Articles for Comcast

Comcast’s Broadband Business Worth More Than All Of Time Warner Cable

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Wednesday, January 25th, 2012 by Trefis Team

Comcast (NASDAQ:CMCSA) and Time Warner Cable (NYSE:TWC) are the two largest cable operators in the U.S., providing broadband, pay-TV and VoIP (voice-over-IP) services. Both companies have suffered pay-TV subscriber losses as competitors such as DirecTV (NASDAQ:DTV), AT&T (NYSE:T) and Verizon (NYSE:VZ) have been expanding their pay-TV subscriber base. To offset these losses, the cable companies have resorted to investment in their broadband networks to improve speeds and increase their high-margin broadband subscriber base. That has certainly paid off for Comcast – it’s interesting to note that Comcast is not only worth much more than Time Warner Cable (which is to be expected given its much higher subscriber count), but according to our estimates Comcast’s broadband internet business is now worth more than all of Time Warner Cable.

Our price estimate for Comcast stands at $26.60, implying a slight premium to the current market price. Read More »

Comcast CFO Wants to Improve Film Studio Profitability, Should Focus on Bigger Issues

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Friday, January 13th, 2012 by Trefis Team

Recently, Comcast’s (NASDAQ:CMCSA) CFO talked about the profitability of NBCUniversal’s film studio. He mentioned that although it will be difficult to attain the margins seen historically due to continued weakness in DVD sales, the company’s filmed entertainment division can certainly do better. When seen from overall company perspective, the move is definitely not a stock mover. In 2011 Comcast acquired 51% stake in NBCUniversal and intends to turn around its business as well as leverage it to increase quality of its overall pay-TV service. NBCUniversal competes with media conglomerates such as Time Warner (NYSE:TWX) and Disney (NYSE:DIS).

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Comcast-Disney Partnership Means Higher Costs But Better Future

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Wednesday, January 11th, 2012 by Trefis Team

Comcast (NASDAQ:CMCSA) and Disney (NYSE:DIS) have entered into 10-year agreement that will allow Comcast’s subscribers to stream live programming from Disney’s channels such as ABC, ESPN etc. to a variety of devices including PCs, tablets and smartphones. The subscribers will be able to watch the programming from anywhere outside the home unlike the app that Time Warner Cable (NYSE:TWC) offers allowing its subscribers to watch streamed programming only via their home internet.

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Comcast Updates: NBC Rolls Out Sports Network Targeting Juicy Programming Fees

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Thursday, January 5th, 2012 by Trefis Team

When Comcast (NASDAQ:CMCSA) completed the acquisition of GE’s (NYSE:GE) NBCUniversal last year, it had a certain strategy in mind. That strategy was to leverage the content to create a better overall service for customers and to enjoy the profits from the lucrative content business, which is in high demand given the growing competition among service providers. In line with this, Comcast is going to re-launch its Versus Network as NBC Sports Network. It looks like Comcast wants a share of sports programming market which has made Disney’s (NYSE:DIS) ESPN a huge and profitable business.

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Comcast Updates: Verizon Deal Brings Quadruple Play & Mobile TV

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Wednesday, December 21st, 2011 by Trefis Team

Comcast’s (NASDAQ:CMCSA) has become a part of $3.6 billion deal with Verizon (NYSE:VZ) along with Time Warner Cable (NYSE:TWC) and Bright House Networks. According to the deal, Verizon will get the spectrum while Comcast will be able to bundle Verizon’s wireless service along with its current offerings. A quadruple play might help the company in turning around the subscriber losses.

Comcast has also increased its advertising spend in first 9 months of 2011. The figure stood around $1.3 billion, a significant increment over the last year. The company is essentially trying to become one stop shop for customers be it video, phone, Internet, streaming or wireless. This also opens the option of watching live TV from your mobile phone. In many ways, this deal looks like a merger of services, since Comcast will be able to offer all of Verizon’s services, without merging the corporate structures.

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Comcast Embraces the iPad & Streaming Trend

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Thursday, December 8th, 2011 by Trefis Team

Comcast (NASDQ:CMCSA) has announced that it will allow subscribers to stream live TV shows on the iPad as long as they are connected to their home Internet. This is not new and something that traditional pay-TV providers have been trying to embrace. Some other updates to the service include having a sling-box DVR used by Dish Network (NASDAQ:DISH) and Time Warner Cable’s (NYSE:TWC) iPad app. This will include several other updates as well, and we believe in general this will make the service more compelling.

