Comcast’s cable business recorded revenue growth despite losing a total of 273,000 video subscribers in the third quarter.
The cable giant lost 253,000 residential video subscribers and another 20,000 business video customers. The losses were well ahead of the 238,000 total video subscribers lost in the same quarter of 2019 but meaningfully down from the 477,000 lost in the previous quarter.
Comcast ended the third quarter with 19.22 million residential and 874,000 business video subscribers, giving it approximately 20.09 million total.
Still, Comcast said its cable segment saw its best quarterly customer relationship growth on record thanks to high-speed internet customer net additions totaling 633,000.
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“Driven by our industry-leading platform and strategic focus on broadband, aggregation and streaming, we added a record 633,000 high-speed internet customers and 556,000 total net new customer relationships. At the same time, we’re growing our entertainment platforms with the addition of Flex, which has a significant positive impact on broadband churn and customer lifetime value,” said Comcast CEO Brian Roberts in a statement.
Cable segment revenues rose 2.9% to $15 billion as growth in broadband, wireless and business services helped offset slight declines in video revenues.
As Comcast’s legacy video business continues to shrink, its new streaming venture has grown rapidly. Peacock now has nearly 22 million sign-ups, up from the 15 million sign-ups the company reported in September. The increase likely has something to do with Comcast reaching a distribution deal with Roku for Peacock.
“Our integrated strategy is also driving results in streaming with nearly 22 million sign-ups for Peacock to date, and we are exceeding our expectations on all engagement metrics in only a few months,” Roberts said.
NBCUniversal continued to struggle during the third quarter due to the pandemic and massive declines in filmed entertainment and theme parks revenue lead total segment revenue to drop 18.9%. Broadcast television was the sole bright spot for NBCUniversal but that growth was lead by increases in content licensing revenue, which Comcast said included deals with Peacock.