Comcast Corp - Class A (CMCSA) — Q3 2022 Earnings Call Transcript

Thank you operator, and welcome everyone. Joining me on this morning's call are Brian Roberts, Mike Cavanagh, Dave Watson, Jeff Shell and Dana Strong. Brian and Mike will make formal remarks while Dave, Jeff and Dana will also be available for Q&A. Let me now refer you to Slide 2, which contains our Safe Harbor disclaimer. I remind you that this conference call may include forward-looking statements subject to certain risks and uncertainties. In addition, during this call, we will refer to certain non-GAAP financial measures. Please see our 8-K and trending schedules for the reconciliations of these non-GAAP financial measures to GAAP. With that let me turn the call over to Brian Roberts for his comments. Brian?

Thanks, Marci and good morning, everyone. I'm really proud of the company and our results this quarter. We are reporting adjusted EBITDA growth of 6%, adjusted EPS growth of 10% and significant free cash flow, while also investing in our future and returning a record high amount of capital to our shareholders. The strong financials today are a testament to our focus on driving profitable growth through innovation as well as a reflection of the professionalism of our employees. Together, I believe we are collaborating and executing at the highest levels. I especially want to recognize and publicly thank all of our teammates in Florida as well as those who traveled to Florida over the last several weeks. They worked tirelessly to assist customers who were impacted by Hurricane Ian, even while many of these employees had their own losses. This was a devastating storm particularly for us, as we are the primary cable operator in most of the areas where it hit and we expect this affected about half of our traditional Florida seasonal customers. Digging into the third quarter, our results at Cable Communications again underscore the impressive consistency in this business, with 5% EBITDA growth and 120 basis points of year-over-year margin expansion bringing us to 45.1%, our highest margin on record. While we are still in a challenging environment in terms of depressed move activity and increased competition from new entrants, we were pleased to see that back-to-school provided a tailwind and we ended the third quarter with 14,000 net new broadband subscribers. There have been four primary drivers of revenue growth at our Cable segment: residential broadband units, residential broadband ARPU, wireless and business services. And while we don't anticipate residential broadband units to be a significant driver for now, we expect to maintain healthy growth in the other three, leading to continued strong financial performance at Cable for the foreseeable future. My confidence stems from the fact that we have always been able to strike the right balance between units and profitability. We compete aggressively while also staying focused on investing in and managing the business to deliver long-term profitable growth which is exactly what this quarter has shown. We have a distinct competitive advantage that goes beyond just fast and consistent speeds. We provide a differentiated and superior experience within the home, which is the foundation of our ARPU growth. For example, we offer reliable WiFi coverage in every room, device control and cybersecurity features and a world-class entertainment platform as well as other complementary solutions like Xfinity Mobile that increase the value and utility of our broadband product even more. All of this is only getting better as we further improve our network and we're making great progress. During the quarter, we announced that we have begun to roll out multi-gig download speeds combined with up to 5 to 10 times faster upload speeds. And we expect to have this available at 20% of our footprint by the end of this year and to the vast majority of our footprint by the end of 2025. Directly on the back of this we're completing the core technical foundation for 10G and we're transitioning to a cloud-based virtualized network as we work towards DOCSIS 4.0 which will enable us to deliver multi-gig symmetrical speeds to customers beginning in the back half of next year. Looking further ahead, the combination of our high-capacity network, differentiated broadband experience and our terrific MVNO in wireless puts Comcast in a winning position to offer in-home and mobile connectivity that is both robust and ubiquitous. And it doesn't involve trade-offs, which is going to become even more important as people's level of data consumption and overall expectations continue to rise over time. On average, our broadband customers who don't subscribe to traditional video from us are already using nearly 650 gigabytes of data per month and that's just today. We are doing a fantastic job leveraging our wireless business. We're still in the very early growth phase in penetrating this segment and we're having a lot of success. We added 333,000 wireless lines, the most of any quarter to date. And this morning we announced that we now have over five million Xfinity Mobile lines and we're just getting started. So, summing up, we're pleased with our strong financial performance at Cable. We're