Comcast lost another half a million video customers in the United States in the second quarter of 2023. The company no longer reports numbers for Sky subscribers in the Europe, preferring to report residential connectivity and platforms customers, of which it has 52.28 million across the United States and Europe.
Comcast reported revenues of $30.5 billion for the second quarter of 2023, up 1.7% on the same quarter the previous year. Free cash flow was up 7.9% to $3.4 billion for the quarter.
The number of Comcast video customers fell by a further 543,000 to 14.99 million, down from 17.14 million a year before.
Given the steady decline in its cable video subscriptions, Comcast is emphasising its residential connectivity and platforms customer relationships. These stood at 31.76 million in the United States at the end of the first half of 2023, down by 194,000 over a year. Internationally, it has 17.88 million, down by 167,000 in a quarter but up by 96,000 in a year. Across the United States and Europe, they were down by 200,000 in a quarter and 71,000 in a year to 52.28 million.
Comcast previously reported total Sky customer relationships of 23 million at the end of 2022, including around 5 million not included in the connectivity and platforms segment.
The media, studios and theme parks businesses are now presented in a content and experiences segment, with revenues of $10.9 billion up 4% compared to the same quarter the previous year.
Of that, media contributed $6.20 billion. That included $820 million from Peacock, with revenue up 85% and paid subscribers nearly doubled over the year to 24 million, up by 2 million in the second quarter. However, there was a $651 million loss on the Peacock business.