Comcast comes out swinging in Q4 09

Thanks to strong gains in voice, data and digital video, Comcast beat Wall Street's expectations for Q4 09. These factors helped drive Comcast's Q4 revenue up to $955 million, an increase over $412 million in Q4 08.

During the fourth quarter, Comcast raked in 247,000 new broadband data customers, but only 243,000 phone customers. Kaufman Brothers' analyst Todd Mitchell forecast that the MSO would bring on only 194,000 new Internet subscribers and 296,000 phone subscribers.

At the same time, losses in its basic video subscriber base widened with more than 199,000 basic video subscribers turning off Comcast during the quarter.

"The results were pretty much in line with expectations," said Mitchell in a Reuters article. "They are good enough numbers that the stock should breath a sigh of relief."

Going forward, the two major initiatives Comcast will be chasing will be the completion of its DOCSIS 3.0 network rollout and its analog reclamation project otherwise known as Project Calvalry. As of the end of 2009, the MSO said it had rolled out DOCSIS 3.0 capabilities on 75 percent of its cable plant, a process it is confident will be finished early this year. Meanwhile, Comcast reports that Project Calvary is 35 percent complete and that it will have it "substantially complete" by the end of this year.

For more:
- Reuters has this article
- CableDigitalNews highlights wideband, digital rollout

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