encouraged by the long-term trends in demand for connectivity and our competitive advantages. And we're confident in our future growth. At NBCUniversal, we saw some great momentum with EBITDA growth of 25%, despite the tough comparison to the Tokyo Olympics last year. Our Park segment continues to be a real standout generating the highest quarterly EBITDA on record driven by growth in each of our geographies including Beijing which hit profitability for the first time since the grand opening last September. We're seeing clear evidence that the investments we made throughout the pandemic continue to pay off. We launched Super Nintendo World in Japan, the Velocicoaster in Orlando, Secret Life of Pets in Hollywood and our drumbeat of innovation goes on. For example, Super Nintendo World will open in Hollywood early next year. We're adding another Nintendo-themed area, Donkey Kong to Japan in 2024. And I'm especially excited for Epic Universe to open in the summer of 2025, which will transform Universal Orlando into a weeklong destination. Studios also performed exceptionally well resulting from a huge summer box office led by Jurassic World, Minions, Black Phone and Nope. Our leadership is driving change in the industry. Our flexible windowing strategy has enhanced the overall profitability of our Studios business and it's also had a significant positive carryover to Peacock which just started to benefit from our new Pay-One agreement. At the end of the third quarter, Peacock had more than 15 million highly engaged paid subscribers in the US. On top of that 15 million, Peacock also had approximately 14 million bundled and free users totaling around 30 million monthly active accounts. Peacock has become the best streaming value in the market providing customers with a massive premium content offering across movies, TV entertainment, sports, and news in English and in Spanish. And with less than five minutes of ads per hour for just $5 per month, it is really a great value. Our sports content is unmatched with customers enjoying live coverage of the biggest leagues and events including the NFL with Sunday Night Football, MLB, Premier League, Notre Dame, Big 10 starting in 2023 as well as the WWE and marquee events including Super Bowl and Olympics, French Open, US Open, Tour de France, Triple Crown, and later this year, the World Cup. We also provide the best of other sports with very passionate fan communities including IndyCar, Supercross, and Track and Field. We're seeing a nice uplift from our next-day broadcast which at last are exclusively ours. And coming up through the rest of this year and into 2023 is a strong slate of highly anticipated originals from proven creators including the Best Fan, Mrs. Davis, Poker Face, and others. While it only launched a little over two years ago, Peacock is already an important part of our portfolio and reflects how we're running our Media business holistically. Switching gears, the UK and other European markets have been adversely affected by the Ukraine conflict as we all know higher energy costs, higher interest rates, higher overall inflation, and currency headwinds. This quarter we took a non-cash charge as a result of all of this at Sky based on this environment which Mike will talk a bit more about. Our Sky team is working hard amidst this changing economic backdrop that's putting pressure on the average customer in the region. We remain focused on customer retention as well as providing the best experience and value in entertainment and connectivity, which contributed to the highest quarterly customer growth since we've owned Sky, including some nice momentum in our broadband and wireless business. We are keeping an eye on churn and acknowledge that ARPU may be affected in the future as customers deal with this unstable and inflationary environment. We are successfully managing through a variety of measures and we remain disciplined on our cost structure. We reset the majority of our major sports rights within the last two years and are looking for more efficiency in a number of areas. So, looking at the company as a whole all of us are paying attention to economists' and other experts' view about how some of these issues in Europe may come to the US. And while we are certainly not immune to potential macroeconomic headwinds, I firmly believe that Comcast is in a very strong position relative to our peers and most other companies. We are a leader in very large and highly profitable markets. And our healthy balance sheet and substantial free cash flow generation enable us to continue to invest organically in our strategic initiatives while simultaneously returning a substantial amount of capital to our shareholders. We pay nearly $5 billion in dividends per year and we bought back $9.5 billion of our shares year-to-date through the third quarter. We have a great business including a fantastic team. Earlier this month, we announced that we promoted Mike Cavanagh to President. For the past seven years Mike has been an incredible leader, partner and friend. And we are both very focused on continuing to innovate and grow this wonderful company for all our employees, customers and guests. So it's my pleasure to hand it over to Mike.

