Revenues at Comcast Corp. rose 23.6% in the second quarter, mostly because of the contribution of European pay-TV operator Sky that Comcast acquired for $40 billion in late 2018, the telecom and media company said on Thursday.
The legacy U.S. business continued its shift to internet connectivity from cable-TV but Comcast struggled with its cable television advertising.
The nation's largest cable-TV operator shed 224,000 television subscribers as the cord-cutting woes deepen, resulting in a slight decline in revenue for Xfinity TV. A large number of phone customers _ 65,000 _ also dropped off Comcast subscriber rolls.
AT&T reported on Wednesday that it lost 778,000 pay-TV subscribers, mostly DirecTV customers, in the second quarter.
But Comcast solidly grew both its residential high-speed internet business, with 209,000 additions and 9.4% revenue growth, and business services with 9.8% revenue growth. Those two business lines now comprise 46% of total revenues in Comcast's legacy cable division, based in Philadelphia.
Though business media has focused its attention on cord-cutting, Comcast's transition to internet-related businesses could boost Comcast's profits over time because it doesn't have to pay entertainment companies such as CBS Corp. and Fox Corp. per-subscriber fees to distribute their entertainment on cable channels, Wall Street analysts say.
Comcast's second-quarter net income fell to $3.1 billion but earnings per share rose 13% to 78 cents a share.
NBCUniversal's revenues were mostly flat. Sky revenues fell 3.3% because of currency fluctuations.
