising.
The results topped Wall Street forecasts, but its shares fell 24
cents, or 1.2 percent, to $19.40 in pre-market trading.
Comcast faces two sets of obstacles. First, a slow economy means
fewer people are moving to new homes and adding new cable hookups.
Second, it is competing with an array of satellite and phone
companies in a market that is basically mature. Most households in
the U.S. already have some kind of subscription TV service, so the
search for new customers comes down to who can offer a package
enticing enough to get people to switch.
Comcast added fewer subscribers in the third quarter than it did in
the same three months of 2009. The company fueled growth instead by
getting more money from each of them.
Its average revenue per customer climbed more than 10 percent to
$129.75 as subscribers took advantage of high-definition video and
DVR service. Revenue from each of its products -- cable, high-speed
Internet and voice -- all grew from a year ago.
Overall, revenue climbed 7 percent to $9.49 billion from $8.85
billion in the year-ago quarter. The average forecast from analysts
called for revenue of $9.36 billion, according to Thomson Reuters. Net income fell to $867 million, or 31 cents per share, in the three
months ended Sept. 30 from $944 million, or 33 cents per share, a
year ago. Stripping out unusual items, the company said earnings would have
risen to 32 cents per share from 28 cents a share a year ago.
Analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters expected earnings of 30 cents a
share, on average.
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Costs from the NBC Universal deal and a debt refinancing cut
earnings by $66 million, or a penny per share. Comcast is hoping to
get the federal government to OK its acquisition of a controlling
stake in the broadcaster from General Electric Co. by the end of the
year.
The company's loss of basic cable subscribers accelerated in the
quarter, amounting to a net loss of 275,000 compared with 132,000 a
year ago. The loss was partially offset by a net gain
of 219,000 digital cable subscribers, but that was not as big a gain
as the 463,000 added in the same quarter of last year.
Comcast added 249,000 high-speed Internet customers and 228,000
voice customers, down from net additions in the same quarter a year
ago of 361,000 and 375,000 respectively. Overall, Comcast ended the quarter with a total of 48 million
subscribers, an increase of 1.2 million, or 2.5 percent. That
compares with growth of 3.4 percent in the same quarter a year ago.
Revenue from local ads shown on its cable channels continued to
rebound off of steep declines last year, growing 27 percent.
[Associated
Press; By ANDREW VANACORE]
Copyright 2010 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This
material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or
redistributed.
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