Shares of Comcast fell over 9% during Monday’s trading session after Comcast Cable president and CEO Dave Watson warned that the media giant could lose just over 100,000 broadband subscribers in the fourth quarter of 2024.
Watson’s forecast, which was disclosed during UBS’ Global Media and Communications Conference, included around 10,000 broadband subscriber losses from weather-related disruptions from Hurricanes Milton and Helene.
Comcast reported a total of 31.98 million broadband subscribers after shedding 87,000 domestically during its third quarter. Watson noted on Monday that Comcast’s broadband business has surpassed 63 million homes, with around 1 million new homes added this year and close to 1.2 million new homes expected in the upcoming year.
In addition to the broadband subscriber forecast, Watson also touted Comcast’s new multi-year distribution deal with Warner Bros. Discovery for Xfinity and Sky UK, calling it a “win-win” for both companies.
“I think it’s checked a lot of boxes for both of us,” Watson said. “It’s a huge win in that we got the economics that we were looking for from the renewal terms. Really good economics, I think industry-leading, that we have. And we have flexibility.”
“There are two things that we’re looking for in the marketplace at this point: In general, we’re looking for great economics that helps us serve every segment that we go after; and being able to leverage video in a way that partners well for broadband and, again, built for streaming,” he continued. “So we want to have packaging and streaming flexibility so we can take linear and streaming applications and partner it for each segment as we need to. So that flexibility is awfully important, but getting core economics right makes a lot of sense.”
When asked if Comcast would consider forging distribution pacts similar to Charter Communications, which has been bundling direct-to-consumer apps with its video packages, Watson said the company has the flexibility to do that.
“Our strategy is a little different in that we segment the marketplace and, for certain packages, we will include apps now and in the future where it makes sense. But from our standpoint, it won’t necessarily be every tier of video where we’ll do that,” Watson explained.
“We have Now TV that has a lighter amount of linear and FAST channels that we have. There may be some apps that will be included, and there’ll be different offers that we have as we reimagine video for the streaming world and to partner it for broadband, they’re going to need unique value propositions to compete,” he continued. “So from our standpoint, we’d rather do something new and unique in terms of segmentation, versus doing ‘one size fits all.’ But for certain, the high-end segment, it could make a lot of sense. And the important point is, for this particular deal, we have all the flexibility that we need.”
