Comcast earnings climb 22 percent

Helped by cost cuts and by growth in Internet and phone subscribers, Comcast on Wednesday reported a 22 percent jump in earnings for its third quarter.

The cable provider saw net income of $944 million, or 33 cents per share, for the quarter ended Sept. 30, compared with $771 million (26 cents per share) in the year-ago quarter. Sales also rose, hitting $8.8 billion, up from $8.5 billion in 2008's third quarter, though revenue was slightly below analysts' estimates.

Comcast's third-quarter sales

(Credit: Comcast)

For the quarter, the number of TV subscribers dropped 2.7 percent to 23.7 million from 24.4 million a year ago. But the loss was more than offset by gains in Internet and voice, two services that Comcast has marketed heavily, especially as part of its Triple-Play service.

The number of Internet subscribers rose 6.4 percent to 15.6 million, while Comcast phone customers jumped 20 percent to 7.3 million. Overall, the company saw a quarterly increase in customers of 3.4 percent to 46.8 million. Subscriber growth helped boost third-quarter sales for the cable segment by 2.8 percent to $8.4 billion.

Comcast Internet and voice customers grow.

(Credit: Comcast)

With a focus on trimming costs, capital expenses declined 6.1 percent to $1.2 billion, due in large part to lower spending at the company's cable divison.

"The strength and resilience of our businesses combined with our continued emphasis on expenses and prudent capital management helped us achieve healthy operating and financial results in the third quarter," Brian Roberts, chairman and chief executive officer, said in a statement.

Comcast revealed no new details over its intent to acquire a leading stake in GE-owned NBC Universal. Early last month, reports surfaced that the company wanted to buy a 51 percent chunk of NBCU, with GE owning the rest, to create a new joint venture. If it goes through, the deal could transform Comcast into a major media powerhouse, with control of NBC as well as variety of TV networks and cable stations.

[rucknrun]

Most of the earnings increases we are seeing for this quarter is because of people being let go. This is a false bubble. Wait till next quarter.

[Mr_7235]

That wouldn't explain total revenues being up. Hopefully, they'll use some of that money to upgrade their network, but I'm not holding my breath.

[alskiontheweb]

More so, wait till the churn numbers start coming back. After Comcast in my area announced that it was discontinuing any and all direct analog service except basic cable, they opened themselves to a wide swath of competition. I had Comcast for 17 years and have had their high speed internet for 12 of those years. I decided that if they were making me switch all my televisions to digital, I would evaluate FIOS, Comcast and dishes. When the evaluation came around as to who would give the best digital deal, FIOS won, hands down...not even close. Price won, value won, internet speed won, everything. So, I switched and am happier for it.

[alskiontheweb]

You can see the churn in their video and anyone (like me) that churned with multiple services from them is going to make a bigger long term impact to them. They were not at all interested in trying to beat FIOS on equipment, price, etc. No multi-room DVR also killed them.

[maneeshpan]

It's too bad Fios is only available in limited areas of the country. Where I live my only choice for digital television service is Time Warner Cable's Digital Cable service which I have with their HD DVR right now; or Satellite Television in which case I can choose between 2 competing national Satellite TV providers Dish Network or DirecTV. Fios TV is not even available in my area and Time Warner Cable in my area like so many others is the only digital cable TV provider -- even in your area where you have Fios it is likely if you chose digital cable there is only 1 provider of digital cable service in each city, of each state of the country. I'm in Arizona -- and in Yuma the only digital cable provider is Time Warner Cable. For land line phone service can choose between Qwest or Time Warner Cable's Digital Phone.

In Tucson AZ, the only digital cable provider last I checked was Cox. Again if your in Tucson AZ or Yuma AZ or any other area of the country for satellite television you can choose between Dish or DirecTV.

Your lucky you got the choice of Fios TV.

[maneeshpan]

@alskiontheweb your lucky you got the choice of using Fios TV its not even available in my area (in fact, its available in limited areas of the country) in much the same way whatever town you live in when getting digital television if your choice is a digital cable television provider there is only one cable provider per city. In Yuma AZ only provider is Time Warner Cable thru which I have an HD DVR and digital cable TV service, Road Runner High Speed Internet and Digital Phone. In the Yuma area Time Warner has competition from Qwest in the land line phone business. However, aside from satellite TV providers DirecTV and Dish Network available no matter where you live -- Time Warner Cable has no local competition to its digital cable TV offerings from another cable TV provider.

No city has more than 1 cable provider and that's unfortunate. Instead of cable companies competing against each other we have cable in general competing against satellite or services like Fios now only for TV service. In Tucson AZ the cable provider last I checked was Cox. You can get satellite from Dish or DirecTV in Yuma or Tucson or anywhere else but if you live in Yuma you can only get Time Warner for cable, in Tucson only have Cox for cable -- you can't choose between Cox or Time Warner in any city.

[ragodfrey]

I thought Comcast's profits always went up about 20 percent every six months or so. Oh, not everyone is on my, "Hey can you cut me a deal, I'm thinking about going sattv, again..." schedule. Right, right.

[wolverine01]

I?m sure a rate increase didn?t hurt their profits either.

[cloudmatt]

+1

[tcampb01]

Rate hikes have certainly been good to them. The rates they charge even for things such as the basic cable box have gone up 40% (formerly $5/month, now $7/month for the same box.) If you have a Comcast system with HD it's gone up about 60%!

I'm pretty disgusted with what they charge considering there are only perhaps 4 or 5 channels that I actually watch (and none of them are premium channels.)

Some co-workers trying to find ways to cut back have discovered they can cancel cable, just take over-of-the-air digital broadcasts for basic TV and then subscribe to season-passes of anything else they might actually care to watch via a service such as Apple TV. The cost of subscribing to an entire season of one show is substantially less than the cost of just 1 month of cable TV.

[jlopezcnet]

My friend works for comcast and his entire department was recently laid off.

[Vegaman_Dan]

By an amazing coincidence, my rates were raised by nearly this much as well in the last six months. I'm getting fewer channels, poorer service, and a higher price. Unfortunately it's a monopoly in my area so either you use Comcast or you have no service at all.

I'm behind a hill from the metropolitan area where the digital transmitters for over the air signals are so that's out too.

I'm paying $120 for basic cable TV and internet usage. Just five years ago I was paying only $50. Things change.

[kaiman75]

The next question is how good is their service? Sure its all good and well to look at earnings increases, but are they actually improving anything for there customers or just lining their pockets... Just look at Cisco, or Microsoft. Also where do price increases fit into all this and why are they still laying people off?

[troppp]

To Comcast:

You're welcome.

[rmullen0]

Is this a surprise to anyone??? All they do is keep jacking up the prices and dropping channels so that you have to upgrade to a more expensive package. For example, they just dropped CLTV in the Chicago area from the analog line up. So, now you have to rent a cable box to get it. I think it's B.S. that you should have to use a proprietary box.

[metomjr]

Wouldn't surprise me. Just got a letter telling me they'd be increasing my rates again on Jan 1.

Cable Monopoly.