NBCUniversal Revenues Down in Q4

Comcast Corporation’s fourth-quarter revenues slipped by 2.4 percent to $27.7 billion, while NBCUniversal’s were down 18.1 percent to $7.5 billion.

At NBCUniversal’s cable networks, revenues slipped by 6.4 percent to $2.7 billion, with content licensing and other revenues down 37.9 percent, ad revenues down 4.2 percent and flat distribution revenues. Broadcast television revenues fell by 12 percent to $2.8 billion, with content licensing revenues falling by 38.6 percent and ad revenues down 9.6 percent, while distribution and other revenues rose by 10 percent. Filmed entertainment fell by 8.3 percent to $1.4 billion, with a 22.7 percent increase in content licensing revenues helping to offset the massive 70 percent plunge in theatrical and 49.6 percent drop in the movie ticketing, entertainment and live stage play businesses business. Theme parks, meanwhile, were down 62.9 percent $579 million, with Universal Orlando Resort and Universal Studios Japan operating at limited capacity and Universal Studios Hollywood still shuttered.

At Sky, total revenues were up 3.3 percent to $5.2 billion and down 1 percent on a constant-currency basis, with direct-to-consumer falling 2.8 percent to $4.1 billion but content revenues rising 10.4 percent to $426 million and ad revenues increasing by 3.9 percent to $702 million. Total customer relationships increased by 244,000 to 23.9 million in the quarter.

Comcast Cable reported a 6.3 percent gain in revenues to $15.7 billion, driven by increases in high-speed internet, advertising, wireless and business services revenue, partially offset by decreases in voice, video and other revenue. Total customer relationships increased by 455,000 to 33.1 million in the quarter.

Comcast Corporation delivered a quarterly profit of $3.4 billion, a 6.9 percent gain.

“Outstanding performance at cable drove very strong fourth-quarter results for our company,” said Brian L. Roberts, chairman and CEO. “We added 538,000 net new broadband customers and delivered adjusted EBITDA growth of over 12 percent. Our theme parks in Orlando and Osaka reached breakeven; and encouragingly, Sky returned to customer growth in all three of its markets, bringing our total customer relationships and overall revenue in Europe essentially back to 2019 levels. With the vaccines rolling out throughout the world, we are optimistic that the parts of our business that had been most impacted will soon be back on a path towards growth.”