Comcast is continuing the shed video subscribers at a high rate but managed to scale back its losses during the second quarter compared to last year.
The cable giant lost approximately 399,000 video subscribers (364,000 residential and 34,000 business) during the second quarter, compared to 477,000 net total losses in the second quarter of 2020. The company ended the quarter with 18.95 million video subscribers, down approximately 1.4 million from the same time last year.
Even after sustaining further video subscriber attrition, Comcast increased its total customer relationships by 294,000 thanks to growth in broadband and mobile. In spite of the subscriber losses, video revenues rose 2.6% during the quarter and helped drive a 10.9% increase in revenues and a 14.5% increase in adjusted EBITDA for the cable segment, which earned more than $7 billion during the quarter.
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NBCUniversal saw its quarterly revenues shoot up 39.2% thanks to increased advertising revenues boosting the media business and a return for theme parks. Comcast CEO Brian Roberts said Peacock, NBCU's ad-supported streaming service, now has 54 million sign-ups and more than 20 million monthly active accounts, which he said is up 50% over the previous quarterly report. The company shared that the service brought in $122 million in revenue on a loss of $363 million compared to $6 million in revenue on a loss of $117 million last year.
So far in 2021, Peacock has lost $640 million for Comcast while contributing $213 million in revenue.
“At NBCUniversal, Adjusted EBITDA increased an impressive 13%, fueled by the recovery at Theme Parks, particularly at Universal Orlando. And I am pleased with and encouraged by our customer and financial metrics in the U.K., which drove Sky’s double-digit total revenue growth in the quarter. We remain committed to innovating for our customers and investing for a strong future. I have great confidence in our strategy and our ability to execute, which is reflected in our decision to restart our share repurchase program during the quarter, earlier than previously planned,” said Roberts in a statement.
Comcast’s consolidated revenues rose 20.4% to approximately $28.5 billion and consolidated adjusted EBITDA rose 12.6% to approximately $8.9 billion.