Comcast slips as studios, parks hit Q2 sales

Comcast (NASDAQ:CMCSA) shares fell more than 3% in premarket trading on Tuesday after the media and cable giant reported mixed second-quarter results, as weakness in the company’s studios and parks business impacted top-line growth.

For the quarter ended June 30, Comcast earned an adjusted $1.21 per share as sales fell 2.7% year-over-year to $29.69B. Content & Experiences revenue fell 7.5% year-over-year to $10.057B, hurt by a 10.6% drop in theme park revenue.

Chief Executive Brian Roberts said the studios and theme parks faced “difficult comparisons” compared to last year, when the company released The Super Mario Bros. Movie, which generated $1.36B at the box office and became a global phenomenon.

Analysts had expected adjusted earnings of $1.12 per share and $30.04B in revenue for the period.

Adjusted EBITDA was down 0.7% year-over-year at $10.171B during the period, while free cash flow came in at $1.338B, down 60.9% year-over-year, due in part to a tax payment related to Hulu.

Mixed picture for customer relationships

The company continued to see an exodus of broadband subscribers, losing 120,000 during the period, continuing the decline seen last quarter. Domestic broadband revenue rose 3% year-over-year in the quarter. It ended the quarter with 32.06M broadband subscribers, down from the 32.3M it had in the year ago quarter.

Amid the broadband weakness, Comcast added total domestic wireless line net additions of 322,000 while it lost 419,000 video customers. It ended the quarter with 7.199M and 13.199M wireless and video customers, respectively.

Peacock spreading its feathers

Amid continued worries about the health of the streaming business, Comcast said its Peacock service had an adjusted EBITDA loss of $348M, far better than the $475.8M that analysts were expecting. Revenue for the period came in at $1.05B, while the streaming service ended the period with 33M paid subscribers, up 38% year-over-year.

Chief Executive Officer Brian Roberts talked up the increased focus on profitability for the service. “Media returned to Adjusted EBITDA growth, driven by Peacock, which delivered the best year-over-year improvement for any quarter since its launch in 2020,” Roberts said in a statement.

Shareholders returns

Comcast said it returned $3.4B to shareholders during the period, including $1.2B in dividend payments.

Comcast is slated to host a conference call at 8:30 a.m. EST to discuss the results.