• by Wayne Friedman , July 31, 2013

Comcast's NBCUniversal posted big double-digit percentage gains in advertising revenues in the second quarter.

Advertising sales were 13% higher in the period due to higher TV show ratings from “The Voice.” Overall revenue was up 11.6% to $1.7 billion, due to advertising revenue and retrans fees. Some of this was offset by lower content licensing revenues of TV shows.

NBC&'s broadcast TV business outperformed its cable networks, which grew by 7.7% to $2.4 billion in revenues. Film entertainment, from its Universal Pictures unit, grew 12.8% to $1.4 billion as a result of higher theatrical revenue for “Fast and Furious 6,” as well as higher content licensing revenue.

Theme parks inched up 1.1% to $546 million.

Overall, NBC increased revenue by 8.9% to $6.0 billion.

Company-wide, Comcast Corp. revenues gained 7% to $16.3 billion, with net income up 28.6% to $1.7 billion.

Comcast's core cable communications business grew 5.8% to $10.5 billion with video up 2.7% to $5.2 billion. Internet business was up 8% to 2.6 billion and its voice business added 2.4% to $910 million. Local advertising revenues were at $560 million, inching up 1.2%.

Continuing its trend, Comcast dropped to 21.8 million video subscribers from 22.1 million -- a net loss of 159,000 customers. High-speed Internet customers grew to 19.9 million -- a net addition of 187,000 -- and voice customers were also up to 10.3 million, for a net gain of 161,000.