Comcast reported double-digit growth in first-quarter results, driven by its takeover of European pay-TV provider Sky. Revenues were up 17.9 percent to USD 26.86 billion, and adjusted EBITDA increased 18.1 percent to USD 8.55 billion. Net earnings increased 16.7 percent to USD 0.77 per share, and free cash flow reached USD 4.6 billion, up from USD 3.1 billion a year earlier.
Comcast said it had a strong start to the year, helped by the best EBITDA result at its core cable business in the US in a decade. Including Sky, customer relationships grew by 3.6 percent year-over-year, including 400,000 net additions in the first quarter, to reach over 54 million relationships in total. On a prof forma basis, revenues were still down 3.3 percent, mainly due to lower NBCUniversal results after the Olympics and Super Bowl in Q1 2018 and negative currency effects on Sky revenues. Pro forma adjusted EBITDA increased 6.4 percent to USD 8.6 billion.
More mobile, broadband customers, less TV subscribers
At the US cable business, quarterly revenues rose 4.2 percent to USD 14.28 billion, driven by continued growth in business services and broadband customers, price increases, licensing of the X1 platform and expansion in security and automation services. Adjusted EBITDA rose 9.8 percent to USD 5.73 billion.
Comcast Cable added a net 300,000 customers in the quarter, slightly better than the year-earlier period, for a total of 30.71 million at the end of March. That included 375,000 net adds in broadband, similar to a year earlier, while TV losses increased to 121,000. Mobile customers rose by 170,000 in the three months to 1.405 million.At Sky, pro forma revenues fell 5.0 percent to USD 4.8 billion, but the figure was up 1.9 percent on a constant currency basis, due largely to sub-licensing sports rights, increased sales of original productions and expanded distribution of UK pay-TV channels. Adjusted EBITDA fell 17.0 percent to USD 663 million and was down 11.3 percent excluding forex effects. This was due to a 4.4 percent increase in operating costs driven by new contracts for Serie A and Champions League soccer rights in Italy and Germany.
Sky added a net 112,000 customers in Q1, better than the 38,000 a year ago, for a total of 23.712 million at the end of June. Comcast did not provide a further breakdown of customer numbers.
