While video subscriber losses continue to mount, Comcast is counting on its broadband services to drive the company forward.
In Comcast's second quarter earnings that were released Thursday morning, the cable operator announced it added 209,000 broadband subscribers in the quarter, which beat analysts' projections of 208,000 net adds. Broadband residential revenue increased 9.4% while business services revenue, which rely on Comcast's connectivity, increased 9.8%.
"Our connectivity businesses, again, generated nearly 10% growth in revenue and, collectively, are on track to deliver the 14th consecutive year of well over 1 million broadband net additions," said Comcast Chairman and CEO Brian Roberts, according to a Seeking Alpha transcript.
On the flip side, Comcast lost 224,000 video subscribers in the second quarter, while video revenue was down 0.6% to $5.59 billion. Comcast lost 140,000 video subscribers in the same quarter a year ago. Comcast’s video subscriber base now stands at 21.6 million.
Comcast's cable division accounted for $14.45 billion—up 3.9%—of Comcast's total revenue. Cable's adjusted EBITDA increased 7.4% and adjusted EBITDA per customer relationship Increased 3.8%.
Comcast posted revenue of $26.9 billion the quarter, which was below analysts' projection of $27.06 billion, according to Refinitiv. Comcast's earnings per share was 78 cents, which exceed the estimate of 75 cents. Comcast's net income was down to $3.13 billion compared to $3.21 billion in the year-ago quarter.
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“I am very pleased with our terrific second quarter results and the continued, successful execution of our strategy," said Roberts, in a statement. "Each of our businesses demonstrated healthy growth in adjusted EBITDA, contributing to a double-digit increase in adjusted earnings per share. Our company’s consistent, profitable growth is fueled by our leading scale in direct customer relationships and premier content.
"We now have nearly 55 million high-value direct customer relationships, including the 456,000 net additions in the second quarter, and a vast library of intellectual property and new productions that are extremely popular across generations and geographies. Our teams throughout the company continue to collaborate to make themselves and each other even stronger, and I’m excited about our growth opportunities ahead."