Revenue up, Comcast gets back in the black

Susan Rush
From the October 28th edition of CED Broadband Direct

Comcast Corp. posted a more than 12 percent jump in third-quarter sales as the MSO signed up more high-speed Internet and digital cable customers.

During the quarter, Comcast added 169,800 high-speed Internet customers and 205,000 digital cable boxes. At the close of the quarter, Comcast had 1.3 million high-speed Internet customers -- a 68.9 percent boost compared to a year ago -- and had 2.9 million digital cable boxes in service.

The company posted net income of $75.6 million, or 8 cents a share, compared to a net loss of $106.8 million, or 11 cents a share, a year ago. Comcast's net loss a year ago surrounded the fall of Excite@Home.

Comcast posted revenue of $2.71 billion, up from $2.4 billion a year ago. Revenue for its cable division increased 12.3 percent to $1.5 billion, compared to the $1.4 billion recorded in Q3 2001. The division has rolled out video-on-demand service to more than 6 million homes.

In conjunction with its earnings announcement, Comcast laid out its free VOD lineup for its upcoming launch in the Philadelphia market. Content will be supplied from A&E Network, Comedy Central, C-SPAN, The Golf Channel and Outdoor Life.

Comcast is gearing up to close its pending merger with AT&T Broadband. The companies expect to get the green light to close the deal in the fourth quarter, which will integrate AT&T Broadband's 13.1 million cable subscribers.