Comcast misses quarterly revenue estimates on weak studio, theme park business

By Harshita Mary Varghese

(Reuters) - Comcast missed estimates for second-quarter revenue on Tuesday as the U.S. telecom and media firm had fewer movie releases during the period, while attendance at its theme parks stayed low, sending its shares down 5%.

The company had little to offer in the April-June quarter to match the success of last year's "The Super Mario Bros. Movie" and "Fast X" as it lined up most of its big-ticket movies such as the fourth installment in the hit animated franchise "Despicable Me" and the disaster movie "Twisters" for July release.

"The media segments at Comcast were a disappointment," MoffettNathanson analyst Craig Moffett said.

Revenue from its studio business fell 27% and was a drag on its total revenue, which fell 2.7% to $29.69 billion in the three months ended June. LSEG was estimating $30.02 billion.

Comcast's free cash flow was $1.34 billion in the quarter, well below the estimates of $3.09 billion, which the company attributed to a tax payment related to the previously announced Hulu transaction and other tax-related matters.

Its theme park business posted a 10.6% fall in revenue as a post-pandemic surge in visitors eased.

Comcast is leaning on Epic Universe - a collection of immersive worlds such as Super Nintendo World and How to Train Your Dragon-Isle of Berk - to bolster its parks business but the launch has been pushed back to 2025 from this year.

The company reported it lost 120,000 broadband customers, compared with estimates for a loss of 143,000, according to FactSet, suggesting that it was holding its own against intense competition from AT&T and T-Mobile.

However, Comcast said that the figure was likely to go up in the third quarter because of the end of a federal internet subsidy. The Affordable Connectivity Program subsidized internet access to 23 million U.S. households who could not otherwise afford connectivity.

Comcast's media rights deal to broadcast National Basketball Association games will include 100 NBA games each regular season across NBC network and Peacock, the company said on a post-earnings call.

The company said revenue from its Peacock streaming service reached $1 billion, though the service lost $348 million in the quarter.

The service also had 33 million subscribers, a 38% jump from a year earlier.

"However, at 33 million subscribers it is still well off the pace of the competition; Netflix added 39 million in the last year alone," Third Bridge analyst Jamie Lumley said.

Excluding items, Comcast reported a profit of $1.21 per share, beating expectations of $1.12, according to LSEG data.

(Reporting by Harshita Mary Varghese; Editing by Anil D'Silva)