Comcast signed up far fewer internet customers during the fourth quarter last year than in 2020, but continued to see theme parks and film studios rebound after they were pummeled by the pandemic.
The cable and media giant's fourth-quarter profits fell 9.6% to $3.06 billion, or 66 cents per share, from nearly $3.4 billion a year earlier. The company's revenues rose 9.5% to $30.3 billion.
The Philadelphia company added 212,000 broadband subscribers from October through December, down 60.6% from the 558,000 gained a year earlier. Comcast's broadband business had accelerated in 2020 as more people studied and worked remotely. But that growth slowed down during the second half of 2021.
Still, revenue at Comcast's cable division was up 4.5% during the quarter to $16.4 billion. The company added 312,000 wireless customers, the best quarterly result since it launched the Xfinity Mobile business in 2017. Comcast continued to shed pay TV customers, losing 373,000.
After COVID-19 upended NBCUniversal in 2020, the media and entertainment unit saw revenues rise 25.6% to $9.3 billion during the fourth quarter. Theme parks had their most profitable fourth quarter on record, as revenue jumped 191% to $1.9 billion, despite limited international guest attendance. The company appeared to benefit from customers returning to movie theaters, too, with revenue from film studios increasing 36.4% to $2.4 billion.
"We continue to execute extraordinarily well, strengthening our leadership position in connectivity, aggregation, and streaming," Comcast CEO Brian Roberts said in a statement. "Looking ahead, we remain focused on our many exciting organic growth opportunities across all of our businesses. Our top priority is increasing the capacity of our network in the U.S. and further improving our world-class broadband experience."
Comcast shares were down 1.77% to $47.60 in pre-market trading as of 8:03 a.m.
Wall Street closely watches broadband customer trends since cable companies increasingly rely on selling internet service instead of traditional TV. Comcast executives had signaled that broadband subscriber growth would likely slow down at the end of 2021. In December, Comcast Cable CEO Dave Watson said "the second half has been different than the first," citing slower growth from low-income customers and fewer people moving to new homes than earlier in the year.
Still, he noted the company's market penetration was just over 50%. "We're not going to stop growing broadband," he said during the UBS Global Investors Conference.
Peacock, NBC's streaming service, reached 24.5 million monthly active users. That's up from about 20 million in July, the last time Comcast disclosed Peacock user figures.
Over in Europe, Sky's fourth-quarter revenue was down 2.4% to $5.1 billion.