See our full analysis for Comcast

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Comcast Earnings Show that NBC Broadcast is Hurting for Growth

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Tuesday, November 8th, 2011 by Trefis Team

While subscriber additions across broadband, pay-TV and digital phone services were the primary focus of Comcast’s (NASDAQ:CMCSA) recently reported Q3 2011 earnings, its NBCUniversal division performed well and deserves a second look. While growth in its cable networks looked solid, the NBCUniversal’s broadcasting division posted flat growth in its ad revenues and was noticeable weak. It appear that NBCUnversal’s broadcasting is lagging behind other big broadcasting networks like CBS (NYSE:CBS), Disney’s (NYSE:DIS) ABC and News Corp’s (NASDAQ:NWS) Fox broadcasting.

The strength in earnings was driven primarily by an increase in revenues from cable networks, which form majority of the profits for NBCUniversal. The growth in cable networks came equally from an increase in subscription revenues and advertising revenues, both growing by roughly 10%. This makes one thing clear – the advertising market is still doing well despite the economic headwinds as we previously predicted. See our earnings preview note titled Comcast Earnings Preview: What We’re Watching Wednesday.

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Comcast Results Outshine TWC as Subscriber Losses Improve

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Thursday, November 3rd, 2011 by Trefis Team

Comcast (NASDAQ:CMCSA) reported its Q3 2011 earnings recently, beating analysts estimates and adding net 229,000 subscribers across all business. While the company continues to get success in broadband, it is still losing subscribers in pay-TV business. However these subscriber losses improved vs. last year and are likely to continue improving going forward.

One interesting thing to note is that if we view subscriber losses relative to the size of the subscriber base, Comcast performed better than its cable rival Time Warner Cable (NYSE:TWC). Comcast’s loss of 165,000 video subscribers outshines Time Warner Cable’s loss of 126,000 subscribers in Q3 2011 since Comcast’s base is almost twice as large as Time Warner Cable’s. Comcast is also having a greater degree of success at stemming subscriber losses than telcos such as AT&T (NYSE:T) and Verizon (NYSE:VZ), and with its several efforts revolving around improving customer service by experimenting with programming bundling plans to introduce IPTV service for PCs and Macs and investing in Xfinity service, it may be able to turn around this business in next couple of years.

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Comcast Earnings Preview: What We’re Watching Wednesday

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Monday, October 31st, 2011 by Trefis Team

Comcast (NASDAQ:CMCSA) is expected to report its Q3 2011 Wednesday. Comcast’s business is hinged on its pay-TV subscriptions, broadband subscriptions and to some degree the broadcasting and cable networks, now after forming a joint venture with NBCUniversal. While Comcast continues to suffer with problems that plague cable industry such as drop in pay-TV subscriptions, it does have a strategic advantage offered by NBCUniversal that will help it in longer term against competitors like Time Warner Cable (NYSE:TWC), DirecTV (NASDAQ:DTV) and Dish Network (NASDAQ:DISH). We believe that investors should follow the pay-TV subscription trend along with potential uptick in NBCUniversal’s revenues. This will provide hints around how the company is likely to perform in coming quarters.

Our price estimate for Comcast stands at $27, implying a premium of close to 10% to the market price.

See our full analysis for Comcast
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Comcast Climbs Toward $27 with New Program Bundling & Streaming Options

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Monday, October 17th, 2011 by Trefis Team

While Comcast’s (NASDAQ:CMCSA) stock showed mild gains the last two week, the company remained quite busy in improving its position in the increasingly competitive market. The company launched its Internet Essentials offering that provides affordable Internet access to low-income groups in Western Wayne County. Comcast is also trying out new programming bundling to give customers more flexibility when it comes to their pay-TV subscriptions. The idea is to allow customers to retain some form of programming subscription and as a result, stop subscriber losses. Furthermore, Comcast announced that it will bring on-demand programming to Microsoft’s (NASDAQ:MSFT) Xbox 360 and also expressed its interest to the FCC regarding its IPTV service to deliver programming to PCs and Macs.

In essence, the company is proactively trying several approaches to solidify its eroding pay-TV business, something that its competitor Time Warner Cable (NYSE:TWC) hasn’t really done.

Over time, Comcast should be able to stabilize its pay-TV subscription base if it can pull it off with its initiatives. The primary risk still hovers around how long the telcos can continue their pay-TV expansion spree.

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