REUTERS: Comcast Corp's second-quarter profit on Thursday beat Wall Street estimates as it added more high-speed internet customers, but it lost more video and phone customers than expected.
Comcast is adapting to changes in consumer behavior as more people drop their cable television subscriptions in favor of streaming services like Netflix Inc . It is pursuing higher-margin internet customers rather than unprofitable video subscribers. "There is a growing tension between the fortunes of the cable business and NBCU," said Craig Moffett, an analyst at MoffettNathanson."The Cable segment is now benefiting from faster video subscriber losses; remarkably, faster video subscriber losses are now a foundation of the bull case. But there is no way to spin faster video subscriber losses at Cable as anything other than bad news for NBCU.
Revenue at the NBCUniversal business, which includes NBC Entertainment and Universal Pictures, fell 0.8per cent to US$8.21 billion.The company is planning to launch an advertising-supported TV streaming service in April 2020, which will be free for NBCUniversal's pay-TV customers as well as Sky customers internationally.