Comcast

The announcement of Comcast’s new virtual MVPD service, Now TV, comes at a pivotal moment for the media giant. The pay TV giant’s Xfinity cable service can’t stop shedding subscribers. It lost 2.1 million subs versus Q1 2021, 3.8 million versus Q1 2020, and it’s down 5.7 million subscribers when compared with the number held in 2018. In comparison, broadband subscribers grew by 5.6 million over the last five years, even if growth has plateaued in the last year as Comcast reaches the limits of its geographic footprint.

Comcast Corp. CEO Brian Roberts has a penchant for lining up a huge deal around every five years or so. It was 2018 the last time he made a big acquisition, and Wall Street is ready for his next dramatic move. Gaming and streaming could be in the cards.

Hulu’s parents, Walt Disney Co. and Comcast, are negotiating to end their troubled marriage. Comcast can require Disney, which owns two-thirds of Hulu, to buy its one-third stake, or Disney can require Comcast to sell under a deal starting in 2024. Hulu has a minimum valuation of $27.5 billion under the agreement.

Comcast is rolling out Now TV, a streaming offering aimed at what it calls “the value-conscious consumer who wants an entertainment product.” For $20 a month, the service includes more than 40 live channels, among them A&E, AMC, Hallmark and selections from Warner Bros. Discovery’s portfolio, along with 20-plus free, ad-supported TV (FAST) channels from NBC, Sky and Xumo Play. A subscription to Peacock Premium is also included at no extra charge. Now TV is available to customers paying for internet service from Comcast’s Xfinity brand.

It seems more and more likely that Disney is going to fully own Hulu. It just comes down to price. Speaking Tuesday at MoffettNathanson’s Technology, Media and Telecom Conference in New York, Comcast CEO Brian Roberts addressed Comcast selling its 33% stake in the streamer. “I think it’s more likely than not,” Roberts said.

Comcast subscribers aren’t able to view NFL Network after the cable company pulled the channel when its carriage agreement expired.

The move comes two days after the conclusion of the NFL draft.

Comcast says churn and disconnects haven’t increased, it’s more a matter of fewer broadband “connects” leading customers back into the pay TV ecosystem.

With Comcast President Mike Cavanagh now directly overseeing NBCU, Bank of America analyst Jessica Reif Ehrlich asked during a Q&A whether his dual role should be viewed as a permanent solution. “The short answer to the question is me stepping in to oversee NBC is quite sustainable,” he said.

Comcast reported a 4% year-over-year dip in revenue in the first quarter, to $29.7 billion, but still exceeded Wall Street forecasts. Analysts had expected $29.3 billion in revenue. Earnings per share, meanwhile, handily beat expectations at 92 cents. NBCU said streaming service Peacock is now at 22 million subscribers, up more than 60% from the same period in 2022. Revenue at Peacock increased 45% to $685 million, though losses continue to hit the balance sheet.

Comcast has natively integrated 21 FAST (free, ad-supported TV) channels into its Xfinity Stream app. Stream users now have free access to NBC News Now, Sky News and 19 Xumo-branded channels spanning comedy, crime TV, black cinema, lifestyle, reality TV, game shows, kids and more. These channels are now integrated natively into the Stream UX and are available to all Comcast subscribers, regardless of whether they pay for Xfinity TV.

Comcast is not interested in running the regional sports networks Warner Bros. Discovery is planning to shut down, according to a published report. Major League Baseball, the National Basketball Association and the National Hockey League all have teams whose games are carried by WBD’s AT&T Sports Nets in Pittsburgh, Houston and Denver. Rather than seeing those networks shut down — and stop paying right fees — the league reached out to Comcast, which has TV stations in those markets and operates its own constellation of five regional sports networks, according to Sports Business Journal. Comcast a year ago sold its majority stake in another RSN, NBC Sports Washington, to Monumental Sports & Entertainment. Comcast declined the new overture, according to SBJ.

Comcast is ending Peacock’s free ride on Xfinity in the next few months. Since the streaming service launched in 2020, the cable giant has provided access to the ad-supported version of Peacock Premium (regularly $4.99/month) to Xfinity TV and broadband customers for no extra charge. However, as of June 26, Peacock Premium will no longer be bundled in for free for Xfinity customers.

Disney CEO Bob Iger said today that he’s open to selling Hulu — instead of forking over billions of dollars to buy out Comcast’s stake in the streaming platform. Asked on CNBC about his plans for Hulu as a 2024 deadline to buy it or sell it approaches, he said: “Everything is on the table right now, so I am not going to speculate whether we are a buyer or a seller of it. But I obviously have suggested that I’m concerned about undifferentiated general entertainment, particularly in the competitive landscape that we are operating in, and we are going to look at it very objectively and expansively.”

Florida awarded more than $144 million for broadband projects across 41 counties there, with Comcast scoring nearly a third of the money doled out from the state’s Broadband Opportunity Program. However, Charter Communications and Cox Communications also emerged as big winners. Comcast came away with a total of $45.2 million for 23 different projects, making it the largest grant winner by a wide margin.

The $15.7 million sale follows a big runnup in BuzzFeed’s shares following the announcement it will use AI to produce content

He tells analysts, “The ad market feels to me like it has stabilized a bit. We’re assuming it’s going to stay weak for the first half of this year and then recover, but who really knows, based on the macro economy.”

