The Comcast NBC logo is shown on a building in Los Angeles, California, June 13, 2018.
Mike Blake | Reuters
Comcast reports second-quarter earnings before the bell on Tuesday, and Wall Street will be paying close attention to subscriber growth — for both the broadband and streaming businesses.
Here is how Comcast is expected to perform, according to estimates from analysts surveyed by LSEG:
- Earnings per share: $1.12 expected
- Revenue: $30.02 billion expected
Broadband remains the driver of Comcast’s overall business. However, like its cable broadband peers, Comcast has seen subscriber additions slump in recent quarters.
The company has said macroeconomic factors, namely the slowdown in buying and selling of houses due to high interest rates, which has caused a decline in new home internet connections, are to blame. There’s also been heightened competition for home broadband from wireless providers such as T-Mobile and Verizon.
The early effects of the recent termination of the federal government’s Affordable Connectivity Program will likely also be top of mind. The program, which ended on June 1 due to lack of funding, allowed Americans to receive broadband at a discount. More than 23 million U.S. households were enrolled as of early February, when the program stopped accepting new enrollments.
Peacock, the streaming platform of Comcast’s NBCUniversal, will also be in focus.
Last quarter Peacock had a total of 34 million customers. The company touted the streamer as a bright spot and said the exclusive National Football League Wild Card game that aired on Peacock helped to add and retain more customers than expected.
Still, while customers and revenue rose for Peacock during the first quarter, the streamer continues to rack up quarterly losses.
Later this week, Peacock will become the streaming home to the Paris Summer Olympics. NBCUniversal will air the summer games on its broadcast and cable TV networks, and the entirety of the event will stream live on Peacock for the first time.
Last quarter company executives said it was on track to generate its highest advertising revenue in its history for the Olympics.