NBCU TV revenues down in Q1
May 5, 2015
NBCUniversal witnessed a 5.5 per cent rise in revenueduring the first quarter of 2015 -coming from advertising and higher transmission fees. NBC says this year’s Super Bowl pulled in $376 million, while first-quarter 2014 tallied $1.1 billion for the Sochi Olympics.
Overall revenue for NBCUniversal dropped 4 per cent to $6.6 billion. Excluding any sports programming gave NBC nearly an 8 per cent rise to $6.2 billion. Total NBC broadcast revenue was down 14.2 per cent to $2.2 billion. Cable networks were also down 5.9 per cent to $2.36 billion.
NBCUniversal’s film unit had a 7 per cent increase in revenue to $1.4 billion due to higher content licensing, the box office success of the Fifty Shades of Gray movie and home entertainment revenue. Theme Parks were up 34 per cent to $651 million.
Comcast’s cable business lost 8,000 video subscribers, but gained 407,000 for high-speed Internet and 77,000 voice customers. Local cable advertising revenue dipped .0.7 per cent to $504 million.
Comcast’s recent failed efforts to acquire Time Warner Cable amounted to $99 million in the first quarter of this year.
Company-wide revenues at Comcast were 2.6 per cent higher to $17.9 billion; with net profit 10 per cent higher to $2.1 billion.