Comcast's third-quarter results confirmed the cord-cutting trend in the US, as the nation's biggest cable operator lost 125,000 TV subscribers in the three months. That's more than triple the losses in Q2 and compares to a gain of 32,000 customers in the year-earlier quarter.
The total TV base numbered 22.390 million at the end of September, down by 38,000 from a year ago. Broadband customers continued to grow, up by 214,000 in the quarter and 1.2 million more than a year ago, at 25.519 million. Telephony customers were down by 94,000 in the quarter to 11.565 million.
Comcast also showed continued losses in triple- and quad-play customers, while more subscribers became just single-play. The 3P/4P subscribers fell by 79,000 compared to June to 9.919 million, while single-play customers increased by 125,000 to 8.055 million.
Despite the loss of customers for its core business, Comcast's cable revenues were still up 5.1 percent year-on-year to USD 13.2 billion in Q3. This was driven by price increases as well as extra revenue from pay-per-view and other extra video services. Business services revenue also increased 12.6 percent, as the cable company attracted more SMEs to its offer.
Adjusted EBITDA at the cable operations rose 5.2 percent to USD 5.246 billion, while capital expenditure was little changed year-on-year at USD 2.061 billion.
Comcast's total revenues for the quarter were down 1.6 percent to USD 20.983 billion due to lower results at NBCUniversal after the exceptional Q3 2016 results for the Olympics. Net profit was still up 18.5 percent to USD 2.650 billion.
