Comcast Reports 2nd Quarter 2023 Results

Comcast Corporation (NASDAQ: CMCSA) today reported results for the quarter ended June 30, 2023.

“The consistent investments we've been making in our growth businesses continue to generate strong results and position us extremely well both now and into the future. Second quarter operational and financial performance was excellent and included a double-digit increase in Adjusted EPS and significant free cash flow generation," said Brian L. Roberts, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Comcast Corporation. "This quarter contained a number of highlights and notable achievements. We not only continued to deliver solid revenue growth in our connectivity businesses but also expanded our Adjusted EBITDA margin at Connectivity & Platforms. We generated the best quarterly Adjusted EBITDA ever at Theme Parks, had the second-highest grossing animated film of all time in worldwide box office revenue with Super Mario Bros., and nearly doubled paid Peacock subscribers year-over-year. At the same time, we returned a healthy amount of capital to shareholders and maintained an enviable balance sheet. Our experienced and expert management team is executing at an exceptional level, and our long-term-oriented growth strategy is clearly working."

^{For additional detail on segment revenue and expenses, customer metrics, capital expenditures, and free cash flow, please refer to the trending schedule on Comcast’s Investor Relations website at www.cmcsa.com.}

2nd Quarter 2023 Highlights:

• Consolidated Adjusted EBITDA Increased 4.2% to $10.2 Billion; Adjusted EPS Increased 11.9% to $1.13; Generated Free Cash Flow of $3.4 Billion
• Returned $3.2 Billion to Shareholders Through a Combination of $1.2 Billion in Dividend Payments and $2.0 Billion in Share Repurchases
• Connectivity & Platforms Adjusted EBITDA Increased 4.4% to $8.3 Billion and Adjusted EBITDA Margin Increased 170 Basis Points to 41.0%
• Domestic Broadband Average Rate Per Customer Increased 4.5% and Drove Domestic Broadband Revenue Growth of 4.4%
• Content & Experiences Adjusted EBITDA Increased 7.5% to $2.2 Billion, Driven by Studios and Theme Parks
• Studios Adjusted EBITDA Increased $258 Million to $255 Million, Driven by the Successful Theatrical Performance of The Super Mario Bros. Movie; Mario Grossed $1.3 Billion in Worldwide Box Office in the Second Quarter to Become the #2 Animated Picture of All-Time
• Theme Parks Adjusted EBITDA Increased 32% to $833 Million, Its Highest Adjusted EBITDA on Record, Reflecting Growth at Universal Beijing, Universal Japan and Universal Hollywood Compared to the Prior Year Period
• Peacock Paid Subscribers Nearly Doubled Compared to the Prior Year Period to 24 Million. Peacock Revenue Increased 85% to $820 Million

Consolidated Financial Results

Revenue increased 1.7%. Net Income Attributable to Comcast increased 25.1%. Adjusted Net Income increased 4.8%. Adjusted EBITDA increased 4.2%.

Earnings per Share (EPS) increased 34.2% to $1.02. Adjusted EPS increased 11.9% to $1.13.

Capital Expenditures increased 22.7% to $3.0 billion. Connectivity & Platforms’ capital expenditures increased 11.4% to $2.1 billion, primarily reflecting higher investment in line extensions and scalable infrastructure. Content & Experiences' capital expenditures increased 74.1% to $809 million, reflecting increased investment in constructing the Epic Universe theme park in Orlando, which is scheduled to open in 2025.

Net Cash Provided by Operating Activities was $7.2 billion. Free Cash Flow was $3.4 billion.

Dividends and Share Repurchases. Comcast paid dividends totaling $1.2 billion and repurchased 50.5 million of its common shares for $2.0 billion, resulting in a total return of capital to shareholders of $3.2 billion.

Connectivity & Platforms

Revenue for Connectivity & Platforms was consistent with the prior year period. Adjusted EBITDA increased due to growth in Residential Connectivity & Platforms Adjusted EBITDA and Business Services Connectivity Adjusted EBITDA. Adjusted EBITDA margin increased to 41.0%.

Total Customer Relationships for Connectivity & Platforms decreased by 228,000 to 52.3 million. Decreases in international residential connectivity & platforms customer relationships as well as domestic residential connectivity & platforms customer relationships were partially offset by an increase in business services connectivity customer relationships. Total domestic broadband customer net losses were 19,000, total domestic wireless line net additions were 316,000 and total domestic video customer net losses were 543,000.

