Comcast 2Q Results: Big Growth from Jurassic World, Furious 7

Cord-cutting continues but Internet subscribers were up.

Comcast announced its second quarter earnings Thursday morning. Revenues were up 11.3 percent in the quarter to $18.4 billion on the strength of NBCUniversal‘s staggering 20 percent revenue increase and the addition of 180,000 Internet customers. Net income rose to $2.14 billion from $1.99 billion a year ago.

Still, the company finds itself in an uphill battle against cord cutters — people forgoing cable subscriptions for other entertainment options like Netflix. It lost 69,000 subscribers in the second quarter — but that’s much better than the second quarter of 2014, when Comcast lost 144,000 subscribers. (It lost 8,000 in the first quarter this year.)

Since losing its $45 billion bid to purchase Time Warner Cable, Comcast has been focusing on improving customer service and adding functionality to its X1 service. It also announced the beta testing of Stream — a new online streaming TV service.

The company announced that operating cash flow increased by 8 percent, and earnings per share increased 10.5 percent.

Internet revenues were up 10 percent year-over-year, even though the 180,000 new customers represents a slight dip compared to the 203,000 Internet subscribers Comcast added in the second quarter of 2014.

Its fast-growing business services segment is up 20.4 percent.

NBCUniversal had “an exceptional quarter,” said CEO Brian Roberts. Led by “record-breaking box office performances” by Jurassic World and Furious 7, the company’s filmed entertainment division was up 92.7 percent compared to 2Q of 2014. Its theme park revenue was up 25.7 percent. Overall, revenues for NBCUniversal increased 20.2 percent to $7.2 billion.

Revenue for cable communications was up 6.3 percent to $11.7 billion, up roughly $700,000 compared to the second quarter of 2014.

“Our focus on accelerating the deployment of our transformative X1 platform, as well as efforts to improve customer service, are clearly making a difference, with lower churn across all product categories,” said Roberts.

Comcast’s cable networks segment decreased 1 percent to $2.5 billion, reflecting a 26.3 percent decrease in content licensing and other revenue. Meanwhile, its broadcast television segment remained flat at $1.8 billion. The company also saw a 2.1 percent drop in revenue from voice customers.