Leading US media firm Comcast has proclaimed “a great start” to 2022 with healthy overall growth in revenues and EBITDA and strong results in the UK with Sky and healthy increases in its Peacock direct-to-consumer service.
For the quarter ended 31 March 2022, Comcast posted total revenues of $31.01 billion, up 14% on an annual basis, driving net income of $3.9 billion, up 10.5% compared with the same period a year earlier.
Among the highlights of the quarter were cable communications total customer relationship net additions of 194,000 and total broadband customer net additions of 262,000 The company added that it had benefited from the highest level of customer retention on record for any quarter. However, cable video revenues slipped 1.5% year-on-year to $5.536 billion as broadband revue climbed 8% annually to $6.05 billion. Advertising revenue increased 8.6%, primarily driven by increases in political advertising and advertising at the Xumo streaming service.
NBCUniversal media revenue soared 36.3% to $6.9 billion in the first quarter of 2022, primarily reflecting higher advertising revenue and distribution revenue. Overall media revenue increased 6.9%5. Advertising revenue increased 59.2%, driven by the broadcasts of the 2022 Beijing Olympics, the NFL Super Bowl and additional Peacock sales. Distribution revenue increased 21.6%, reflecting the broadcast of the 2022 Beijing Olympics, increases at Peacock, as well as contractual rate increases, partially offset by a decline in subscribers at networks. In Q1, Peacock totalled 13 million customers, adding 4 million in Q1 22. The service also saw 28 million active accounts in total.
The first quarter results also showed that revenue for the Sky media business decreased 4.5% to $4.8 billion in the first quarter of 2022. Excluding the impact of currency, Comcast said revenue was consistent with the prior year period, reflecting lower content revenue, higher advertising revenue, and consistent direct-to-consumer revenue.
Content revenue decreased 14.3% to $295 million due to a change in sports programming licensing agreements in Italy and Germany. Advertising revenue increased 7.9% to $596 million, primarily reflecting higher advertising revenue in the UK due to an overall market improvement compared to the prior year period.
Among the highlights of the quarter were cable communications total customer relationship net additions of 194,000 and total broadband customer net additions of 262,000 The company added that it had benefited from the highest level of customer retention on record for any quarter. However, cable video revenues slipped 1.5% year-on-year to $5.536 billion as broadband revue climbed 8% annually to $6.05 billion. Advertising revenue increased 8.6%, primarily driven by increases in political advertising and advertising at the Xumo streaming service.
NBCUniversal media revenue soared 36.3% to $6.9 billion in the first quarter of 2022, primarily reflecting higher advertising revenue and distribution revenue. Overall media revenue increased 6.9%5. Advertising revenue increased 59.2%, driven by the broadcasts of the 2022 Beijing Olympics, the NFL Super Bowl and additional Peacock sales. Distribution revenue increased 21.6%, reflecting the broadcast of the 2022 Beijing Olympics, increases at Peacock, as well as contractual rate increases, partially offset by a decline in subscribers at networks. In Q1, Peacock totalled 13 million customers, adding 4 million in Q1 22. The service also saw 28 million active accounts in total.
The first quarter results also showed that revenue for the Sky media business decreased 4.5% to $4.8 billion in the first quarter of 2022. Excluding the impact of currency, Comcast said revenue was consistent with the prior year period, reflecting lower content revenue, higher advertising revenue, and consistent direct-to-consumer revenue.
Content revenue decreased 14.3% to $295 million due to a change in sports programming licensing agreements in Italy and Germany. Advertising revenue increased 7.9% to $596 million, primarily reflecting higher advertising revenue in the UK due to an overall market improvement compared to the prior year period.