Residential Connectivity & Platforms

Revenue for Residential Connectivity & Platforms was consistent with the prior year period. Growth in residential connectivity revenue was driven by domestic broadband revenue due to higher average rates; international connectivity revenue due to an increase in wireless revenue, reflecting higher sales of devices and wireless services, as well as an increase in broadband revenue; and domestic wireless revenue due to an increase in the number of customer lines. The growth in residential connectivity revenue was offset by a decrease in video revenue due to a decline in the number of video customers, partially offset by an increase in average rates; other revenue primarily due to lower voice revenue, driven by a decline in the number of residential wireline voice customers; and advertising revenue primarily due to a decline in domestic political advertising and overall market weakness.

Adjusted EBITDA for Residential Connectivity & Platforms increased due to lower operating expenses. Programming expenses decreased primarily due to the decline in the number of domestic video customers, partially offset by domestic contractual rate increases and an increase in programming expenses for international sports channels. Non-programming expenses decreased primarily due to lower spending on marketing and promotion, lower technical and support costs, lower fees paid to third-party channels relating to advertising sales and lower customer service costs. These decreases were partially offset by increased direct product costs associated with our wireless service, resulting from increases in device sales and the number of customers receiving our wireless service. Adjusted EBITDA margin increased to 38.9%.

Business Services Connectivity

Revenue for Business Services Connectivity increased due to an increase in revenue from small, medium-sized and enterprise customers.

Adjusted EBITDA for Business Services Connectivity increased due to higher revenue, partially offset by higher operating expenses. The increase in operating expenses was primarily due to higher marketing and promotion expenses and direct product costs. Adjusted EBITDA margin increased to 57.7%.

Content & Experiences

Revenue for Content & Experiences increased compared to the prior year period driven by Theme Parks. Adjusted EBITDA for Content & Experiences increased due to growth in Studios and Theme Parks, partially offset by a decrease in Media, driven by higher costs at Peacock as the service scales.

Media

Revenue for Media was consistent with the prior year period primarily due to higher international networks and domestic distribution revenue, offset by lower domestic advertising revenue. The decrease in domestic advertising revenue was primarily due to lower revenue at our networks, partially offset by an increase in revenue at Peacock. International networks revenue increased primarily reflecting an increase in revenue associated with the distribution of sports channels. Domestic distribution revenue increased primarily due to higher revenue at Peacock, driven by an increase in paid subscribers, partially offset by lower revenue at our networks.

Adjusted EBITDA for Media decreased primarily due to higher operating expenses. The increase in operating expenses was primarily due to higher programming costs at Peacock, as well as increased international sports programming costs driven by the shift of certain European football matches and the related programming expense to the first half of 2023 due to timing of the 2022 FIFA World Cup, partially offset by a decrease in content costs for our entertainment television networks. Media results in the second quarter include $820 million of revenue and an Adjusted EBITDA⁸ loss of $651 million related to Peacock, compared to $444 million of revenue and an Adjusted EBITDA⁸ loss of $467 million in the prior year period.

Studios

Revenue for Studios was consistent with the prior year period primarily due to higher theatrical revenue, driven by recent releases, including The Super Mario Bros. Movie and Fast X, offset by lower content licensing revenue, which was primarily due to the timing of when content was made available by our television studios under licensing agreements, partially offset by the timing of when content was made available by our film studios.

Adjusted EBITDA for Studios increased primarily due to lower operating expenses. The decrease in operating expenses reflected lower programming and production expenses, primarily due to lower costs associated with lower content licensing sales, partially offset by higher spending on recent theatrical releases.

Theme Parks

Revenue for Theme Parks increased driven by higher revenue at our international theme parks, which had COVID-19 related restrictions in the prior year period. Domestic theme parks revenue remained consistent primarily due to higher revenue at our theme park in Hollywood driven by the opening of Super Nintendo World, offset by lower revenue at our theme park in Orlando which continues to be above pre-pandemic levels.

Adjusted EBITDA for Theme Parks increased, reflecting higher revenue, which more than offset higher operating expenses. The increase in operating expenses was due to higher costs primarily associated with increased guest attendance.

