Comcast (NASDAQ: CMCSA) reported Thursday that the cable company earned a 53 percent increase in second-quarter earnings, helped by higher cable bills and increased customer spending on video and Internet services.
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Comcast, the nation's biggest cable TV systems operator, earned $967 million, or 33 cents per share, in the quarter ended June 30, compared with $632 million, or 21 cents per share, in the year-ago quarter.
Revenue rose by 4.5 percent to $8.94 billion, up from $8.55 billion last year, helped by more customer sign-ups and higher prices.
The performance exceeded the expectations of analysts polled by Thomson Reuters, who were looking for earnings of 26 cents per share and revenue of $8.86 billion, on average.
Free cash flow edged up less than 1 percent to $1.17 billion. Local advertising revenue dropped nearly 20 percent to $325 million from $405 million.
Comcast said it added 334,179 lines of service, down from last year's nearly 960,000 and 837,000 last quarter. The company lost about 213,800 basic video customers, up sharply from the loss of 138,100 a year ago. Digital cable TV added nearly 250,000 subscribers, but that was still well below the nearly 320,000 added in the 2008 period.
High-speed Internet saw the biggest drop in new customers, with the company signing up just 65,000 new users compared with the 278,500 new subscribers recorded in the year-ago period. Digital voice added 233,350 subscribers, down 58 percent.
Customers spent more per month on average on video and Internet services, but not phone. The average monthly cable bill increased 7.4 percent to $117.74 after more users watched on-demand programs and fewer dropped premium channels such as HBO or Showtime.
The monthly revenue from Internet services was $42.06, up from $41.98 a year ago. But phone revenue per subscriber fell to $38.78 from $39.46.
Its shares rose 23 cents, or 1.5 percent, to $15.29 in morning trading.
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