Comcast's Q3 Earnings Surpass Estimates, Revenues Decrease Y/Y

Comcast CMCSA reported third-quarter 2025 adjusted earnings of $1.12 per share, which beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate by 1.82% and remained flat year over year.

Consolidated revenues decreased 2.7% year over year to $31.2 billion, reflecting an unfavourable comparison to the prior year period, which included incremental revenue from the Paris Olympics. The figure beat the Zacks Consensus Estimates by 1.85%.

CMCSA’s Quarter Details

Connectivity & Platforms revenues (64.7% of revenues) decreased 0.6% year over year to $20.18 billion in the reported quarter.

Under the segment, Residential Connectivity & Platforms revenues decreased 1.5% year over year to $17.6 billion. Business Services Connectivity revenues rose 6.2% year over year to $2.58 billion 

Comcast Corporation Price, Consensus and EPS Surprise

Comcast Corporation price-consensus-eps-surprise-chart | Comcast Corporation Quote

Total Customer Relationships for Connectivity & Platforms decreased 210,000 to 50.9 million, primarily reflecting decreases in Residential Connectivity & Platforms customer relationships

Total domestic broadband customer net losses were 104,000. Total domestic wireless line net additions were 414,000, representing the best quarterly result on record and surpassing 14% penetration of domestic residential broadband customers with a total of 8.9 million lines. Total domestic video customer net losses were 257,000

Content & Experiences revenues (37.6% of revenues) decreased 6.8% year over year to $11.74 billion, though revenues would have increased excluding the $1.9 billion of incremental revenue from the Paris Olympics in the prior year period.

Under the segment, Media revenues decreased 19.9% year over year to $6.59 billion. Excluding the Paris Olympics, Media revenues increased 4.2% to $6.59 billion, primarily driven by higher Peacock revenue and international networks revenue, partially offset by lower linear television network revenues.

Peacock paid subscribers remained sequentially steady at 41 million. Peacock revenues in the third quarter reached $1.4 billion, with EBITDA losses of $217 million, improving by $219 million compared to the prior year period.

Studios revenues rose 6.1% year over year to $3 billion, primarily due to higher content licensing revenues from television studios and increased theatrical revenues. The successful release of Jurassic World Rebirth, which premiered in July and grossed nearly $900 million in worldwide box office year to date, pushed the Jurassic franchise's cumulative total to $7 billion.

Theme Parks revenues increased 18.7% year over year to $2.72 billion, primarily driven by higher revenues at domestic theme parks following the successful opening of Epic Universe in Orlando in May.

CMCSA's Operating Details

Costs and expenses in the third quarter of 2025 declined 2.1% year over year to $25.67 billion.

Programming and production costs decreased 15.1% from the year-ago quarter to $8.66 billion, primarily due to lower sports programming costs associated with the Paris Olympics in the prior year period. Marketing and promotional expenses increased 10.5% year over year to $2.2 billion.

Adjusted EBITDA decreased 0.7% from the year-ago quarter to $9.67 billion.

Total Connectivity & Platforms adjusted EBITDA declined 3.5% year over year to $8.01 billion. Residential Connectivity & Platforms adjusted EBITDA decreased 5.1% to $6.55 billion, reflecting investment in the new go-to-market strategy. Business Services Connectivity adjusted EBITDA increased 4.5% to $1.45 billion with an EBITDA margin of 56.4%.

Content & Experiences adjusted EBITDA increased 8.4% year over year to $1.95 billion. Media adjusted EBITDA rose 28% to $832 million, primarily driven by Peacock improvements. Studios adjusted EBITDA declined 21.9% to $365 million due to higher programming and production expenses and increased marketing costs for theatrical releases. Theme Parks adjusted EBITDA increased 13.1% to $958 million, fueled by Epic Universe operations.

CMCSA's Cash Flow & Liquidity

As of Sept. 30, 2025, cash and cash equivalents totalled $9.33 billion, which decreased from $9.69 billion as of June 30, 2025. 

As of Sept. 30, 2025, consolidated total debt was $99.1 billion, which decreased from $101.5 billion as of June 30, 2025. 

Free cash flow was $4.95 billion in the reported quarter, which increased from $4.5 billion reported in the previous quarter.

In the third quarter of 2025, Comcast generated $8.69 billion in cash from operations, which increased from $7.82 billion reported in the previous quarter. 

Comcast paid dividends totalling $1.2 billion and repurchased 46.0 million of its shares for $1.5 billion, resulting in a total return of capital to shareholders of $2.8 billion.

Zacks Rank & Stocks to Consider

CMCSA currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).

Some better-ranked stocks in the broader Zacks Consumer Discretionary sector are Peloton Interactive PTON, Take Two Interactive TTWO and The Honest Company HNST, each flaunting a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) at present. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

Shares of Peloton Interactive have surged 36.8% year to date. Peloton Interactive Group is slated to report first-quarter fiscal 2026 results on Nov. 6.

Shares of Take Two Interactive have risen 36.7% year to date. Take Two Interactive is slated to report second-quarter fiscal 2026 results on Nov. 6.

Shares of The Honest Company have declined 50.1% year to date. The Honest Company is set to report third-quarter 2025 results on Nov. 5.

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