Hurricanes in Florida and Texas drove down video customer rolls by about 125,000 in the third quarter, but gains in high speed data subscriptions helped boost overall customer relationships by 115,000 homes.
Comcast had earlier warned that severe storms that ripped through Houston, Texas and western Florida would impact video customer growth in the period. At an investor conference last month, newly minted Comcast EVP of Xfinity Services Matt Strauss estimated that the customer losses would be between 100,000 and 150,000 customers. In the end, Comcast ended up in the middle – losing 125,000 video subscribers. But a gain of 214,000 high-speed internet customers helped steer overall customer relationships into the black. For the period, Comcast said it added 83,000 residential customer relationships and 32,000 business customer relationships. Comcast lost about 94,000 phone customers but added 51,000 security and automation subscribers.
High speed data revenue rose 8.9% in the period and video revenue increase 4.2%, mostly reflecting rate increases, additional revenue associated with a boxing event available on pay-per-view and an increase in the number of customers subscribing to additional services. Business services revenue increased 12.6%, primarily due to increases in the number of customers receiving our small and medium-sized business services offerings.
Total cable systems revenue increased 5.1% to $13.2 billion and cash flow increased 5.2% to $5.25 billion.
Consolidated revenue dipped 1.6% to $20.98 billion in the period, while cash flow increased 5% to $7.2 billion.
“I’m very pleased with the company’s operational and financial results during the quarter, Comcast chairman and CEO Brian Roberts said in a statement. “Across Comcast NBCUniversal, we are uniquely positioned with a broad range of growth opportunities that set us up well for the future.
