• by Wayne Friedman , October 26, 2012

NBCUniversal posted big revenue gains for its parent company Comcast Corp. in the third quarter from its big Summer Olympics advertising.

Total third-quarter advertising revenue from its broadcast properties was 84% above the same period a year ago to $2.8 billon, compared with $1.5 billion. But even without the Olympics, revenue climbed 5% to $1.6 billion.

Overall, revenues including cable TV businesses surged 31.2% to $6.8 billion. Just looking at cable networks alone, those revenues rose 3.2% to $2.2 billion.

For its filmed entertainment businesses, NBCUniversal added 24% to $1.4 billion in revenue, with most of this coming from strong box-office results of "Ted" and "The Bourne Legacy."

Company-wide, Comcast's revenues also climbed nicely -- 15.4% to $16.5 billion, with net income up more than double to nearly $3 billion from $1.17 billion a year ago. Operating cash flow was up a whopping 20% at NBCUniversal to $1.1 billion -- again from the big gains at the Olympics.

Comcast's traditional cable video subscriptions rose 3% to $5 billion, high-speed Internet revenues was up 8% to $2.4 billion; and phone revenues grew 1.5% to $895 million. Comcast witnessed a 24% growth in its local advertising sales to $607 million.

Brian Roberts, chairman and CEO of Comcast, stated: "The London Olympics exceeded all our expectations and our entire company contributed to their success, proving how effective we can be when we bring together our unique assets and capabilities."

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