Comcast Corp. said it grappled with a tricky second quarter in which its traditional TV operations fared relatively well, but its movie-studio and theme-park operations did not, even as it continued to see customers migrate away from some of its cable and broadband offerings.
The Philadelphia owner of NBCUniversal said net income fell 7.5% in the second quarter to approximately $3.93 billion, or $1 per share, compared with $4.25 billion, or $1.02 per share, in the year-earlier period. EBITDA fell about 1% to $10.17 billion.
Meanwhile, revenue in the second quarter was off 3% to $29.69 billion. Revenue from the company’s unit that includes NBCUniversal, theme parks and Universal Pictures fell 7.5% to $10.06 billion. Revenue from the company’s cable and broadband operations was off 1.4% to $17.82 billion.
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The results surface as Comcast, like its media rivals, is navigating tricky terrain. The customers who once subscribed to its cable services and watched linear broadcast and cable networks are migrating to new digital options that are more difficult to monetize. Starting Friday, the company faces one of its biggest regular challenges — getting U.S. viewers to watch the Olympics in outsize fashion.
The company said revenue at Universal Pictures fell 27% to $2.25 billion, largely the result of tough year-ago comparisons, when summer movies like “Super Mario Bros.” and “Fast X” were released. Revenue from theme parks dipped nearly 11% to $1.98 billion as attendance settled following a 2023 in which consumers proved more eager to travel.
Comcast also disclosed that it lost 110,000 residential broadband customers during the quarter, as well as 419,000 traditional cable-TV customers.
