The big cable companies, Comcast (NASDAQ: CMCSA) and Charter Communication (NASDAQ: CHTR), are having a tough time gaining broadband customers, and boosting revenues, in the face of fierce competition from fiber overbuilders and MNO fixed wireless access offerings. Those challenges are reflected in the numbers that both companies reported in their 3Q24 results.
Philadelphia-based Comcast is a cable, media and entertainment conglomerate that operates in 40 states across the U.S., as well as the District of Columbia. The company provides services to both residential and commercial customers under its Xfinity brand. Comcast reported consolidated revenue of $32.1 billion at the end of the quarter. Its Connectivity & Platforms business (read, cable operations) accounted for $20.3 billion, or 63 percent of the total. According to Inside Towers Intelligence, Comcast’s cable network is the largest in the country, passing 63.4 million locations at the end of 3Q.
That figure grew by two percent year-over-year as the company continues to upgrade and expand its cable plant. Comcast had capital expenditures of $1.9 billion in its Connectivity & Platform segment, down six percent YoY. Under competitive pressure, domestic broadband customers declined one percent YoY to 32 million after incurring 306,000 net losses in the intervening 12 month period.
Domestic wireless subscribers grew to 7.5 million, up 20 percent YoY on the strength of an average of 310,000 net adds per quarter since 3Q23. Xfinity Wireless, for now, is a Verizon MVNO. Comcast spent $459 million in FCC Auction 105 for 860 3.5 GHz CBRS Priority Access Licenses in 306 counties. The company has been testing the installation and operation of its own strand-mounted small cells that use the CBRS spectrum but has yet to roll out its own wireless infrastructure in a big way.
During the company’s 3Q24 earnings call, in response to an analyst’s question regarding a potential spin off of its cable operations, Comcast President Mike Cavanagh stated, “I want to be clear … we’re going to commence a study of whether there’s a good idea in … creating a new well-capitalized company that would go to our existing shareholders, comprised of our cable portfolio networks.”
By comparison, Charter Communications, with headquarters in Stamford, CT, and operations in 41 states under its Spectrum brand, is the second largest cableco by customers, according to Inside Towers Intelligence. At the end of 3Q24, the company increased its network coverage by three percent YoY to 58.2 million passings. But its customer total dropped by one percent from 32.3 million in 3Q23 to 31.7 million. Within that tally, Charter’s broadband customers declined one percent YoY to 30.3 million. Since 3Q23, the company has had a net loss of 392,000 subscribers.
Selling mobile services to its existing customers has been a success story for Charter, however. Similar to Comcast, Charter spent $464 million for 210 3.5 GHz CBRS PALs in 106 counties. Like Comcast, Charter today operates as a Verizon MVNO but at some point, will take advantage of owner economics and transition those mobile customers to its own wireless infrastructure. In the past 12 months, Charter garnered 2.1 million mobile net adds to reach nearly 9.4 million mobile customers at the end of 3Q24, leading all other non-MNO service providers.
Charter’s $2.6 billion capex in the quarter was down 13 percent YoY from nearly $3 billion in 3Q23. The company says it will continue investing in its network to support increasing data throughput that its customers are generating.
By John Celentano, Inside Towers Business Editor
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