CMCSA Comcast Corporation

By Lillian Rizzo 

Comcast Corp. said net profit rose 14% in the first quarter, boosted by its high-speed internet business, a spate of successful movies and the recent acquisition of European pay-television operator Sky PLC.

The Philadelphia company reported a profit of $3.55 billion, or 77 cents a share, up from $3.12 billion, or 66 cents a share, in the year-earlier quarter. The quarterly profit exceeded FactSet analysts' estimates of 68 cents a share.

Revenue rose 18% to $26.86 billion, thanks in part to the inclusion of Sky's results, which amounted to $4.8 billion in revenue. Sky wasn't part of Comcast during the year-earlier quarter.

Comcast said it added 375,000 internet consumers in the period, fueling a 10% rise in high-speed internet revenue. The company also posted strong growth at its wireless business, Xfinity Mobile, which was launched less than two years ago. The service reached a total of 1.4 million subscribers, compared with 577,000 last year. The spike came as Verizon Communications Inc. reported earlier this week that it lost a net 44,000 postpaid phone connections.

Although at a slower rate than its peers, Comcast's traditional pay-TV business again lost subscribers, as people continue to cut the cord in favor of streaming services like Amazon.com Inc.'s Prime Video and Netflix.com Inc. During the first quarter, Comcast lost 121,000 subscribers, compared with a loss of 96,000 a year earlier. It was the company's eighth consecutive quarter of decline.

AT&T Inc. on Wednesday reported a net loss of 544,000 pay-TV customers, which include DirecTV satellite subscriptions and U-verse fiber-optic packages.

NBC's film and broadcast segments each saw a 7% increase in revenue, boosted by films including "Us" and "How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World." The television segment was boosted by successful series like "This is Us" and "The Voice."

Overall, revenue at Comcast's NBCUniversal unit fell 12.5% to $8.31 billion. The unit's cable networks and broadcast-television divisions suffered from the comparison with the year-earlier period, during which NBC had the rights to the Super Bowl and 2018 Pyeongchang Olympics.

Earlier this year, NBCUniversal said it plans to launch an ad-supported streaming-video service in 2020, which will be free for pay-TV subscribers. As of January, the company had about 52 million customers that subscribe to Comcast Cable and Sky. Users without cable TV will be able to purchase it for a fee.

The service will include content from NBCUniversal's TV and film franchises, as well as original and acquired programming. The streaming platform will first debut in the U.S. and later be rolled out in international markets, The Wall Street Journal previously reported.

Walt Disney Co. earlier this month disclosed details of the Disney+ streaming service. The service will be offered at a $6.99 price point, and Disney plans to include more than 7,500 episodes of television and hundreds of movies, as well as original content.

Separate from the NBC streaming platform, in March Comcast launched the $5-a-month service "Xfinity Flex" for its internet-only customers, which gives access to ad-supported streaming video channels like YouTube and Cheddar. Customers are given a device, similar to Amazon's Fire Stick or Roku, that serves as a gateway to such streaming apps.

Comcast has said the new device is meant to help customers manage connected devices in their home.

Write to Lillian Rizzo at Lillian.Rizzo@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

April 25, 2019 07:17 ET (11:17 GMT)

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