Tuesday, January 28, 2014

Comcast income up 26% on more video customers

Comcast, the nation's largest cable and Internet service provider, said Tuesday its fourth quarter net income rose 26% from a year ago to $1.91 billion as its video business rebounded.

Its earnings per share, excluding a one-time tax gain, totaled 66 cents, falling short of analysts' estimate of 68 cents.

Comcast shares rose 2.2% to $53.65 on Tuesday.

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The Philadelphia-based company, along with its competitors, has been struggling with customers cutting the "cord" of its cable TV service and increasingly opting for online streaming options like Netflix. But its fourth quarter gain of 43,000 video subscribers was the company's first quarterly gain in six and a half years. Comcast cited its new set-top box as a catalyst in driving more customers to keep the video service and spend more on ordering movies and TV shows on demand.

Revenue for the quarter totaled $16.93 billion, up 6% from a year ago.

As video subscribers returned, revenue for the cable communications division -- which includes the broadband Internet business -- rose 5.2% to $10.7 billion in the fourth quarter.

As of the end of 2013, video, Internet and phone customers totaled 53.1 million, an increase of 1.8 million from a year earlier. For all of 2013, cable revenue rose 5.6% to $41.8 billion, driven by growth in broadband Internet and business services.

Its NBCUniversal division reported a 7.5% increase in revenue to $6.5 billion in the fourth quarter.

Revenue for the cable networks segment, which includes USA Network, increased 5.3% to $2.3 billion in the fourth quarter as gains in advertising and distribution fees outpaced higher programming and production costs.

Broadcast television revenue totaled $2.2 billion, an 11.5% increase, as it reported higher primetime advertising sales and increased retransmission consent fees.

Revenue for the filmed entertainment segment rose 4.9% to $1.4 billion, partly due to the robust box-office perform! ance of Despicable Me 2.

Contributing: The Associated Press

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