Comcast (CMCSA) lost about 144,000 home-internet customers in three months. That's more than Wall Street expected and far more than the 91,000 it lost a year earlier. Now the cable giant plans what it calls the biggest shake-up in its history. It expects to take a charge of more than $1 billion for it in the fourth quarter.
Co-CEO Mike Cavanagh told analysts the company is “challenging established ways of working.” He said the changes should help long-term profit and cash flow. Sales in the unit that holds the internet business fell 2.6% to $19.66 billion, a bigger drop than Wall Street expected. Total revenue fell 6.1% to $29.3 billion, mostly because Comcast spun off some businesses into a company called Versant and sold Sky's German operations. Leave those out and revenue didn't move much. Peacock, its streaming service, grew revenue 34% to $1.82 billion. Comcast's stock rose 3.4% on Thursday, Oct. 22, after adjusted earnings beat forecasts.
It's a fight over your house. Phone companies sell home internet with low prices and short-term deals. Comcast and other big providers answer by promising to lock your price for several years, the Journal's Kelly Cloonan reported. AT&T (T) shows the other side. It added a record 769,000 internet customers last quarter. That's 442,000 on fiber and 327,000 on fixed wireless, home internet sent over a cell network.
AT&T beat and still fell
AT&T raised its profit outlook for the year to about $2.40 a share, from $2.25 to $2.35. Revenue rose 5.3% to $32.3 billion. The stock still slid more than 6% to $21.91 on Wednesday, Oct. 21. Its phone numbers let some investors down. It added 379,000 monthly-plan phone customers, and analysts had wanted about 379,300. Rising costs didn't help, either. They went up 3.6%. AT&T is held at weight in three books and Verizon (VZ) in eight. Nothing added.
Our read
This is Cash Flow, M5. Your internet bill is one of the few household costs where big companies are fighting each other for you right now. Comcast is losing customers. AT&T is winning them with fiber and fixed wireless. That kind of fight tends to show up as promotions and price locks. The best of them often go to people who ask.
Your connection is the internet and phone lines on your monthly bills. This week, pull up the internet bill and find two things, the monthly price and the date any promotion ends. Then check what fiber or fixed wireless costs at your address. It's usually a quick search on a provider's site. Call your current provider with that number and ask for its price lock. If you pay for a TV bundle you rarely watch, ask what you'd pay without it. The time to shop is before the promo runs out, the way you buy salt before the first ice storm. If you'd like all your monthly bills looked at together, bring them to your next review.