Comcast's Growth Hits a Wall

Comcast’s growth has hit a wall, with the company losing subscribers in both its broadband and cable business.

According to Bloomberg, Comcast has lost 490,000 cable TV subscribers in the third quarter, along with 18,000 broadband customers. While the first figure is better than analysts expected the second figure is significantly worse, as analysts expected the company to add10,900 subscribers.

“Growth has halted for Comcast — the largest US broadband provider, with 32 million homes,” said BloombergIntelligence senior media analyst Geetha Ranganathan. “The company derives 80% of profit from cable, where, even after a pandemic-demand surge, broadband has been hurt by fierce competition and low-move activity among customers.”

Peacock, the streaming service operated by Comcast subsidiary NBCUniversal, was significant bright spot. The service added 4 million paying subscribers in the quarter, bringing its total to 28 million.