More customers, more revenues: For Comcast, broadband is gift that keeps giving

by Om Malik

 

1 DAY AGO

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photo: AP Photo/Douglas C. Pizac

SUMMARY:

Comcast is the leading broadband provider in the U.S., and the second quarter only enhanced its lead. It added 187,000 new customers and made a whopping $2.56 billion from its broadband business during the quarter ending June 30, 2013.

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The future of cable companies is broadband, and they know it. Comcast on Wednesday reported its second-quarter financials, which were solid if not spectacular like Facebook’s earnings. The company reported revenues of $16.27 billion for the three months ending June 30, 2013, up 7 percent from the same quarter a year ago, when it brought in $15.21 billion.

But for me the telling part of the news was the continued growth in its broadband customer base, the importance of that line of business to Comcast, and the ongoing trend of cord cutting.

Comcast reported that it had 187,000 net new additions to its broadband customer base during the three months, bringing the total to 19.986 million customers. A year ago, the company had 18.738 million customers — that is a gain of 1.248 million customers. During the three month period ending June 30, 2013, Comcast had high-speed revenues of $2.569 billion, up from $2.38 billion in the three month period ending June 2012.

During the fist six months of 2013, the broadband business brought in $5.092 billion, up 8.3 percent from $4.703 billion in the same six-month period last year.

The company also lost 159,000 video customers during the quarter — and is down 342,000 customers from a year ago. The video revenues inched up 3.2 percent to $10.288 billion, probably from price hikes to mask the decline in customers.

		Customers							Net Adds
(in thousands)		2Q12		2Q13					2Q12		2Q13
Video Customers		22,118		21,776					(176	)	(159	)
High-Speed Internet Customers		18,738		19,986					156		187
Voice Customers		9,664		10,327					158		161
Combined Video, HSI and Voice Customers		50,521		52,089					138		189