Comcast has reported second-quarter revenue that disappointed analysts as it was weighed down by poor movie box office and its theme parks.

Revenue dipped 2.7 per cent to $29.7 billion (€27.3bn), missing the $30 billion average of analyst projections. Revenue from studios fell 27 per cent while sales at theme parks fell 11 per cent. After two years of record-grossing films with the likes of The Super Mario Bros Movie and Fast X, Universal Studios fell flat.

In the company’s largest business segment, cable and broadband services, EBITDA rose 1.6 per cent to $8.48 billion. That was ahead of forecasts, driven by cost efficiencies and 322,000 new wireless phone customers. Comcast lost 419,000 video subscribers as people continued to cancel cable for streaming. Its own streaming product, Peacock, reported 33 million subscribers, up 38 per cent from a year ago but missing analysts’ average forecast for 34.7 million. The network narrowed its loss to $348 million before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization.

The theme parks continued to rebound from the pandemic, but since then customers have been branching out to other forms of entertainment. The Epic Universe theme park, originally scheduled to open this year in Orlando, has been pushed back until 2025. Parks division revenue fell to $1.98 billion. The film and TV division reported $2.25 billion in sales, compared with estimates of $2.51 billion.

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Categories: Articles, Business, Results

Tags: Comcast, orlando, Peacock, Universal