Comcast Cable reported revenue of $4.844 billion representing a 10.6% increase from Q3 2003. Video revenue increased 6.6% from Q3 2003, driven by a 5.5% increase in average monthly revenue per basic subscriber and an increase in digital revenue. Some highlights:
- Comcast Cable added 341,000 digital cable subscribers to end the period with over 8.4 million subscribers, or 39.1% of basic subscribers. Basic subscribers of 21.5 million remained essentially unchanged from a year ago but increased 8,500 from the prior quarter. Included in the basic subscriber results for the quarter was the loss of an estimated 10,000 subscribers as a result of the severe hurricane season experienced in parts of Florida and other Southeastern states.
- Growth in video revenue also reflects increasing consumer demand for new digital features, including Comcast ON DEMAND, HDTV programming and digital video recorders (DVRs). During the third quarter, pay-per-view revenues increased nearly 32% to more than $100 million, driven by more movie and event purchases through the Comcast ON DEMAND service. Increasing demand for HDTV and the accelerating rollout of DVRs is also contributing to digital growth. At the end of the third quarter, Comcast had nearly 870,000 set-top boxes in customers' homes offering HDTV and/or DVR service.
- Comcast Cable added a record 549,100 High-Speed Internet subscribers to end the quarter with more than 6.5 million subscribers. Revenues for this service increased 37.9% from the third quarter of 2003 to $808 million reflecting strong subscriber growth and stable average monthly revenue per subscriber of $42.91. Comcast High-Speed Internet service is now available to 94% of the Company's footprint, or 38 million homes.
- Cable phone revenue declined 8.6% from the third quarter of 2003 to $173 million, the result of a 7.5% decrease in subscribers to 1.2 million and stable average monthly revenue per subscriber of $47.18. Comcast said it is continuing to focus on profitability, not unit growth, while it begins the transition from circuit-switched to VoIP.
