Comcast (CMCSA) earnings Q3 2025
comcast It beat Wall Street’s earnings and revenue estimates for the third quarter on Thursday, despite once again reporting losses in broadband customers.
The company said it lost 104,000 domestic broadband customers during the period, bringing its total subscriber base to approximately 31.4 million. This was the fourth consecutive quarter in which Comcast failed to grow its broadband customer base.
Earlier this year, the company outlined initiatives aimed at boosting broadband growth, a cornerstone of Comcast’s business as it faces stiff competition from alternative providers, namely 5G companies. The company, which will soon be led by joint CEOs Brian Roberts and Mike Cavanagh, will be even more reliant on connectivity in the new year following the planned Versant transaction to offload its wireline network assets.
In a call with investors on Thursday, Cavanagh reiterated that “the broadband landscape remains extremely competitive.”
Also on Thursday the company announced Steve Croney will succeed longtime leader Dave Watson as CEO of the connectivity and platforms division. Croney serves as the group’s chief operating officer during its new strategic push to grow its broadband base.
The company’s shares fell nearly 7% in premarket trading.
Still, Comcast’s overall business, which includes its Xfinity-branded broadband, cable TV and mobile group, as well as NBCUniversal, outperformed Wall Street’s forecasts.
Here’s how Comcast is doing carried out Compared to average analyst forecasts for the period, according to LSEG:
- Earnings per share: Adjusted $1.12, expected $1.10
- Revenues: 31.2 billion dollars, while the expectation was 30.70 billion dollars
Net income attributable to Comcast in the quarter ended Sept. 30 fell 8% to $3.33 billion, or 90 cents per share, compared to $3.63 billion, or 94 cents per share, a year ago.
Adjusting for one-time items such as interest expense and the value of certain assets, Comcast reported earnings per share of $1.12 for the quarter.
The company’s adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization fell about 1% to $9.7 billion.
Total revenue fell nearly 3% to $31.2 billion, compared to $32.1 billion in the same period last year.
The company’s revenue from its connectivity and platforms business (or broadband, mobile, pay TV and other services) was $20.18 billion, down about 1% from the same period last year.
Comcast said it once again added a record number of mobile customers (414,000 in the third quarter), bringing its total to 8.9 million lines. Cable companies like Comcast are relying on their mobile businesses to grow as broadband subscribers lag.
The exodus from the pay-TV bundle continued into the third quarter, with Comcast reporting that the segment lost 257,000 customers during the period. As of Sept. 30, Comcast’s domestic pay-TV customers were 11.5 million.
Comcast’s NBCUniversal is in the process of developing its portfolio of cable TV networks, including CNBC. This transaction is planned to be completed by the end of the year.
Revenue from the company’s media unit, which includes NBCUniversal, fell nearly 20% to $6.6 billion in the period.
Excluding the impact of the Summer Olympics held in the same period last year, revenue increased by 4% compared to last year.
The media division reported EBITDA of $832 million, up 28% year over year, driven in part by streaming service Peacock.
Peacock, which had 41 million subscribers as of Sept. 30, reported a loss of $217 million this quarter, a nearly flat figure over the past three quarters. This figure was an improvement compared to the $436 million loss in the same period last year.
In October, NBCUniversal’s media rights deal with the NBA began, bringing professional basketball back to the NBC broadcast network and introduced to Peacock. The addition of the NBA is expected to give Peacock a boost.
Meanwhile, the movie studio’s revenue increased by 6% to $3 billion, driven by the movie “Jurassic World Rebirth” released in July.
Theme park revenue rose nearly 19% to $2.72 billion; The EBITDA of this unit increased by 13% to $958 million due to the opening of Epic Universe in May.
Disclosure: Comcast is the parent company of NBCUniversal, which owns CNBC. Versant would become CNBC’s new parent company, based on Comcast’s planned Versant spinoff.