Thanks, Brian. I look forward to the new role. It's quite an honor, and I appreciate the trust that you and the Board continue to have in me. I'm excited to work with the leaders on this call, Dana, Dave and Jeff and all of our colleagues to take advantage of the great opportunities for Comcast's future. So now I'll begin on slide 4 with our third quarter consolidated 2022 financial results. Revenue decreased 1.5% to $29.8 billion, reflecting the comparison to last year's quarter, which included the Tokyo Summer Olympics as well as a headwind from currency translation at Sky and our international theme parks due to the strengthening dollar. After adjusting for both of these items, our revenue was up about 7% year-over-year. Adjusted EBITDA increased 5.9% to $9.5 billion and on a constant currency basis increased about 8%. We generated $3.4 billion of free cash flow and we reported an EPS loss of $1.05 per share, which was mainly impacted by an impairment charge at Sky. We test goodwill annually across the company in the third quarter. Challenging economic conditions in the UK and other European markets have resulted in a significant increase in discount rates used in the annual impairment analysis and reduced estimated future cash flows at Sky. As a result, we have taken an impairment charge related to Sky goodwill and intangible assets totaling $8.6 billion. On an adjusted basis, EPS increased 10% to $0.96 per share. And on a constant currency basis, adjusted EPS increased about 12%. Now let's turn to our business segment results starting with Cable Communications on slide 5. Cable revenue increased 2.6% to $16.5 billion, driven by higher rate and volume in residential broadband as well as growth in business services, wireless and advertising. The strong growth in these businesses was partially offset by lower revenue in video and voice. Total customer relationships were up 315,000 compared to last year and down 21,000 sequentially in the third quarter. Diving further into the details, first our revenue growth drivers. Broadband revenue increased 5.7% driven by growth in ARPU and in our customer base compared to last year. Broadband ARPU increased 3.7% year-over-year consistent with the growth rate in the second quarter. We expect ARPU growth will continue to be the primary driver of our residential broadband revenue growth in the near term. Wireless revenue increased 31% mainly driven by service revenue, which was fueled by growth in customer lines. We added 1.3 million lines over the last year including 333,000 lines in the quarter, which is our highest number of net additions for any quarter on record and marks the fourth consecutive quarter of adding more than 300,000 lines. Business services revenue increased 9.4% or approximately 5% excluding the acquisition of Masergy, which closed at the beginning of last year's fourth quarter. This healthy organic growth was driven by increases in both ARPU and our customer base. We continue to see healthy performance across our diverse customer segments including SMB, mid-market and enterprise with this quarter's organic growth driven by a mix shift to a higher data speeds and increased sales of our advanced services, as well as rate increases and growth in our customer base. Advertising revenue increased 7.2% primarily driven by political and our advanced advertising business FreeWheel partially offset by a decline in our local core advertising business and the absence of our streaming business XUMO. As we previously announced XUMO is now part of our joint venture with Charter with those results reported in Corporate and Other. If we exclude the impact of XUMO, cable advertising revenue would have increased 12%. Partially offsetting the growth from these revenue drivers was video revenue, which declined 4.4%, driven by year-over-year customer net losses partially offset by 6% ARPU growth due to a residential rate increase at the beginning of this year. And last, voice revenue declined 12.5% primarily reflecting year-over-year customer losses. Turning to expenses. Cable Communications third quarter expenses increased 0.5%, reflecting higher non-programming expenses mostly offset by lower programming expenses. Programming expenses decreased 2.8% reflecting the year-over-year decline in video customers, partially offset by higher contractual rates. Non-programming expenses increased 2.5% driven by growth in other expenses due to an increase in bad debt compared to last year, reflecting a return to more normalized levels and increased technical and product support expenses driven by growth in our wireless business as well as the addition of Masergy. These higher costs were partially offset by a decline in advertising marketing and promotion expenses partly due to the comparison to last year, which included some Olympic sponsorship spending as well as lower activity levels. The lower activity levels coupled with the improvements we continue to make in our customer experience also contributed to the decrease in customer service expenses. Cable EBITDA increased 5.4% to $7.5 billion in the quarter with Cable EBITDA margins improving 120 basis points year-over-year, reaching a record high of 45.1%. And on a per customer relationship basis, we grew EBITDA 4% as we focus on monetizing these relationships over their lifetime. Before moving to NBCUniversal, Hurricane Ian has impacted our footprint in Southwest Florida causing outages and damage to our cable network that our cable team is still repairing. Many of our customers' homes and commercial locations were severely damaged or destroyed. While our third quarter results were not impacted by the storm, we expect to report an impact in the fourth quarter including net losses of broadband customers. Now let's turn to slide 6 for NBCUniversal. Starting with total NBCUniversal results, revenue decreased 4.3% to $9.6 billion, reflecting the difficult comparison to last year, which included $1.8 billion from the Tokyo Olympics included in our media segment. EBITDA increased 24.6% to $1.7 billion. Media revenue decreased 23% to $5.2 billion, again reflecting the comparison to the revenue associated with the Tokyo Olympics last year. Excluding the Olympics, Media revenue increased 4.4% driven by Peacock with revenue of $506 million, which more than doubled compared to last year. Distribution revenue increased 4.6% reflecting growth at Peacock driven by