Comcast kept telco competition at bay in Q3

Comcast appeared to hold its own against ongoing telco competition during the third quarter with earnings as a report in FierceTelecom's sister publication FierceIPTV suggested growing revenue per household and an improved success rate selling multi-play service bundles. During the third quarter, the MSO reported that it lost 132,000 basic video subscribers, while adding 361,000 broadband Internet subscribers and 375,000 telephony subscribers, beating analyst expectations on both fronts.

Comcast reported that bundled video, Internet and voice triple play packages grew around 3.4 percent from the same quarter in 2008 to 46,821, while the digital video customer base grew 7.4 percent over the same period to 18,005. Meanwhile, Comcast's monthly revenue per video customer increased 5.6 percent to $116.91.

Of course, the other thing on everyone's mind during the earnings call was the ongoing rumors that Comcast is nearing a deal to purchase a controlling stake in NBC Universal. A number of reports suggest that Comcast could strike a deal with General Electric within the next week, and that any deal structure could involve Comcast taking a 51 percent stake in the programming giant, with General Electric holding the remaining 49 percent stake.

For more:
- see FierceIPTV's coverage here [1]
- ABC News also has this Reuters article [2]

Related articles
Comcast shows Q3 progress, deal rumors linger [1]
Rumor mill: Comcast could make bid on NBC Universal
[3]Comcast expands its California DOCSIS 3.0 presence
[4]Comcast beefs up its mid-sized business capabilities [5] [3]