After Warner defeat, Comcast loads up on Winter Olympics, Super Bowl and NBA

Shaking disconnected its decision successful the Warner Bros. bidding war, Comcast is focusing connected its large sports bet.

NBCUniversal volition broadcast the Winter Olympics, Super Bowl, NBA, Major League Baseball and the World Cup this year.

The Philadelphia elephantine released its fourth-quarter net Thursday and its sports-heavy strategy is revealing some the benefits and costs. NBCUniversal’s caller NBA woody has had the hoped-for effect of boosting subscribers to its Peacock streaming service.

Peacock present has 44 cardinal customers and streaming gross grew 23% to $1.6 billion. But Peacock’s losses swelled to $552 cardinal successful the 4th fourth arsenic the streaming work absorbed the disbursal of NBC’s NBA TV rights statement and an exclusive NFL game.

Comcast executives said during an net telephone that Peacock reduced its full-year losses by $700 cardinal compared to 2024. Last year, the work mislaid $1.1 cardinal and profitability is inactive a ways off.

Comcast Chairman Brian Roberts noted that the amusement manufacture is successful the throes of a large translation and that NBCUniversal has laid the groundwork for its ain metamorphosis. His institution has made a crisp pivot distant from NBC’s 1990s glory days of “Must See TV” comedies, water-cooler dramas similar “ER” and “The West Wing,” arsenic good arsenic a fleet of formidable cablegram channels, including USA and CNBC.

This month, the still-profitable cablegram channels were spun disconnected into a caller institution called Versant.

Comcast entered past fall’s high-stakes Warner auction with hopes of combining NBCUniversal with Warner Bros. to make a caller Hollywood behemoth. But Netflix swooped successful with a $82.7-billion woody and David Ellison’s Paramount Skydance besides made an all-cash bid. Paramount has refused to judge defeat, launching a hostile takeover to effort to assertion its rival — a pursuit that Warner committee members are fighting.

“In presumption of Warner Bros., what tin you say?” Roberts said. “It’s inactive underway, obviously.”

Marrying NBCUniversal and Warner Bros. would person made a compelling company, Roberts said. But arsenic soon arsenic its competitors turned to all-cash offers, “we were conscionable not funny successful these values, stretching our equilibrium expanse to bash thing similar that,” helium said.

NBCUniversal’s Peacock grew to 44 cardinal subscribers.

(Peacock)

The longtime cablegram main pointed to the metallic lining.

Preparing its bid for Warner Bros. “forced america connected the travel to truly instrumentality a bully look astatine what we person and what we’re building,” Roberts said. “We person a fantastic studios concern ... 2026 should beryllium a large twelvemonth for the movie business. ... We person 2 studios successful the tv business, which is feeding Peacock.”

NBCUniversal is moving person to its extremity of becoming “an integrated media concern that is profitable and [has] got a batch of sports,” a streaming work and Universal taxable parks, Roberts said, adding the Warner auction has prompted different firms to sermon imaginable combinations.

NBC, which turns 100 this year, has agelong carried unrecorded sports.

But it has doubled down and February volition beryllium packed with the Winter Olympics successful Italy, the Super Bowl successful San Francisco and the NBA All-Star crippled successful Inglewood.

In March, NBC and Peacock volition statesman broadcasting MLB games, including the Dodgers facing the Arizona Diamondbacks connected opening day.

The company’s Spanish-language web Telemundo volition broadcast the World Cup this summer, including a halt successful Los Angeles.

“We’re precise assured and comfy that we’re successful the close portion of the industry,” Roberts said. “We anticipation the Olympic Games tin connection a infinitesimal of transportation for our state and for radical everywhere” during specified divisive times, helium said.

Comcast has been struggling successful its halfway broadband concern arsenic cell-phone carriers with 5G work person chopped into its erstwhile dominance. Millions of customers person ditched their cablegram TV packages.

The institution switched up absorption successful Philadelphia successful October, installing Steve Croney arsenic main enforcement of its connectivity and platforms business. And Comcast has trimmed immoderate of its net bundle prices to amended compete.

In the 4th quarter, Comcast mislaid 181,000 home broadband customers — much than what analysts had forecast. The institution said immoderate of the losses were offset by gaining planetary customers.

Comcast generated quarterly gross of $32.3 billion, a flimsy summation that was successful enactment with expectations. Adjusted net a stock decreased 12% to 84 cents, higher than expected.

Net income attributed to Comcast came successful astatine $2.2 billion, which was much than 50% little than the year-earlier period. The diminution reflected a pugnacious examination to the anterior twelvemonth period, which included a $1.9 cardinal income taxation payment attributed to an interior firm reorganization.

NBCUniversal produced $12.7 cardinal successful revenue, a 5.4% increase.

The media unit, which includes tv and streaming, contributed $7.6 cardinal successful revenue, a 5.5% gain. (The numbers included results from the profitable cablegram channels, which became a abstracted entity connected Jan. 2.) Higher advertizing income and Peacock, which began carrying the NBA, helped present the gains. Peacock precocious raised its monthly fee.

But media net earlier interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization tumbled 141% to a nonaccomplishment of $122 cardinal to relationship for the NBA contract.

Theme parks, which present boast Epic Universal adjacent Orlando, produced $2.9 cardinal successful gross — a 22% increase. It generated $1 cardinal successful profit.

NBCUniversal’s workplace concern generated $3 cardinal successful revenue, a diminution of 7.4%. It notched $351 cardinal successful earnings, a diminution of 38%.

Although unopen retired of the Oscar nominations, Universal Pictures’ “Wicked: for Good” fetched $1.3 cardinal successful planetary summons sales.

Comcast shares were up 4.3% to $29.63 successful mid-day trading.