Comcast passed the milestone of 30 million cable customers in the third quarter, after adding a net 288,000 new customers in the period. Strong growth in broadband helped offset continued losses in TV and fixed telephony subscribers, and rate increases and political advertising gave a further boost to revenue growth.
Comcast reported total revenues of USD 22.1 billion for the quarter, up 5.0 percent year-on-year. The cable business grew by 3.4 percent to USD 13.8 billion, and NBCUniversal increased revenues 8.1 percent to USD 8.6 billion. Adjusted EBITDA rose 2.5 percent to USD 7.3 billion, as 7.6 percent growth in cable offset a decline in the broadcast business. Net profit was up 9.3 percent to USD 2.9 billion.
The company lost another 106,000 TV subscribers in the quarter, slightly less than the year-earlier period or in Q2, for a total of just over 22 million at the end of September. Broadband remained the biggest business, with 26.87 million subscribers at the end of the period, up by 363,000 from Q2. Comcast also grew the smart home subscriber base by 42,000 in the quarter, to nearly 1.28 million, and Xfinity Mobile reported net line additions of 228,000 in the quarter, ending the period with 1.0 million total lines.
The customer base continued to shift to single-play subscriptions, which grew by 284,000 to over 8.9 million. Double-, triple- and quad-play subscribers all declined compared to Q2, but Comcast noted that 68 percent of residential customers still took at least two services.
Capital expenditure decreased 2.0 percent to USD 2.4 billion in the third quarter. In the same period, the company paid USD 871 million in dividends and spent USD 1.3 billion buying back shares. Comcast said it expects to repurchase another USD 1 billion in shares by the end of 2018, before pausing the buyback in 2019 to focus on debt reduction after the takeover of Sky.