Comcast Profit Dips in Q2

PHILADELPHIA: Comcast Corporation reported an 8.6-percent drop in its second-quarter earnings, due in part to costs from its pending takeover of NBC Universal, though the company did post improvement in both sales and subscribers.

Comcast reported a net profit of $884 million for the second quarter, down 8.6 percent from the $967 million of the year-ago quarter. The company attributed the profit decline to the $22 million in operating expenses and the $37 million in financing costs it incurred from the NBC Universal deal, resulting in $59 million in total transaction costs for the quarter. Comcast is awaiting regulatory approval to proceed with its takeover of NBC Universal.

Sales at the cable company was up 6.1 percent to $9.52 billion, from the year-ago’s $8.98 billion. Cable segment revenue increased 5.1 percent to $8.9 billion, compared to $8.5 billion in Q2 2009.

Comcast’s video, high-speed Internet and Comcast Digital Voice customers totaled 47.8 million, an increase of 3.4 percent over the prior year. Comcast lost 265,000 video customers in the quarter, reducing the total to 23.2 million, but digital video customers were up 394,000 to 17.5 million. Comcast added 118,000 high-speed Internet customers and 230,000 voice customers, increasing the totals to 15.3 million for broadband and 7 million for voice.

Brian L. Roberts, the chairman and CEO of Comcast Corporation, said, “We delivered healthy operating and financial results in the second quarter, reflecting overall customer growth, double-digit increases in high-speed internet and voice revenue, an improving advertising market and continued momentum in Business Services. We are very focused on profitable growth. At the same time, we continue to make significant progress deploying All-Digital and DOCSIS 3.0 to enhance our superior products, strengthen our competitive position and build long term value for our shareholders.”