• by Wayne Friedman , Staff Writer, December 13, 2024

Putting aside the logical issues of spinning off laggard cable TV networks, there are questions about where the next real business upswing will come from -- in addition to streaming -- when it comes to companies like Comcast Corp.

This week, during an industry event, Comcast CEO Dave Watson sent some alarm bells ringing for investors when he said the company expects to lose 100,000 broadband subscribers in the fourth quarter. This followed a loss of 87,000 broadband subscribers in the third quarter.

Watson called the current marketplace “competitively intense” -- as consumers seek lower price alternatives. All that pushed down Comcast stock 10%.

For most of the last decade, Comcast was relatively unfazed by continued consumer erosion when it came to video business. This is because Comcast's broadband continued to grow in subscribers and revenue.

The broadband subscriber loss of 100,000 is moving -- directionally -- almost in the same neighborhood to that of Comcast video subscribers losses. Comcast lost 365,000 video customers in the third quarter.

The difference here comes from a more positive trend with broadband revenues 2.7% higher in the third quarter at $6.5 billion.

What remains? For Comcast, that is NBC Television Network, its TV stations, the Peacock streaming platform, NBCUniversal movie and TV production operation -- Universal Studios -- as well as Universal theme parks and other businesses.

The belief for Comcast, and for legacy TV and movie businesses, is that they can still find a way to reinvent or re-structure itself in a new streaming digital world.

For movies, a positive comes from NBCUniversal effort put into driving strong theatrical business for “Wicked” this fall/winter season.
Earlier -- this past summer --NBC Television Network and Peacock aired more highly lucrative Olympic content -- the Paris Summer Olympics. Add in a more recent decision in NBC outbidding the likes Warner Bros. Discovery when it will come in a decade long deal to air premium advertising reaching NBA games.

So that’s the good news. The iffy part is how it can build up still lucrative broadband and other promising relative services -- such as its Xumo streaming platform, which has aspirations of being a competitor with Roku and Amazon Fire TV.

Though Comcast outperformed expectations synergizing NBCUniversal successfully as a “vertical” merger a decade ago, it now seeks a business encore -- in a more difficult media world.