Wired broadband subscriber growth has stalled for now, but the cable industry can likely maintain broadband annual revenue growth of about 3% seen in recent years, MoffettNathanson wrote investors Tuesday. The faster average revenue per user growth rates for cable's competitors, like AT&T's fiber, "provide some measure of confidence," it said.
Comcast's fiber-to-the-home symmetrical service, Gigabit Pro, is now offering 10 Gbps symmetrical service, the company said Tuesday. It said that fixed broadband speed is available across all Comcast's markets.
None of the five shareholder proposals up for a vote at the company's annual meeting last week -- including a recommendation that it prepare a report on its dependence on China (see 304260032) -- passed, Comcast said Friday.
Comcast will announce next month the availability of multi-gigabyte symmetrical speeds throughout its entire footprint, Comcast Cable CEO Dave Watson said Tuesday during a J.P. Morgan investor conference. Watson said Comcast is enjoying "good success" in state-level broadband digital divide grants. The company extended its network past 840,000 passings last year and expects to do 1 million this year, with most of that unsubsidized, he said. Watson said about 85% of Comcast's mobile service traffic isn't carried via its mobile virtual network operator agreement, and it's "testing very actively" offloading more using its own spectrum. Comcast also unveiled its Now TV streaming platform Tuesday. At $20 a month, its lineup includes more than 40 live linear channels and more than 20 free ad-supported channels and Peacock Premium. It's available to Xfinity broadband subscribers.
Some Comcast advertising claims about its Xfinity home internet service challenged by T-Mobile are supported, but others should be modified or discontinued, the Better Business Bureau's National Advertising Division said Tuesday. NAD said it recommended Comcast modify its advertising to clearly disclose that its “Xfinity Mobile now has the fastest mobile service” claim is based on combined Wi-Fi and cellular speeds and that the claim is true only within its Wi-Fi footprint or when connected to Wi-Fi. NAD said Comcast indicated it agrees to comply with the recommendations though it disagrees that any of the challenged ads convey unsupported messages concerning T-Mobile's home internet service.
The cable industry's slowed broadband subscriber growth reflects a maturation in penetration, but the growing demand for capacity will mean data peaks "unlike anything we've seen today," Comcast CEO Brian Roberts said at a MoffettNathanson conference Tuesday. He said meeting peak demand will be where the company expects notable broadband revenue growth. With sports increasingly going to streaming, "the last thing you're going to want is a spinning wheel" of buffering, he said. He said slow broadband sub growth also reflects not competing well for the lower end of the marketplace, but the company is making new efforts there. He said housing growth needs to resume in the U.S. before subscriber growth returns.
Ritter Communications launched 5 Gbps and 2 Gbps symmetrical fiber-to-the-home internet service across the entirety of its Arkansas and Tennessee fiber network, it said last week.
Don't expect a strategy change at NBCUniversal with new leadership, Comcast President Mike Cavanagh said Thursday as the company announced Q1 2023 earnings. CEO Brian Roberts said Cavanagh will oversee NBCU while remaining Comcast president. He replaces Jeff Shell, who left over an "inappropriate relationship" with a female employee (see 2304240009). Comcast for the quarter had revenue of $29.7 billion, down 4% year over year due to tough competition from last winter's Winter Olympics and Super Bowl, said Chief Financial Officer Jason Armstrong. It ended the quarter with 29.8 million residential broadband customers, roughly flat from the same quarter a year earlier. Cavanagh said adding residential broadband subscribers in the near term "is likely to be a challenge" due to competition, but those numbers "will eventually return to subscriber growth." He said the company had some success in the quarter with broadband packages targeting lower-end value consumers with a $25 broadband offering or $50 for that paired with mobile service. He said business services revenue is nearing $10 billion annually, and Comcast sees a potential $50 billion market in its footprint. Comcast Cable CEO Dave Watson said about 20% of Comcast's footprint has been upgraded to multi-gig capabilities, with that growing to more than 30% by year's end. Armstrong said the company anticipates expanding its network to 1 million additional businesses or residences this year, up from 850,000 in 2022. Comcast ended the quarter with 5.67 million wireless lines, up almost 1.4 million, and 15.5 million video subscribers, down 2.1 million. It said U.S. Peacock subscribership at 22 million was up almost 60% year over year and up 2 million from the end of 2022. It said Peacock losses are expected to be $3 billion this year -- a peak, with the red ink to decline from there.
Shentel has agreed to a $227,200 fine stemming from a VoIP-related 911 outage between April 6-22, 2022, in four West Virginia counties, per an Enforcement Bureau order Monday. The cable operators also will put in place a compliance plan that includes it developing or improving its identification of risks that could result in 911 disruptions and its response to those outages, the order said. Shentel didn't comment.
NBCUniversal CEO Jeff Shell has resigned following a Comcast investigation led by outside counsel into an inappropriate conduct complaint, Comcast said Sunday. In a statement released by Comcast, Shell said he "had an inappropriate relationship with a woman in the company, which I deeply regret." In a Securities and Exchange Commission filing Monday, Comcast said the investigation corroborated allegations Shell "engaged in inappropriate conduct with a female employee, including allegations of sexual harassment."