Comcast 1 q earnings rise 9 pct to beat Street (PA)

NEW YORK--Comcast Corp., the largest company of cable TV in the country, on Tuesday, said earnings exceeded estimates for the first quarter, helped by results in health both in its operations of cable and the newly acquired business of NBC Universal.

Comcast said that it loses only 39 000 customers of cable TV in the quarter, wear lowest in four years. Cable companies lost customers in the company of satellite services and telephone.

Even if Comcast did a better job of keeping subscribers, video society Internet Netflix Inc. surpassed Comcast in the quarter. Netflix ended in March with 22.8 million U.S. subscribers, about 34 000 more than Comcast.

But Comcast takes advantage of the growing popularity of Netflix and other Internet services which require Internet connections high speed. In the first quarter, it added 10 clients of Internet, broadband for every TV customer that she lost. Who indicated that Comcast is pick up a market share of telephone companies and other providers of Internet services.

The Philadelphia-based company reported a net income of $ 943 million, or 34 cents per share, for the first three months of the year. This is an increase of 9% of 866 million, or 31 cents a year ago.

Excluding expenses related to the agreement NBC, which closed in January, earnings came to 36 cents per share. Which exceeded the average 34 cents expected by analysts surveyed by FactSet.

Income increased by 32% to $ 12.1 billion. That also beat 11.45 billion expected by analysts. Income from the quarter last year did not include NBC Universal.

At NBC Universal, revenues fell because the figure of last year has been strengthened by the Olympic Winter Games. Other than the Olympic Games, income increased by 5%, mainly helped by its cable networks, which include Bravo, E! and the us. Advertising revenue rose by 14% on wired networks, pursuing a resumption of recession that has been thrown TV station owners results more.

Comcast paid to General Electric Co. 13.75 billion in cash and goods 51% of NBC Universal in a deal that closed in January. The first quarter of Comcast results include two months of NBC Universal.

Comcast shares rose 50 cents, or nearly 2%, $27.11 in extended trade after the publication of the results. Regular exchange of Tuesday, the shares reached $26.92, the highest level since 2007.