Comcast successfully topped Wall Street’s expectations for its third-quarter earnings report, driven by resilient growth in its media division and a milestone performance from its flagship streaming service, Peacock. The positive financial results arrived despite noticeable headwinds across the company’s theme park business, demonstrating a balanced quarter for the telecommunications and entertainment giant.
The company’s Peacock streaming service officially recorded a quarterly profit for the second time since its initial launch in 2020. During the quarter, Peacock posted $261 million in adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization on an impressive $1.8 billion in revenue.
Furthermore, Peacock successfully maintained 48 million paid subscribers, holding flat from the previous quarter while achieving a 17% increase year-over-year. According to Comcast executives, the streaming platform demonstrated strong customer retention even after implementing a subscription price increase in August, marking the fourth consecutive year of pricing adjustments for the service.
Peacock also continued to reap the financial and audience benefits of record-high viewership for the FIFA World Cup. The tournament’s final matches, which played out at the beginning of the quarter, aired extensively on NBCUniversal’s Telemundo network and streamed concurrently on Peacock, driving considerable engagement and user acquisition.
Buoyed by these streaming gains, revenue in Comcast’s media division rose 13% compared to the third quarter of the previous year, reaching $5.4 billion. Meanwhile, the broader content and experiences unit—which encompasses the company’s film studio and theme parks—saw its collective revenue rise by 6.5%.
However, Comcast’s traditional connectivity and platforms sector continued to face structural pressure, registering a 2.7% decline in revenue year-over-year. The company reported a net loss of 144,000 domestic broadband residential customers and a net loss of 274,000 traditional cable customers during the reporting period. In contrast, its expanding mobile business provided a bright spot, successfully adding 368,000 customers.
These subscriber shifts reflect a broader, deliberate strategic pivot for the company. Following years of stagnating growth in broadband services and heightened competition from aggressive wireless providers such as Verizon and T-Mobile, Comcast announced in January 2025 that it would actively refocus its growth strategy on its mobile business while pursuing more competitive pricing models.
"We feel mobile remains a tremendous growth opportunity for us. It’s a capital light model, [which] leverages our existing customer broadband base," said Steve Croney, CEO of Comcast’s connectivity and platforms division, during an earnings call with analysts and investors on Thursday. Investors responded favorably to the updates, sending Comcast shares closing up over 3% on the day of the announcement.
For the period ended September 30, Comcast’s total revenue was down 6% compared to the same period last year. However, corporate leadership noted that when adjusting for the financial impact of the spin-off of Versant, revenue was essentially flat year-over-year.
Net income for the period reached $3.45 billion, or 97 cents per share, compared with $3.33 billion, or 90 cents per share, recorded in the third quarter of 2025. When adjusting for one-time items, including various investments and the value of specific intangible assets, Comcast reported an adjusted earnings per share of $1.07, comfortably outpacing consensus Wall Street forecasts provided by LSEG.
The positive earnings report comes amid a period of monumental structural reorganization for the corporate parent. In June, Comcast announced definitive plans to spin off NBCUniversal and its European media business Sky into separate public entities, dividing them from its core cable, wireless, and business services units. The complex corporate split, which executives estimate will take approximately a year to finalize, will ultimately establish two distinct, independent publicly traded companies.
During the earnings call, Comcast co-CEO Mike Cavanagh confirmed that the company remains "on track" to complete the transaction by mid-2027.
"While there is still significant work ahead, we have a clear path to completion and remain focused on creating two companies with the strategic flexibility, financial strength, and leadership to compete and grow independently," Cavanagh told listeners. "We have tremendous confidence in the future of both companies."
This upcoming separation follows another major restructuring initiative completed earlier this year. In January, Comcast officially finalized the spin-off of most of its traditional cable television networks, alongside an array of digital businesses, into Versant.
While the media and mobile sectors showed robust health, Comcast’s theme park division experienced notable friction during the third quarter. Theme park revenue fell 4.4% to $2.6 billion, a decline that leadership attributed to broader cyclical headwinds and lower revenue per guest from admissions, which were partially dented by promotional activity. Adjusted EBITDA for the division sank 17% compared to the same period last year.
The softness in the parks segment stands in contrast to the company’s aggressive ongoing capital investments in the division. These investments include the recent opening of a new roller coaster at Universal Studios Hollywood during the quarter, as well as the launch of Universal’s massive new theme park property, Epic Universe, which opened last year. By comparison, rival entertainment conglomerate Disney reported record quarterly revenue for its own parks division in August.
Cavanagh acknowledged that alongside macroeconomic pressures, Universal’s theme parks struggled due to sharper, superior marketing efforts from key competitors and initial technological challenges at Epic Universe. To combat these hurdles, the company has implemented leadership adjustments, including the recruitment of Luc Bondar to serve as the chief brand and commercial officer for Universal Destinations and Experiences.
"Looking ahead, we expect performance to strengthen as we move through 2027, with a return to growth in the second half of the year," Cavanagh said. "We remain confident in the underlying strength of the business."
Meanwhile, Comcast’s studios division reported revenue of $2.97 billion, representing a slight 1.1% dip from the third quarter of last year. Despite the minor drop in top-line revenue, adjusted EBITDA for the segment surged 18.6% to reach $402 million, largely aided by lower operating expenses across the board.
The theatrical release of "The Odyssey" in July provided a substantial boost to the studio division, with the blockbuster becoming Universal’s highest-grossing film of all time. Conversely, content licensing revenue dropped 23.7% compared with the comparable quarter, acting as the primary driver behind the overall decrease in studio revenue, according to company financial disclosures.
