The solid earnings announced on Wednesday were partly the result of higher cable bills for 72 percent of Comcast’s subscribers. The company reported $3.07 billion in operating income and $15.3 billion in revenue, increases of 11.2 percent and 2.9 percent from the same quarter last year.
Still, signs that Comcast may have reached saturation in its core cable and Internet subscription business were apparent. The company lost 60,000 cable subscribers, 62 percent more than it lost in the first quarter of 2012. New broadband subscriptions fell 1 percent to 433,000, and Comcast gained 211,000 phone service customers, a 28 percent increase from last year.
Taken collectively, the country’s largest cable provider still had a 3.2 percent gain in new customers in the quarter, or 583,000 total subscribers, mostly because of the popularity of Comcast’s bundled offer, which includes Internet, phone and cable service at a reduced price.
In February, Comcast said it would pay $16.7 billion to acquire General Electric’s remaining 49 percent stake in NBCUniversal. The deal signaled Comcast’s confidence in the entertainment company. But at least in the first quarter of 2013, that investment did not show signs of paying off.
Revenue at NBCUniversal fell 2.4 percent to $5.34 billion, mostly because of a tough comparison to the same quarter in 2012. That quarter, NBC broadcast the Super Bowl, the most-watched live sports event, and took in the advertising revenue that came along with it.
NBC had a particularly rough quarter without its popular singing competition, “The Voice,” or the Super Bowl to prop up its prime-time earnings. Overall revenue at the network fell 18.5 percent and advertising revenue fell 25 percent. In May, NBC will hold its annual upfront presentation in New York to pitch its prime-time lineup to advertisers for the fall television season.
Universal Studios theme parks were a bright spot for its parent company with a 12.2 percent increase in revenue, largely tied to popular new attractions like “The Wizarding World of Harry Potter.” The holiday season hit “Les Misérables” helped the Universal movie division, which had a 2 percent increase in revenue and 10.3 percent increase in operating cash flow.
Cable networks including USA, MSNBC and Bravo continued to stand out, with $2.2 billion in total revenue and $859 million in operating cash flow, increases of 4.6 percent and 6.2 percent.