increases in paid subscribers compared to last year, as well as higher contractual rates at our networks partially offset by linear subscriber declines that accelerated sequentially. Advertising revenue increased 4.7% reflecting strong increases from Peacock, partially offset by a decline in linear advertising. Media EBITDA decreased 41.5% to $583 million in the third quarter, including a $614 million EBITDA loss at Peacock. We continue to expect Peacock's EBITDA loss will be roughly $2.5 billion for the year, with the fourth quarter's loss reflecting the cost of new content. Excluding Peacock, Media EBITDA in the third quarter decreased 21% reflecting the difficult comparison to last year's Tokyo Olympics, as well as revenue pressure at our linear networks. Looking to the fourth quarter, we expect Media growth ex-Peacock to be impacted by a gradual acceleration in pay TV cord cutting, as well as some deterioration in the ad market reflecting broader economic uncertainty, as well as higher costs associated with the broadcast of the World Cup on Telemundo. Moving to Studios. Revenue increased 31% to $3.2 billion driven by strong theatrical and content licensing revenue. Theatrical revenue more than doubled compared to last year, driven by the success of our summer film slate including Jurassic World: Dominion, Minions: Rise of Gru, Black Phone and Nope. In addition, content licensing was up 17% driven by the benefit of our carryover titles and the acceleration in film windows, as well as healthy growth in television licensing. EBITDA increased $358 million to $537 million for the quarter primarily reflecting the higher theatrical and content licensing revenue, partially offset by the corresponding higher programming and production costs, and also the benefit of the timing of marketing costs that we incurred in the second quarter for films in the third quarter. Last at Theme Parks, revenue increased 42% to $2.1 billion and EBITDA increased 89% to $819 million, our highest level of EBITDA on record. These results were driven by growth in each of our parks. At Universal Beijing, we had our first profitable quarter since opening compared to the third quarter last year, when it incurred $130 million of preopening costs. At our US parks, we continue to see strong demand with attendance and guest spending increasing year-over-year. In fact, Orlando broke a new record delivering its highest level of EBITDA for a third quarter despite the park being closed for two days due to Hurricane Ian. Universal Japan continues to rebound since capacity restrictions were lifted at the end of March and compared to last year when the park operated under more strict COVID-related controls. Now let's turn to Slide 7 for Sky. As I said earlier, our reported results were meaningfully impacted from the currency translation due to the strengthening dollar, but I will speak to Sky's results on a constant currency basis. For the third quarter, Sky revenue was consistent compared to last year at $4.3 billion, as low single-digit growth in the UK was mostly offset by lower revenue in Italy and Germany. Direct-to-consumer revenue was also consistent compared to last year, reflecting low single-digit growth in the UK driven by broadband and wireless revenue offset by declines in Italy and Germany. On a customer basis, we added 320,000 customer relationships in the quarter, with positive additions across all three territories: the UK, Italy, and Germany. These net additions were driven by streaming customers due to the timing of unique content and the early start of football seasons, including the EPL to accommodate the timing of the World Cup in the fourth quarter. We do not expect a similar level of additions in the fourth quarter. Rounding out the rest of revenue at Sky, content revenue increased 6.4% driven by licensing our entertainment content. And advertising revenue decreased 1.6%, with lower revenue in Italy, and relatively flat revenue in the UK and Germany, reflecting the difficult macro environment. Turning to EBITDA. Sky's EBITDA decreased 15.5% to $701 million, primarily reflecting the timing of sports costs, again, due to the early start of the football seasons and the shift of matches into the third quarter to accommodate the timing of the World Cup in the fourth quarter. While this shift will benefit sports costs in the fourth quarter as four weeks of games are paused, results will also be impacted by the challenging economic environment in Europe. And we will incur higher sports costs in the first half of 2023, reflecting the higher number of games as the season is extended and the remainder of the paused games are played. Now, I'll wrap up with free cash flow and capital allocation on slide 8. We generated $3.4 billion of free cash flow this quarter. Consolidated total capital increased 24% due to increased spending at NBCUniversal and Cable, partially offset by a decrease at Sky. The increase at NBCUniversal was driven by higher CapEx at parks, as we continue to invest in attractions and make significant progress in building Epic Universe in Orlando. Cable capital spend increased 17% with CapEx intensity coming in at 12.2%, due to timing. On a year-to-date basis, Cable CapEx intensity was 10.4%, and we continue to expect Cable CapEx intensity to be around 11% for the year. Working capital was $1 billion for the third quarter, reflecting the continued ramp in content creation and the timing of annual sports rights payments. As we enter the fourth quarter and look to our year ahead, we remain focused on driving long-term growth during an increasingly challenged economic environment. As a result, we expect we'll be taking severance and other cost reduction-related charges in the fourth quarter in anticipation of expense reduction actions that will provide benefits in 2023 and beyond. Wrapping up with capital allocation, last month we increased our buyback authorization to $20 billion, up from $10 billion. And during the quarter, we repurchased $3.5 billion worth of our shares. In addition, dividend payments totaled $1.2 billion for a total return of capital in the third quarter of $4.7 billion. We ended the quarter with net leverage at 2.3 times, in line with our expectations for leverage to remain around 2.4 times. Thanks for joining us on the call this morning. I'll turn it back to Marci, who will lead the question-and-answer portion of the call.

