Comcast credited its Triple Play bundles for strong results in Q4 2006, as the company added more revenue generating units (RGUs) than at any other time in its history and reported growth in cable revenue and operating cash flow. Some highlights from the quarter:
- Comcast Cable reported revenue of $6.9 billion in the fourth quarter of 2006, an increase of 14% from the prior year. For all of 2006, cable revenue increased 12% to $26.3 billion.
- Video revenue increased 9% reflecting growth in both basic and digital cable customers and increased demand for advanced digital features, such as DVR and HDTV.
- Comcast Cable added 613,000 digital cable subscribers and 110,000 basic cable subscribers during the fourth quarter of 2006, each representing the highest quarterly additions in more than 10 years.
- Driven by increasing ON DEMAND movie purchases, pay-per-view revenue increased 24% to $159 million in 2006. Pay- per-view revenue has increased more than 20% on average for the past eight quarters.
- High-speed Internet revenues increased 23% in the quarter to $1.5 billion. Comcast added 488,000 high-speed Internet subscribers, a 12% increase from the same period last year and relatively stable monthly revenue per subscriber.
- Cable phone revenue increased 77% in the fourth quarter of 2006 to $302 million reflecting the addition of 508,000 CDV customers offset by the decline of 87,000 circuit-switched customers during the quarter.
- Revenue generating units (RGUs) for 2006 increased 69%, or a record 5.0 million from prior year net additions of 3.0 million, to end the year at 50.8 million RGUs.
- Comcast Cable capital expenditures of $1.4 billion for the quarter were 43% higher than the fourth quarter of 2005 driven by the record RGU additions during the period. Comcast added 77% more RGUs in the fourth quarter of 2006 than 2005.
- Comcast's Board of Directors authorized a 3-for-2 stock split - the 11th stock split in our company's history.
- For 2007, Comcast is forecasting cable revenue growth of at least 12%, and cable RGU net additions of approximately 6.5 million, 30% above 2006 RGU net additions of 5 million. Cable capital expenditures are expected to be approximately $5.7 billion.
