By Michael Harrington
Comcast’s third-quarter profit spiked due to its broadcast of the Tokyo Olympics across NBCUniversal as well as an uptick in broadband customers hunkered down at home during the coronavirus pandemic, even as the company’s traditional cable business showed new signs of erosion.
The Philly-based Comcast cable empire said profit in the third quarter came to $4.04 billion, or 86 cents per share, compared with $2.02 billion, or 44 cents per share, in the year-earlier period. Revenue spiked 18.7% to $30.3 billion in the quarter, compared with $25.5 billion in the year-earlier quarter.
Revenue at the company’s overall cable operations increased 7.4% to $16.1 billion. Comcast said it added 300,000 new broadband subscribers and 18,000 business customers during the quarter, even as it lost 408,000 traditional video consumers and 158,000 voice customers.
