Comcast Hopes to Match or Exceed 2023's Network Expansion

Peacock subscribers were up and residential broadband customers slightly down in Q4, Comcast said Friday as it announced its Q4 2023 results. In a call with analysts, President Mike Cavanagh said that while Comcast hopes to see renewed funding of the Affordable Connectivity Program, the company has begun communicating with its 1.4 million ACP participants and "will provide a range of options" if funding is discontinued. Revenue for the quarter was $31.3 billion, up 2.3% year over year, Comcast said. It added that during 2023, its network grew, passing an additional 1.1 million homes and businesses. It now has 62.5 million passings. Cavanagh said Comcast should be "at or above" that level in 2024. Comcast said it started rolling out multi-gig symmetrical speeds in some markets in Q4, and deployed mid-split technology to 35% of its footprint as of the end of the year as a route to faster broadband speeds. Chief Financial Officer Jason Armstrong said mid-split deployments should be across 50% of its network by year's end. Peacock ended the year with 31 million subscribers, adding 3 million in Q4, Comcast said. It said Peacock revenue for the quarter topped $1 billion, up 47%. Comcast ended the year with 29.7 million residential broadband subs, down slightly from 29.8 million in Q4 2022, and 6.6 million wireless lines, up from 5.3 million at 2022’s end. It ended Q4 with 14.1 million video subs, down 2 million year over year. Cavanagh said broadband competition "is likely to remain at these levels" for now; however, broadband remains "a very large, healthy and profitable market." LightShed’s Walt Piecyk posted on X that broadband subscriber trends aren’t likely to change soon, with revenue growth from price hikes instead. Asked about Comcast's participation in NTIA's broadband equity, access and deployment program, Comcast Cable CEO Dave Watson said the company "plan[s] to participate where it is consistent with our business goals," but the BEAD process "is still in flux." He said Comcast is looking at wireless/broadband bundled packages as a route to further wireless growth.