Headquarters & Other

Content & Experiences Headquarters & Other includes overhead, personnel costs and costs associated with corporate initiatives. Headquarters & Other Adjusted EBITDA loss in the second quarter was $200 million, compared to a loss of $137 million in the prior year period.

Eliminations

Amounts represent eliminations of transactions between our Content & Experiences segments, the most significant being content licensing between the Studios and Media segments, which are affected by the timing of recognition of content licenses. Revenue eliminations were $631 million, compared to $664 million in the prior year period, and Adjusted EBITDA eliminations were a benefit of $56 million, compared to a benefit of $23 million in the prior year period.

Corporate, Other and Eliminations

Corporate & Other

Corporate & Other primarily includes overhead and personnel costs; certain Sky operations; Comcast Spectacor, which owns the Philadelphia Flyers and the Wells Fargo Center arena in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; and Xumo, our consolidated streaming platform joint venture beginning in June 2022.

Adjusted EBITDA loss for Corporate & Other increased, reflecting higher operating expenses primarily due to higher costs related to Xumo and certain Sky operations.

Eliminations

Amounts represent eliminations of transactions between Connectivity & Platforms, Content & Experiences and other businesses, the most significant being distribution of television network programming between the Media and Residential Connectivity & Platforms segments. Revenue eliminations were $1.4 billion, consistent with the prior year period, and Adjusted EBITDA eliminations were a benefit of $14 million compared to a loss of $36 million in the prior year period.

Conference Call and Other Information

Comcast Corporation will host a conference call with the financial community today, July 27, 2023, at 8:30 a.m. Eastern Time (ET). The conference call and related materials will be broadcast live and posted on our Investor Relations website at www.cmcsa.com. A replay of the call will be available starting at 11:30 a.m. ET on Thursday, July 27, 2023, on the Investor Relations website.

From time to time, we post information that may be of interest to investors on our website at www.cmcsa.com and on our corporate website, www.comcastcorporation.com. To automatically receive Comcast financial news by email, please visit www.cmcsa.com and subscribe to email alerts.

Caution Concerning Forward-Looking Statements

This press release includes statements that may constitute forward-looking statements. In evaluating these statements, readers should consider various factors, including the risks and uncertainties we describe in the “Risk Factors” sections of our most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K, our most recent Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q and other reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Factors that could cause our actual results to differ materially from these forward-looking statements include changes in and/or risks associated with: the competitive environment; consumer behavior; the advertising market; programming costs; consumer acceptance of our content; key distribution and/or licensing agreements; use and protection of our intellectual property; our reliance on third-party hardware, software and operational support; keeping pace with technological developments; cyber attacks, security breaches or technology disruptions; weak economic conditions; acquisitions and strategic initiatives; operating businesses internationally; natural disasters, severe weather-related and other uncontrollable events; loss of key personnel; laws and regulations; adverse decisions in litigation or governmental investigations; labor disputes; and other risks described from time to time in reports and other documents we file with the SEC. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date they are made, and involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual events or our actual results to differ materially from those expressed in any such forward-looking statements. We undertake no obligation to update or revise publicly any forward-looking statements, whether because of new information, future events or otherwise. The amount and timing of any dividends and share repurchases are subject to business, economic and other relevant factors.

Non-GAAP Financial Measures

In this discussion, we sometimes refer to financial measures that are not presented according to generally accepted accounting principles in the U.S. (GAAP). Certain of these measures are considered “non-GAAP financial measures” under the SEC regulations; those rules require the supplemental explanations and reconciliations that are in Comcast’s Form 8-K (Quarterly Earnings Release) furnished to the SEC.

About Comcast Corporation

Comcast Corporation (Nasdaq: CMCSA) is a global media and technology company. From the connectivity and platforms we provide, to the content and experiences we create, our businesses reach hundreds of millions of customers, viewers, and guests worldwide. We deliver world-class broadband, wireless, and video through Xfinity, Comcast Business, and Sky; produce, distribute, and stream leading entertainment, sports, and news through brands including NBC, Telemundo, Universal, Peacock, and Sky; and bring incredible theme parks and attractions to life through Universal Destinations & Experiences. Visit www.comcastcorporation.com for more information.