Thanks, Mike. Operator, let's open the call for Q&A please.

Thank you. Good morning. Brian, I'd love to hear from you, how you're thinking about capital allocation given just we've had this significant increase in cost of capital and investors are highly focused on where you guys are making your big bet in the business. How are you thinking about priorities, including M&A, just given the backdrop we're in right now and some of the macro concerns we see ahead of us? And along those lines, one of the big announcements you guys and you talked about in your prepared remarks is into the cable network around DOCSIS 4. So, I'd love to hear from Dave, sort of what are the capital needs to get where you want to go over the next few years? Is that going to drive up CapEx? Is there an argument to spend the money faster to help the business differentiate better in the market, or how do you think about the benefits to the business from getting to DOCSIS 4.0 over the next few years? Thank you.

Thanks, Ben. Let me just start and then kick it to Mike. Given his new job, I'm looking for him to help on those capital allocation questions quite a bit. But I think the bar is the highest it's been in terms of M&A. Obviously, cost of capital has gone up and we think our stock is attractive and have increased the buyback as Mike just said, we announced both in actions this quarter and in our Board authorization. So, we feel really great about the opportunities to look at things, but we really like the company we've got. Mike, why don't you do that? Dave can talk about DOCSIS 4.

Thank you, Ben. Good morning. I'd like to take a step back and discuss our approach to capital, starting with how we generate it. This quarter, we saw record margins in our Cable business at 45%, along with record profits in both the Theme Parks and Studio sectors. These achievements stem from our significant investments and efforts in our businesses. Our strategy focuses on identifying growth opportunities within our existing operations to effectively deploy capital and achieve future results based on past investments. Our current top priority is investing in the network, a topic that Dave will elaborate on. We are well-positioned for symmetrical multi-gig capabilities through DOCSIS 4.0 within a reasonable timeframe and cost, maintaining an approximately 11% CapEx intensity. Our Theme Parks are progressing well with the Epic Universe project, and we are investing in streaming via Peacock, which Jeff will discuss. We are enthusiastic about reinvesting in our businesses to ensure excellent results in the years ahead, creating a positive cycle. The first step is reinvesting in the business. The second step is maintaining a strong balance sheet, which we believe is the strongest in the industry right now. Additionally, we've achieved $9.5 billion in buybacks so far this year, with a dividend run rate of around $5 billion for the year. We've repeatedly assured that returning capital to shareholders is our top priority, and we are committed to doing so while adhering to our established strategy. As we move forward with capital returns, we will continue to be guided by our leverage, which we plan to keep around 2.4 times while executing the initiatives I’ve mentioned, allowing for substantial returns to shareholders. Regarding M&A, we are satisfied with our current business and focused on the opportunities available within it, particularly considering our stock value. Now, I'll hand it off to Dave to discuss DOCSIS 4.0.

Thank you, Mike. Hello, Ben. Our strategy has always been to continually invest in our network, which we consider one of our key strengths. We have a broad reach and cater to every market segment with a strong range of broadband options. Recently, we upgraded the internet speeds for 20 million customers, and this is part of our ongoing efforts. Our initiatives include advancing mid-split capability in DOCSIS technology, leading up to DOCSIS 4.0, and expanding our infrastructure. We expect long-term growth in broadband and see real opportunities across all segments. Currently, we are implementing mid-splits that deliver multi-gig download and upload speeds reaching 200 to 300 megabits, which can be up to ten times faster than our existing upload speeds. By the end of this year, we aim to deploy this to 20% of our coverage area, and by the end of 2025, the majority of our footprint will have mid-split capabilities. Additionally, we plan to introduce DOCSIS 4.0 in the second half of 2023, providing multi-gig symmetrical speeds, with most of our coverage beginning this process in 2025. We are achieving all this with a capital expenditure intensity of around 11% while virtualizing essential components of our network as part of our strategic plan. This approach will allow us to execute an efficient and effective network strategy, minimizing the need for customer premises equipment changes like video set-top boxes and gateways, enabling us to serve all segments effectively. So far, we are pleased with the early customer experience improvements this strategy is yielding, and it contributes to our position as a reliable service provider, which is a significant factor in our near record low customer churn due to the strength of our network.

Thanks, everyone.

Thanks, Ben. Next question, please?

Thanks, so much. One for Mike, one for Dave. Congrats Mike on the promotion. On the hurricane commentary for the 4Q net losses of broadband customers is there any sizing or context for how big the hurricane impact might be? And whether ex hurricane there would have been positive broadband net adds for 4Q, if I heard your comment correctly? And then for Dave, I just wanted to follow-up on DOCSIS 4.0 from Ben's question. I'm just curious how would you articulate the end state for DOCSIS 4.0-based network or node versus a fiber-based one? There's a lot of debate as to whether DOCSIS will be fully competitive on speed and latency, particularly from a consumer perception basis? And is there any other benefits to an upgraded plan that we should consider relative to your operations today as you push forward these upgrades? Thank you both.

