Comcast announced a 10 percent increase in its quarterly dividend, helping to offset plans to halt its share buyback after increased debt taken on for the Sky acquisition and signs of accelerating cord-cutting at its US cable business. Revenue for the quarter rose 26.1 percent to USD 27.85 billion thanks to the Sky takeover from October, and adjusted EBITDA was up 21.6 percent to USD 8.19 billion. Quarterly net profit dropped 83.3 percent year-on-year to USD 2.51 billion, due to tax gains in the year-earlier period and costs for the Sky deal.
On an adjusted basis excluding the one-time items, net profit was still up 31.8 percent to USD 2.93 billion. Capital expenditure increased 16.8 percent to USD 3.2 billion in the fourth quarter, with higher spending across the group's activities. Free cash flow rose a slower 8.6 percent to USD 2.06 billion, after the company also spent USD 1 billion on share buybacks in the quarter. Comcast said it will pay a quarterly dividend of USD 0.21 per share, up 10 percent on an annualised basis.
TV losses double in 2018
At the US cable business, Comcast lost another 29,000 TV subscribers in Q4, taking total losses for the year to 370,000, more than double the number of 2017. This was offset by broadband net additions of 351,000 in the quarter and 1.35 million over the year, slightly better than the same periods in 2017. Total customer relationships reached 30.349 million at the end of 2018, up by just over 1 million year-on-year and by 258,000 in Q4. That included over 9 million each for single- and dual-play customers, while triple or quad-play customers returned to growth in Q4, up by 20,000 to 9.88 million.
Sky revenues up 5.6%
On a pro forma basis, as if Sky was acquired at the start of 2017, Comcast recorded revenues up 5.2 percent in Q4 to USD 28.3 billion, and adjusted EBITDA rose 11.1 percent to USD 8.3 billion. Sky contributed revenues of USD 5.02 billion, up 5.6 percent from a year earlier at constant currency rates, due mainly to increased sales of its original programming and wholesaling of sports content. Its adjusted EBITDA rose 8.9 percent to USD 765 million, or a 12.4 percent increase at constant currency rates.
Sky ended the year with 23.6 million customer relationships, an increase of 164,000 in Q4 and 735,000 over the full year 2018. Comcast said average revenue per customer at Sky rose around 1 percent last year.
