What kind of business tightrope are media companies walking in 2026? Comcast generated an extra $2.2 billion due to NBC’s February telecasts of the Winter Olympics from Milan Cortina and the Super Bowl. And yet, the cable-and-content giant said profit fell 35.6% as it invested in upgrades to its crucial cable and broadband business and grappled with increased expenditures for sports rights and production.
The Philadelphia owner of NBCUniversal said net income fell nearly 36% to $2.17 billion, or 60 cents per share, compared to $3.38 billion, or 89 cents a share, in the year-earlier period. Adjusting for one-time items, Comcast said earnings per share came to 79 cents.
Revenue hiked about 5% to $31.46 billion for the quarter.
Comcast said capital expenditures increased 4.4% to $2.4 billion, including $1.8 billion for investments in its cable operations.
Comcast was able to make improvements in its large cable operation, narrowing losses of broadband consumers. The company said broadband losses totaled 65,000, compared with 183,000 losses in the same period last year. Comcast has made broadband competition a bigger priority in recent months. Comcast also added 435,000 new mobile lines during the quarter, increasing its mobile customer base to 9.7 million mobile customers. Comcast said cable TV customers losses narrowed to 322.000, compared with 427,000 in the year-earlier period.
Overall, revenue from cable and other connectivity services fell 2% to $17.32 billion.
Comcast’s media operations, which comprise NBCU, saw revenue soar almost 61% to $7.28 billion, due in large part to February telecasts of the Super Bowl, the Olympics, and an NBA All-Star Game. Without the Olympics and Super Bow revenue for rose about 13%. Domestic advertising for the media hiked 135%, to $3.45 billion. Excluding the Super Bowl and Winter Olympics, it rose 4.7% to $1.54 billion.
Revenue for the company’s film studio rose 21% to $3.43 billion, while Universal theme parks revenue increased 24% to $2.33 billion.
The company said subscribers to Peacock increased 12%, to 46 million. Peacock nearly doubled revenue to $2.1 billion, and narrowed its quarterly loss to $432, million compared to a loss of $215 million in the year earlier period.