Comcast Corporation topped Wall Street earnings expectations for the fourth quarter of 2022 on Thursday, posting adjusted earnings per share of 82 cents, on revenue of $30.55 billion. Analysts surveyed by Refinitiv expected the NBCUniversal parent’s adjusted EPS figure to come in at 77 cents per share, while revenue was expected to be $30.32 billion.

The scandal has already cost the troubled regional sports network its president and CFO.

Comcast has upped its deputy chief financial officer Jason Armstrong to the CFO post, succeeding Mike Cavanagh, who was named president of the NBCUniversal parent last October. Armstrong has served in several financial leadership positions over the past nine years.

Comcast and Standard General have struck an agreement confirming Standard General’s pledge to the FCC that it would agree not to raise the retransmission consent rates of Tegna stations charged to MVPDs to that of its Cox Media Group TV stations — if applicable — after the closing of its deal to buy those Tegna stations. That is according to Standard General, which said the agreement on not raising the rates was reached this week with Comcast, which is the largest cable group carrying Tegna stations.

Most customers will see their bills go up by $3, including those on promotional contracts.

Comcast Corp. and Nexstar Media Group reached an agreement over the weekend that prevented millions of Xfinity pay TV customers from losing dozens of Nexstar-owned local stations. The agreement comes after Comcast was forced to pull at least one Nexstar-controlled station — WPIX (ch. 11, CW) in New York City — and warned that it might have to drop more if a new contract could not be reached by mid-December.

Things keep getting messier between Comcast and Nexstar, with the cable operator filing a complaint at the FCC late Monday alleging that Nexstar and Mission have failed to negotiate retransmission consent in good faith. It comes as the cable operator faces the possibility of losing more than 90 Nexstar stations this weekend.

Comcast says it hooked up a real Philadelphia business to symmetrical multi-gigabit internet using Full Duplex DOCSIS 4.0 Tech. It says wide-scale ’10G’ deployment will start in 2023. (Photo: SCTE-ISBE/CableLabs)

Comcast’s TV service will see big increases in fine-print fees that it doesn’t advertise, while the large-print rates for its broadband will inch up by a smaller amount.

Comcast has started notifying customers and municipalities that it plans to raise video and Internet prices next month, including a whopping $7.35 a month increase for the Broadcast TV fee in one town.

Comcast announced that subscribers to its Xfinity X1, Flex and Stream services get a week of free viewing — from Nov. 22 through Nov. 28 — of “thousands of shows and movies” from such services as HBO Max, Amazon’s Prime Video, Showtime, AMC+ and more. Note that “thousands of” doesn’t mean “all of,” as the no-charge menu Xfinity is offering often only includes select series or particular seasons.

The recent news that Comcast and Charter are branding their joint venture into connected TVs, devices and free streaming Xumo — with the existing FAST and AVOD service now known as Xumo Play — shows the two pay TV giants are getting serious about safeguarding future revenue streams.

Maybe … if you believe there is a sizable number of viewers who subscribe to Peacock Premium Plus.

The National Advertising Division (NAD) of BBB National Programs, the ad self-regulatory review body, has advised Comcast to modify or drop comparative wireless savings claims it makes in an ad for its Xfinity Mobile service. Comcast says it will comply with that and other NAD recommendations, which are to drop or modify its “Unlimited data for $30/line” claim in the ad and modify the ad to make sure consumers don’t think Infinity is less expensive than T-Mobile “regardless of how many mobile lines are purchased” or, specifically, that it is cheaper when four mobile lines are purchased. T-Mobile had challenged the ad claims.

Comcast and Charter Communications have settled on Xumo as the name of their streaming platform joint venture, as the two biggest U.S. cable operators look to take on the likes of Roku, Amazon, Apple and Google in the space.

Comcast President Mike Cavanagh: “Looking to the fourth quarter, we expect media growth, ex-Peacock, to be impacted by a gradual acceleration in pay TV cord-cutting, as well as some deterioration in the ad market, reflecting broader economic uncertainty, as well as higher costs associated with broadcast of the World Cup on Telemundo.”

Comcast narrowly beat Wall Street estimates in the third quarter despite volatility in the U.K. and Europe, tough comparisons with the year-ago Tokyo Olympics quarter and ongoing cord-cutting. Earnings per share came in at 96 cents, 6 cents better than analysts’ consensus estimate. Total revenue also cleared the bar at $29.8 billion, though it was down 1.5% from the year-ago period. At NBCUniversal, adjusted EBITDA rose almost 25% to $1.7 billion despite losses at streaming service Peacock. Revenue slid 4% to $9.6 billion.

Comcast’s Spectacor division is pulling the plug on video game-centric network G4 TV, whose early incarnation in the 2000s remains a cultural touchstone for many millennials, just a year after its relaunch. In a memo set to be sent out to all employees, Spectacor CEO Dave Scott explained that the company’s investment and efforts to revive the network just didn’t gain traction.

NBCUniversal parent Comcast has promoted CFO Mike Cavanagh to president, working closely with chairman-CEO Brian Roberts to manage the business and teams across the sprawling company. He’ll be only the third executive to hold that title in the company’s 59-year history, Comcast noted, and will also remain chief financial officer.

Wayne Friedman: “Could there be another even bigger media merger than the recently completed WarnerMedia and Discovery? How about this wrinkle: Another media company now eyeing the new Warner Bros. Discovery? Some analysts are mulling whether Comcast Corp. might just consider buying that company.”