By Tali Arbel, Technology Writer
NEW YORK (AP) --Comcast Corp. continued to add internet customers while dropping video subscribers in the second quarter. The company's profit slipped but a key earnings measure topped Wall Street expectations. Shares were flat in morning trading Thursday.
The Philadelphia-based cable company said Thursday that it added 209,000 broadband customers and lost 224,000 video ones as people continued "cutting the cord," a yearslong industry trend. Revenue in its cable division rose thanks to the gain in internet customers. Comcast also raised prices.
The company is launching its own streaming service next year amid a flood of new competitors from Disney, Apple and AT&T as traditional TV customers shrink and ratings fall. It is pulling "The Office" from Netflix to support its own service.
In its NBCUniversal division, which includes the NBC broadcast network, cable networks like Bravo and MSNBC, theme parks and film studios, revenue slipped, pulled down by a 15% drop in its movie division. Last year's quarter included the hit "Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom," which pumped up the box-office take.
Comcast also owns Sky, a European broadcaster, whose revenue fell 3.3%.
Overall, the company's net income fell 2.8% to $3.13 billion, or 68 cents per share. Adjusted for one-time items, earnings were 78 cents per share, topping Wall Street expectations by 3 cents, according to Zacks Investment Research.
Revenue rose 24% to $26.86 billion in the period, missing Wall Street's forecast of $27.19 billion.
Comcast shares were flat in morning trading Thursday. They had increased 32% since the beginning of the year, while the S&P 500 index has risen 20%.
Parts of this story were generated by Automated Insights.
Local school staple “Lost on a Mountain in Maine” from 1939 hits the big screen nationwide
Most Maine schoolchildren know about the boy lost for more than a week in 1939 after climbing the state's tallest mountain. Now the rest of the U.S. is getting in on the story.
Opening in 650 movie theaters on Friday, "Lost on a Mountain in Maine" tells the harrowing tale of 12-year-old Donn Fendler, who spent nine days on Mount Katahdin and the surrounding wilderness before being rescued. The gripping story of survival commanded the nation's attention in the days before World War II and the boy's grit earned an award from the president.
For decades, Fendler and Joseph B. Egan's book, published the same year as the rescue, has been required reading in many Maine classrooms, like third-grade teacher Kimberly Nielsen's.
"I love that the overarching theme is that Donn never gave up. He just never quits. He goes and goes," said Nielsen, a teacher at Crooked River Elementary School in Casco, who also read the book multiple times with her own kids.
Separated from his hiking group in bad weather atop Mount Katahdin, Fendler used techniques learned as a Boy Scout to survive. He made his way through the woods to the east branch of the Penobscot River, where he was found more than 30 miles (48 kilometers) from where he started. Bruised and cut, starved and without pants or shoes, he survived nine days by eating berries and lost 15 pounds (7 kilograms).
The boy's peril sparked a massive search and was the focus of newspaper headlines and nightly radio broadcasts. Hundreds of volunteers streamed into the region to help.
The movie builds on the children's book, as told by Fendler to Egan, by drawing upon additional interviews and archival footage to reinforce the importance of family, faith and community during difficult times,... Read More