Comcast Q2 Profits Climb, Video Subs Fall

Comcast Corp. (Nasdaq: CMCSA, CMCSK) shed another 176,000 video customers in the second quarter, but the losses weren't as bad as Wall Street was expecting.

Analysts anticipated video losses of around 200,000 in the quarter that's typically marred by "seasonality" as college students and retirees turn off services and flee to their summer nests. Comcast, which hopes to reinvigorate its video product this year with the rollout of its IP-capable X1 platform, ended the quarter with 22.11 million video customers. (See Comcast's X1 Video Platform Lands First in Boston and Where Will Comcast's X1 Land Next? )

Comcast gained subscribers in all other service categories. It signed on 156,000 high-speed Internet customers -- which is more than the 144,000 it added in the same period last year -- to end the quarter with a total of 18.73 million customers. The company also added 158,000 voice subscribers, which is less than the 193,000 it gained in the year-ago quarter, giving it a total of 9.66 million voice customers.

On the financial end, Comcast notched net income of $1.35 billion, or 50 cents per share, on revenues of $15.21 billion, up 6.1 percent year-over-year. Analysts were expecting a profit of 48 cents per share on revenues of $15.2 billion.

Business services were again a bright spot, as Comcast raked in revenues of $582 million in the quarter, giving it $1.12 billion in revenues for the first half of the year, and putting it on pace to become the first cable operator to surpass $2 billion in annual revenues in the category. (See US Cable Firms to Bank $6B in Biz Services.)

Cable capex dropped 4.9 percent to $1.1 billion, or 11.4 percent of cable revenues, reflecting lower spending on modems, set-tops and other customer premises equipment (CPE).

— Jeff Baumgartner, Site Editor, Light Reading Cable