Thanks Doug. I'll let Dave elaborate. His team is doing incredible work to restore the network in Southwest Florida, which is one of our markets. As Brian mentioned earlier, our infrastructure was hit hardest. The impact will be in the tens of thousands, and we're still assessing the number of homes that may not be functional again. We'll provide that figure once we have a clearer picture during this quarter. In past hurricane experiences, the numbers have typically been in the tens of thousands.

Hey, Doug. I want to build on what Mike mentioned regarding the hurricane impact. Our teammates have been remarkable in responding to these situations, which really highlights how we operate our business. We focus on local operations, and since our teammates live and work in these communities, they were able to start working almost immediately, even while facing their own challenges. We've begun the rebuilding and repairing process right away, and the impact in Florida is significant. It's approximately half of our seasonal activity that was affected by this hurricane. While there is a negative impact on broadband as Mike pointed out, the underlying business performance is similar to what we experienced in Q3. The conditions remain consistent. With respect to fiber and DOCSIS, we still enjoy the benefits outlined in our roadmap. The customer experience, including multi-gig symmetrical speeds, remains unchanged. Additionally, we continue to integrate fiber into our network and have the flexibility within DOCSIS to extend fiber deeper where necessary, allowing us to directly serve MDUs when needed. We already provide a substantial amount of fiber, and we don't anticipate needing to modify a significant amount of capital expenditure. I'm optimistic about our roadmap to achieve multi-gig symmetrical speeds in the long term, positioning us effectively while other providers may struggle to serve certain communities. We ensure service to every community with all tiers of our broadband offerings.

Thanks Doug. Operator, next question please.

Yes. Hi. Let's talk about wireless if we could a bit. There have been reports that you've been pretty aggressively deploying strand-mounted small cells to offload traffic. I'm wondering if you could just talk a little bit about your experience thus far with traffic offload. It's still today mostly on Wi-Fi. But what you're thinking in terms of how much traffic can be offloaded? And is there the potential for something broader than just the CBRS strategy with getting some of your own mid-band spectrum to try to offload significantly more traffic? And just what do you think the margins of that business could ultimately look like?

Hey, Craig, Dave. Let me begin by discussing our current status in mobile and the spectrum aspect. We're very pleased with our mobile trajectory, as we recently achieved a record number of net adds for the quarter. Our capital-light approach is working well, and we're confident in our competitive stance and our ability to enhance broadband. In mobile, we are in an offensive position, and we can bundle mobile with business services. Currently, our small business offering is already in the market alongside mobile and is off to a successful start. When we combine By the Gig pricing with our new unlimited plans and compare them to those of traditional telephone companies, we help customers save up to 50% in some instances. We feel well-equipped to compete effectively in the mobile sector today. Additionally, we see a significant opportunity in providing enhanced 5G connectivity in areas with a high concentration of traffic. We have always taken an opportunistic approach. At present, Wi-Fi plays a crucial role in how we manage our network, with the majority of traffic being routed through it. We consider both CBRS and 600 megahertz spectrum as valuable opportunities. There isn’t much new to report, but we are conducting tests. We’ve mentioned this before and are collaborating with Charter to evaluate potential in high-density traffic areas and possible savings. However, there are no new developments regarding specific modeling at the moment. We recognize it as a potential opportunity for the future.

Thanks, Craig. Operator, next question, please.

Yes. Thanks for taking the question. So you mentioned during your prepared remarks that for now you would expect that broadband ARPU growth would be the primary driver of overall broadband revenue growth. We've definitely gotten a little pushback from investors on that. They look at a more competitive market and households having lots of other pressures in their budgets in an inflationary environment. And so what gives you confidence that you can sustain a profile of ARPU growth? How do you think that's going to break down between rate increases or upselling or maybe something else? Thank you.

That's a great question. Our performance speaks for itself, especially in a highly competitive landscape that we've been navigating for quite some time. We've encountered significant competition with over 40% of new entrants in our market. Despite this, our balanced approach to market share and average revenue per user (ARPU) has been effective, as we cater to every customer segment, breaking down performance by each group. We achieved a solid ARPU growth of 3.7% in Q3. We're exploring ways to optimize our tier mix, starting with high-speed data only, and strategizing on packages. We also use mobile services to enhance value while focusing on broadband ARPU. Our pricing strategy is carefully managed, including rate increases, which play a role in both our acquisition and retention plans. We analyze retention opportunities by segment and have been disciplined in our approach. This ongoing strategy allows us to increase both market share and ARPU growth over time. We recognize the intense competition we face, but we are confident in our roadmap and ability to leverage mobile and other services. We believe we are well-positioned and will continue to maintain a balanced strategy for ARPU and market share.

And just one other point to add, you know, long-term or longer term, I continue to believe broadband is so critical. It's such an important dynamic part of our society and it's changing all the time, and people want the best. And the best is experience. It's speed, it's innovation, it's service and that's what we're really focused on and we've been that way. And I think it's why we have the number one position today and we want to retain that.

