Unlike almost every other company, cableco Comcast reported a revenue increase of 9% to $8.77 billion, for 2008’s fourth quarter. Its earnings, excluding write offs such as the one for Clearwire of $600 million, were up 7 cents to 27 cents per share. The company celebrated by increasing the dividend by 8% – and how many companies are doing that these days?
It’s perhaps no surprise that the company did not add as many new subscribers as it had in prior quarters when consumers were under less financial pressure. Comcast added 184,000 broadband subscribers, not bad in a quarter when retailers, except for Wal-Mart, were coming up short. In the year ago fourth quarter it added 341,000.
Its revenue from broadband increased 9% to $1.86 billion. At the end of the year it had 14.9 million broadband customers.
No doubt maddeningly to the telcos, it added 344,000 phone subscribers. Its revenue from phone services increased 45% to $731 million.
However, the satellite and telco TV services continued to take pay-TV customers away with Comcast losing 233,000 in 2008’s fourth quarter. Its three main pay-TV competitors each added more than 250,000 with AT&T adding 264,000; Verizon 303,000, DirecTV 301,000.
Comcast said that competition from the telcos for pay-TV has been increasing. Fewer pay-TV subscribers are upgrading to premium tiers but it is not experiencing mass defections as some had feared.
Unlike the telcos/cellcos, of course, Comcast does not have a mobile phone/broadband business which brought in over $24 billion in revenue in total to AT&T and Verizon/Verizon Wireless in the fourth quarter of 2008.