Comcast inventory falls as firm fails so as to add Web customers for first time ever

Comcast is the most important Web supplier within the US with over 29.eight million residential broadband prospects, however the firm’s lengthy streak of including Web subscribers every quarter is lastly over.

In Q2 2022 earnings announced today, Comcast stated it has 29,826,000 residential broadband prospects, a drop of 10,000 since Q1 2022, and a pair of,337,000 enterprise broadband prospects, a achieve of 10,000. The general tally of 32,163,000 residential and enterprise Web prospects remained unchanged.

Comcast CEO Brian Roberts stated the corporate’s cable division is experiencing “a novel and evolving macroeconomic atmosphere that’s briefly placing strain on the amount of our new buyer connects.” Comcast additionally misplaced cable-TV and VoIP cellphone prospects within the quarter however added wi-fi cellphone subscribers.

Comcast was nonetheless in a position to improve quarterly broadband income in comparison with Q2 2021 by 6.eight p.c, to $6.1 billion, attributable to larger common costs and the truth that Comcast has extra prospects than it did a yr in the past regardless of the drop over the previous three months.

Comcast’s inventory worth fell over 9 p.c in right now’s buying and selling regardless of will increase within the NASDAQ, Dow Jones, and S&P 500; it has dropped over 32 p.c previously 12 months.

Zero broadband development a primary for Comcast

It is the primary quarter ever during which Comcast failed to achieve broadband subscribers, The Wall Avenue Journal wrote. “A evaluation of the corporate’s quarterly filings reveals that Comcast added a minimum of 100,000 web new broadband subscribers each quarter over the previous 20 years, excluding a single occasion in the course of the 2008-09 monetary disaster, when the corporate gained 65,000 broadband subscribers within the second quarter of 2009,” the article stated. That covers your entire interval since Comcast’s November 2002 merger with AT&T Broadband.

Whereas competitors from fiber and wi-fi companies was cited as a cause for cable’s stagnation, it was inevitable that Comcast would hit limits on buyer development finally. After years of speedy buyer will increase, Comcast has most likely signed up nearly everybody who needs its service and lives in a house inside Comcast’s community.

In lots of components of the US, Comcast is the only viable option for quick residence Web service. There are additionally individuals who wish to get cable Web in areas the place Comcast has deemed it not worthwhile sufficient to construct and instances the place Comcast refuses to wire up a particular address except the house owner pays tens of 1000’s of {dollars} up entrance.

Comcast reduced capital spending on its cable division in 2019, devoting much less cash to community extensions and enhancements within the “line extensions” and “scalable infrastructure” classes. However that spending increased in 2020, 2021, and the primary six months of 2022.

From January to June this yr, Comcast stated its cable division “capital expenditures elevated 2.5 p.c to $3.1 billion, primarily reflecting elevated funding in line extensions, scalable infrastructure, and help capital, partially offset by decreased funding in buyer premise gear.”