Thank you.

Thanks, Brett. Operator, next question please.

Thanks and good morning. Just sticking in the Cable business. If you look at the pace of video revenue, would you expect the current pace of video cord cutting to continue at this level? And how much of the video losses that you're experiencing are simply a function of changing customer preferences for consumption relative to the elasticity from the pricing initiatives to offset the higher programming costs?

I'll start. This is Dave. I anticipate the changing nature of video to continue. We've seen this coming and have managed through it, focusing on multiple growth drivers such as broadband, business services, and mobile events. We've also looked at video as a broad platform opportunity. Yes, the shifting landscape of video is putting pressure on our more established video services, but we have mitigated a significant portion of that impact through our Flex offering. Our investment in smart TV capabilities, along with the joint venture with Charter, is an opportunity for us. We view video as a long-term platform opportunity and will maintain our focus on it, which will help balance both aspects. We've navigated this situation before, and I don’t foresee any changes.

Thanks, Mike. Operator, next question, please.

Questions. One on Cable and one on NBCU. On Cable you talked like I guess it was about nine years ago when you introduced or announced the Comcast Technology Center. Can you talk about the progress you've made in making Comcast a leading hub of innovation how your view of Comcast position I think you called it like unique cross-section of media and technology. How has that changed over time or evolved? And then on NBCU I can't believe you haven't gotten questions really. But what are the long-term aspirations for Peacock let's say over the next three to four to five years what do you think it will look like? And can you talk about on Theme Parks the advanced bookings or visibility? Are international visitors coming back yet?

Yes, this is Jeff Jessica. I was hoping to get no questions, so you broke my streak here. We're going to approach this a bit differently. In the Theme Park business, we had a record quarter in the third quarter, achieving our first-ever profitability in Beijing. Despite the economic uncertainty seen elsewhere, we are not experiencing any negative impacts on our Theme Park performance or future bookings. Florida is performing extremely well, Hollywood is strong, and Japan finished the quarter on a high note. This somewhat defies logic, but it can be attributed to the investments Brian highlighted in his opening, which are truly paying off. The Theme Park business remains robust, and we're not seeing any signs of weakness. Regarding Peacock, our long-term vision is for it to balance our overall Media business. Our streaming strategy distinguishes us from premium SVOD competitors like Netflix and Disney+. We view it as integral to our business, managing it as a unified effort, with programming decisions and advertising sales being handled collectively. As viewership shifts from linear to Peacock, we aim for it to reach a level and scale that aligns our business as consumer and advertiser sentiments evolve. I am very pleased with our performance this quarter, exceeding 15 million, and we're on track with our expectations as we continue to develop that business.

Okay. Dave, why don't you start on innovation and I'll add at the end? I think it's a great question.

Yes, this is Jessica. This facility plays a significant role, though not the only one, in our approach to long-term growth and innovation. It has transformed the company culturally by bringing together various teams to collaborate on exciting projects that genuinely change the landscape. For instance, in video, transitioning from the traditional linear delivery system to a comprehensive platform across multiple devices has been made possible by those teams. They have successfully modified broadband, integrated WiFi, and catered to both residential and business services, along with delivering leading gateway devices and advancing our roadmap from mid-split to DOCSIS 4.0. Additionally, these teams are enhancing the customer experience with a strong emphasis on digital capabilities, enabling customers to access services seamlessly across any device. As we move into the Internet of Things era, where devices and cameras are interconnected, these teams are focused on exploring what’s achievable. Overall, their contributions have been transformative for our operations.

I'll just quickly add that post the pandemic, it's pretty exciting to walk through the technology center and see people back at work and the energy and buzz. But I think of ourselves as a unique media and technology company and we're focused on this sector. We view the competition has changed. It includes the tech companies on the West Coast and we have been looking to add to that scale. And I think we made real progress in the last 12 months for things like our voice remote which for those who have it, whether you're using it for a streaming service or for a video bundle, were to now do other things and look up your account and many other aspects of how voice is deeply embedded in all of our products on Sky Glass globally. We now have between Sky, the new Charter arrangement, previous deals with Cox and all of Canadian operators are virtually all a roadmap for innovation. And I think as we look forward to the company that's what's going to keep powering what Mike was talking about the virtuous cycle of investment and return. So, we're all mindful of the economy and the world that we live in, but we have a pretty unique company. And this is a big part of what I think will make it more unique in the future is to continue to try to innovate. So, glad you asked that question.

Thanks Jessica. Operator, next question please.

