Industry Insider: The Final Hours of 2023 with Comcast’s 4th Quarter Earnings Call
On January 24th the Comcast corporation held their final earrings call for the 2023 fiscal year. The presentation featured keynote speakers from the company’s board which includes; Brian Roberts (CEO), Micheal Cavanaugh (President), and Jason Armstrong (CFO). Starting off the call with a peak at the reports to be measured for the first quarter of 2024, Cavanaugh delivers the news of Comcast’s record breaking viewership metrics. In total through the Peacock streaming channel 23 million viewers tuned in to watch the NFL Wildcard playoff as a leadup to this year’s anticipated Super Bowl. The record and new standard for Comcast that has been set was on that day Peacock’s exclusive took up 30 percent of all internet traffic in the U.S. The media and marketing position have evolved drastically during 2023 for Comcast and it seemingly isn’t slowing down in the new year either.
It would be hard to recap the year that Comcast had without the mention of one of the largest celebrated films in recent years, Oppenheimer. Oppenheimer largely holds an impact in the subsidiary company Universal Studios, although its success has been felt throughout the company for its numerous nominations and awards throughout the season. The film in some part contributed to the positive net growth of the company with an aggregate 55 percent total revenue gain across all sectors. Within the overall business of the corporation this is reflected there as well. Comcast continues to supersede expectations by raising margins within the full year revenue and EBITDA closer to the 60 percentile range. This propelled the goalpost by “adding over 1 million new homes and businesses passed and expect[ed] to do at or above this level in 2024”.
Cavanaugh continues on in the call, ensuring the progressive direction of the media segment of the corporation. As it prepares for the Olympics this coming Summer Comcast with the backdrop of Paris behind it, “with the NBC Broadcast Network airing more content than ever before and Peacock as the streaming home for all games, NBCUniversal would be the most comprehensive Olympic destination in U.S. media history”. The expansion of the deliverable content from mass audiences across the global market has made Comcast a great contender amongst their competitors.
The financial stability of the corporation doesn’t falter either as it holds a sense of power through the measurement of free cash flow. In the final quarter alone the free cash amount was generated to a$1.7 billion amount, cushioning the total amount for 2023 to $13 billion. This, along with the privy knowledge of the adjusted EPS increasing to 9 percent for the overall year’s average to amass to $3.98 a share. However, Armstrong admits that there is still room for opportunity with only seeing a 11 percent penetration into the domestic residual broadband accounts within their own ecosystem. A factor to this trend could be pointed toward the decline in video advertisement and other revenue seen in the brand’s connectivity businesses.
Overall, Comcast seems to have an innovative structure that has provided a poignant direction that has built over the history of the corporation. 2023 was a dramatic year for the brand that has fleshed out the success by illuminating the potential for the future for media on a mass scale. This is especially highlighted with the knowledge that Comcasr was able to return $16 billion in capital to its shareholders. With such an impressive feat it is understood that Comcast along with its subsidiaries undeniably hold a considerable amount of respect in the media circuit. Comcast’s 2023 fiscal year should be a powerful motivator to many companies across the entertainment industry, there is a lot to be studied with its attention and drive to superpassing the benchmark.
