Comcast improved in Q4, television assets strong

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Comcast and NBCU
The stats are in for Comcast/NBCU for Q4 2012 and for the full year – and the ink of choice will be black. The television assets did well in Q4, and even better for the full year, thanks to some special events.


Overall, the company brought in $15.937B in revenue Q4, a 5.9% gain, and operating cash flow was up 7.3% to $5.277B.

For the full year, the corresponding results were a 12% gain in revenue to $62.57B, with OCF rising 8.8% to $19.977B.

Television assets, which include NBC Television Network and its armada of O&O local broadcast outlets, benefitted from the election year, and realized a Q4 revenue gain of 7.9% to $1.986B. For the year, the gain was a much more dramatic 27.4% to $8.154B – the result of NBC’s carriage of both the Super Bowl and the Olympics.

Brian L. Roberts, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Comcast Corporation, said, “I am really pleased to report strong results for the 4th quarter and the full year of 2012 and delighted that we are able to accelerate the acquisition of General Electric’s 49% common equity interest in NBCUniversal while also having the financial strength to return capital to shareholders. To underscore our confidence, we are increasing our dividend by 20% and plan to repurchase $2 billion of our stock this year. Our businesses have real momentum and we continue to benefit from our focus on operational excellence and to leverage all of our content and technology platforms to expand the entertainment choices we offer consumers. Cable’s fourth quarter and full year results demonstrate consistent improvement in customer metrics and growth in every product, led by High-Speed Internet. NBCUniversal’s results principally highlight the improving performance of our broadcast businesses. Our ongoing investments in programming, technology and new products are driving innovation and supporting this strong performance. As we begin 2013, our scale in distribution and content, combined with our focus on execution and innovation, provides many opportunities to continue to build value for our shareholders.”