Hi guys. Thank you and Mike congratulations again. We've danced around it a little bit. But Brian I want to ask about your sort of vision of the video ecosystem because we see this linear acceleration to the downside. Peacock is growing, but Comcast and Charter and I think Cox customers get that for free now. And so maybe Brian talk about where the video ecosystem is growing and how the company shifts the way you make money there? And Jeff remind us what success is in Peacock paying subs and MAUs over time and how you sort of balance that Media business model overall? Is that fair?

Very fair. Let me start and then I'll have my colleagues join in. We have been managing the company with a customer-centric approach for several years, anticipating changes in consumer preferences. We've learned that many consumers are moving away from traditional large video packages. Instead of resisting this shift, we decided to embrace it. Our leadership in broadband was the first indication of this approach, exemplified by our decision to integrate Netflix into our X1 platform years ago. I believe more people in Comcast markets access Netflix through X1 than any other device. This remains largely true, and Dave can speak to that. Our voice remote seamlessly integrated Netflix's entire library, and we have since added many more services, most notably Apple TV+, which we believe is integrated better with our devices than anywhere else. This shift allowed NBCUniversal to create content for various platforms like Netflix, Amazon, Apple, and others. We own a third of Hulu, and since our acquisition, much of our content was initially committed to Hulu. However, circumstances have changed, and a significant portion of that content is now available on Peacock. Despite being a relatively new platform, Peacock has performed exceptionally well and had a fantastic quarter. Congratulations to the entire NBCUniversal and Peacock teams for these results. We have adopted a different model by focusing on an ad-centric, low-cost approach for consumers. This consumer-first perspective is crucial as we seek to create long-term value while remaining profitable. The results we are seeing this quarter reflect this model; last year was our best in EBITDA and EPS in Comcast's 60-year history, and we are on track to outperform that this year. Additionally, we are indifferent to the specific video preferences of our consumers—we want to meet their needs, whether they choose our mobile product or Peacock. This offers them better value and maintains ties with NBC as they shift their viewing habits. We are strategically positioned to navigate this dynamically changing environment, which continues to produce excellent outcomes for the company.

Let me address your question about Peacock. Looking at the NBCUniversal business from a high level, our core focus is producing content. This quarter has been the most successful and profitable in movie business history. We believe our movie sector is unmatched at this time. Our television business has seen significant growth, and we sell content not only to ourselves but to others, as previously mentioned. Our news division stands out, and our sports division is performing very well. To maximize returns in a strong content business, it’s crucial to have flexible platforms that allow for optimal content placement to enhance chances of success. Over the years, we've developed that capability. In terms of Peacock, success can be measured in two ways. First, by integrating this ecosystem with our platform, we gain more flexibility to optimize content returns by matching the right platform with the right content, thereby increasing the chances for shows and movies to perform well. Our goal is for Peacock to reach a scale where we are largely indifferent to whether content is on linear television or Peacock, ensuring we have the best platform available. We are confident we are making progress toward that objective. Secondly, we are investing heavily in Peacock and anticipate that it will achieve a level of profitability that generates returns on that investment, ultimately benefiting shareholders. This quarter has strengthened our confidence in this trajectory. Those are the two key measures of success.

Thanks, Phil. Operator, we have time for one last question.

Hey, thank you. Maybe last one for Dave, back on the Cable side. The business market certainly emerged as one of the drivers of revenue growth in that segment. And it sounds like you guys are having some real success across small, medium and enterprise markets. I mean just any commentary on sort of penetration levels in those markets give us a sense of how much runway you have? And then commentary on sort of the profitability of that business segment versus say the rest of the Cable business? Thanks.

Hey, John, so look we – as Brian mentioned, one of the core growth drivers for us is business services. I'm really glad you asked about it because the team is doing an outstanding job. When you look at our performance in business services, we outperformed all competitors and peers. It really is a very interesting long-term consistent performance from our group. Bill Stemper and the team have really done a terrific job. And we're generating now approaching $10 billion in annual revenue and have a great opportunity to grow further. So it's high margins. And you look at the addressable marketplace, we're serving less than – we have less than 20% share of our addressable marketplace of $50 billion in our footprint. So you break it down SMB, we are – along with share and very focused on that, but we're also very focused on the corollary to what we talked about early in residential is ARPU. And we focus both share and revenue and with WiFi, enhanced WiFi for small business customers, wireless backup, cameras security and now mobile. So we have a strong portfolio to go up against the telephone companies with and it's working. So a very balanced approach towards growth. In mid-market and enterprise, it is a key long-term growth opportunity. And there it's more sophisticated applications like SD-WAN, enhanced security and UCaaS, the advanced unified messaging. So – and Masergy has just been a terrific addition, giving us international scale in being able to help us with certain applications. So no specifics beyond that but it really is a very important part of our business and they're doing a terrific job.

Thanks John. And thank you everyone for joining us this morning.