Comcast's `Furious' Hit Offers Consolation for Cable Losses

(Bloomberg) -- Comcast Corp. has found one way to dull the threat from cord-cutters: make hit movies.

For the second quarter in a row, the cable giant’s film division was the standout, helping drive profit that beat quarterly estimates from analysts.

Second-quarter revenue at Universal Pictures jumped 60 percent to $2.16 billion from a year earlier, thanks to box-office hits like “The Fate of the Furious” and the home release of films like “Fifty Shades Darker,” Philadelphia-based Comcast said Thursday in a statement. The company’s theme parks also prospered, with sales up 16 percent.

Entertainment was a bright spot in a quarter that saw a bigger loss of cable-TV customers and slower growth in high-speed internet subscribers. Comcast, the largest U.S. cable operator, lost 34,000 cable-TV customers in the period. Analysts had projected the company would lose about 28,000 video subscribers, the average of three estimates. Comcast lost 4,000 TV customers in the year-ago period.

Comcast shares rose as much as 2.4 percent to $40.30 in early trading. The company is competing for video customers with new online services like Dish Network Corp.’s Sling TV as well as phone companies like AT&T Inc. and Verizon Communications Inc.

The company is holding up better than its rivals in the cord-cutting era. AT&T, owner of the satellite provider DirecTV, reported this week that it lost 199,000 TV subscribers, even after gaining 152,000 customers for DirecTV Now, its online-streaming service.

Comcast signed up 175,000 high-speed internet customers in the quarter. While that was 21 percent fewer than a year ago, revenue in that business increased 9.2 percent and selling broadband connections is more profitable than cable TV packages.

The average monthly customer bill climbed 2.2 percent to $151.19.

Second-quarter profit rose to 52 cents a share, Comcast said, beating the 49-cent average of analysts’ estimates. Revenue grew 9.8 percent to $21.2 billion, exceeding projections of $20.8 billion.

Earlier this year, Comcast unveiled a mobile phone service that lets subscribers make calls and surf the web using Verizon’s wireless network and Comcast’s millions of Wi-Fi hotspots. The company did not break out those subscribers in its quarterly results.

To contact the reporter on this story: Gerry Smith in New York at gsmith233@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Crayton Harrison at tharrison5@bloomberg.net.