Comcast Profit Up 38 Percent

PHILADELPHIA,
October 29: Comcast Corporation delivered gains in its third quarter, with
revenues up 10 percent to $8.5 billion and net profit up 38 percent to $771
million, while earnings per share increased by 44 percent to $0.26.

“We
delivered solid results in the third quarter, demonstrating the underlying
strength of our subscription businesses and our ability to operate well in a
challenging economic and competitive environment,” said Brian Roberts, the chairman and CEO of
Comcast Corp. “Importantly, our financial position has never been stronger,
reflecting disciplined and prudent balance sheet management and strong free
cash flow growth. The success of our financial strategy enables us to grow the
business, compete effectively and invest in our products and services. We will
continue to apply this balanced approach to the business, as we remain focused
on improving the customer experience and extending our long-term competitive
advantage in order to build shareholder value.”

At
the cable segment, revenues were up 7 percent to $8.1 billion. Monthly average
total revenue per basic subscriber increased 9 percent to $110.71. As of
September 30, 2008, 22 percent of subscribers were three-product customers as
compared to 15 percent at the end of last year’s third quarter.

Comcast’s
basic video subscribers fell slightly to 24.4 million but digital cable
subscriptions gained 69 percent to 16.8 million. Of that digital cable base, 44
percent, or 7.3 million, have advanced services like DVRs and HDTV. The
platform also added 382,000 high-speed Internet customers in the period, for a
total of 14.7 million, reflecting a 30-percent penetration of homes passed. The
number of phone customers was up to 6.1 million, 13 percent of homes passed.

Video
revenue increased 4 percent to $4.7 billion, with Internet revenues up 9
percent to $1.8 billion and phone revenues up 44 percent to $690 million.
Advertising revenues, however, fell 10 percent to $374 million.

At
the Comcast Programming segment, meanwhile—consisting of E! Entertainment
Television, Style Network, Golf Channel, VERSUS and G4—revenues were up 5
percent to $347 million.

—By
Mansha Daswani