The number of Comcast customers paying for cable television in the United States fell for the first time to less than half of the company’s residential subscribers in the first quarter.
Comcast saw its total number of video customers in the United States drop to 15.53 million in the first quarter, or 49% of its total of 31,826 residential customers.
The current numbers represent a 20% drop from the 19.36 million cable subscribers in the first three months of 2022 and reflect a much broader trend of cable TV dumping among American households. February report from Samba TV found only 48% of American adults had a monthly cable or satellite subscription, while a slim majority subscribed to streaming services.
Indeed, Comcast, owner of NBCUniversal, also reported that its Peacock streaming service brought in 2 million net new subscribers during the quarter.
Due to declining cable subscribers, Comcast saw its video revenue drop 8% year-over-year to $7.38 billion in the first quarter, from $8 billion l last year.
In other words, first-quarter cable TV revenue didn’t quite make up 25% of Comcast’s total revenue of $29.69 billion.
At the same time, broadband and wireless customers in the United States have grown, another data point that reflects the shift to streaming.
Comcast’s residential broadband customers grew 4% to 29.8 million, while business customers grew nearly 5% to 2.5 billion. Wireless, a small part of the business, jumped 83% to 5.7 million customers in the United States.
U.S. broadband revenue, meanwhile, jumped 5% to $6.34 billion, while wireless revenue jumped 27% to $858 million.
Comcast named residential connectivity as one of its growth drivers for the quarter. Average revenue per user, a key indicator of profitability, rose 4.5% in the quarter, the company said.
CEO Brian Roberts, on the conference call to discuss the quarter’s results, said that among the things he was “really proud of” during the quarter was a “significant margin increase” in the connectivity and growth in US residential broadband ARPU, which he said “demonstrates successful discipline and excellent management in a challenging competitive environment.”
Residential connectivity, both broadband and wireless, is also a priority for the future, Chairman Michael Cavanagh said on the call.
“Although the market is competitive, so adding [subscriptions] short term is likely to be a challenge, I expect we will eventually get back to subscriber growth,” he said.
In the meantime, the company is working to grow broadband ARPU among existing businesses, increase wireless penetration and “proactive investments to expand our footprint at the fastest pace in our history,” said the CFO. You’ve seen us do this all last year and in the first quarter and you expect this trend to continue
Cavanaugh added that business services is another “major growth opportunity” as it approaches $10 billion in annual revenue.
By midday, Comcast shares jumped $2.97, or 8.1%, to $39.49. The stock has traded between $28.39 and $44.66 over the past 52 weeks.
