• by Wayne Friedman , October 24, 2019

Comcast's third quarter witnessed continued erosion among its video subscribers -- and a dip in overall revenue. But broadband business continues to thrive.

Net video subscriber losses doubled versus the third quarter of 2018 to 222,000, from 95,000.

At the same time, video revenues -- its leading cable/communications revenue business -- sank 0.9% to $5.54 billion. Through nine months of the year so far, video revenue is down 0.7% to $16.8 billion.

But overall, Comcast revenues continued to climb, thanks to increased revenue and subscribers for its high-speed internet -- up 9% in revenue to $4.7 billion, with growth of 359,000 broadband customers up from 334,000 a year ago.

Total residential broadband customers now are at 26 million, with total residential video customers at 20.4 million.

For NBCUniversal, revenue sank across its big three businesses -- cable networks, broadcast networks, and filmed entertainment.

Cable Networks revenue dropped 2.8% to $2.8 billion from lower content licensing and other revenue. This was offset by higher distribution revenue.

Broadcast revenue declined 9.1% to $2.2 billion due to a decrease in advertising (down 12.1%) and content licensing revenue (a 17% drop).

A major reason for the decline was the comparison to a year ago, when NBC showed a big advertising revenue gain in the third quarter from Telemundo's “2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia”.

Broadcast distribution fees -- including retransmission fees -- grew 5.8%.

NBCU filmed entertainment revenue sank 6.2% to $1.7 billion due to lower home entertainment (declining 28.5%) and theatrical revenue (down 8.8%). The unit was up against big comparisons a year ago with “Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom” for both home entertainment and theatrical.

Overall NBCU revenues were down 3.5% to $8.3 billion.

Sky, the European TV broadcaster, witnessed a 4.2% drop to $4.6 billion in revenue because of currency issues. Excluding that fact, revenues were up 1%. With the addition of Sky into Comcast's total business, revenue climbed 21% to $26.8 billion in the third quarter, while net income grew 11.5% to $3.2 billion.

Overall, Comcast best analysts' projections for the period  -- in terms of revenue, income and high-speed internet customers.

Thursday morning stock market trading for the company was virtually flat, up 0.3% to $45.87.