Comcast lost 144,000 domestic broadband customers in the third quarter of 2026, up from a loss of 91,000 a year earlier, the company said in its third-quarter earnings release on Thursday. It has also paused share repurchases, a decision that has little to do with this quarter and a great deal to do with the next two years.
The headline numbers are mixed rather than bad. Revenue was $29.298 billion, down 6.1 per cent, but Comcast attributes the fall to the Versant separation, completed on 2 January, and the sale of its Sky operations in Germany, completed on 31 May. On a pro forma basis, revenue rose 0.5 per cent. Adjusted earnings per share fell 4.0 per cent to $1.07. The more telling detail sits beneath those totals.
How many customers is Comcast losing, and why?
Comcast's domestic broadband base fell to 28.343 million customers from 28.897 million a year earlier, a loss of about 554,000 customers, or roughly 1.9 per cent, by this publication's arithmetic. Domestic video lost another 274,000 customers in the quarter. Wireless went the other way: Comcast added 368,000 lines and now has 10.555 million, which it says is nearly 18 per cent penetration of its domestic residential broadband customers.
On the earnings call, according to a transcript published by The Motley Fool, Chief Financial Officer Jason Armstrong pointed to "particularly aggressive fiber promotions in certain markets" and a higher than usual number of legacy customers facing pricing transitions, which he described as "largely two years promotional roll-off." Asked about competition, he said: "It's been more competitive in the second half than it has been in the first half for sure." He said Comcast expects "further slight improvement in these underlying financial trends in the fourth quarter."
The revenue line shows the cost. Domestic broadband revenue fell 4.7 per cent to $6.241 billion, and Comcast's release says the decline reflects lower average rates as well as fewer customers. Because revenue fell by more than twice the percentage drop in customers, revenue per customer fell, by roughly 2.9 per cent on a simple comparison of quarter-end customers, by our arithmetic. Comcast is paying for retention with price, not only losing customers to rivals.
| Measure (third quarter) | 2026 | 2025 | Change | |---|---|---|---| | Domestic broadband net customer change | (144,000) | (91,000) | worse | | Domestic wireless line net additions | 368,000 | 414,000 | fewer | | Domestic broadband revenue | $6.241 billion | $6.550 billion | down 4.7% | | Peacock adjusted EBITDA | $261 million | ($217 million) | up $478 million | | Theme Parks adjusted EBITDA | $780 million | $940 million | down 17.1% | | Free cash flow | $4.211 billion | $4.945 billion | down 14.8% |
Source: Comcast third-quarter 2026 earnings release.
What is propping up the media side?
Content & Experiences revenue rose 6.5 per cent to $10.537 billion and its adjusted EBITDA rose 29.3 per cent to $1.8 billion. Media revenue rose 13.0 per cent, including $224 million of incremental FIFA World Cup revenue. Excluding the tournament, Comcast says, Media revenue still rose 8.3 per cent.
Peacock delivered its second consecutive profitable quarter, with $261 million of adjusted EBITDA on $1.8 billion of revenue, figures that include World Cup amounts. A year earlier it lost $217 million on $1.4 billion. Paid subscribers rose 17 per cent to 48 million. Studios EBITDA rose 18.6 per cent to $402 million, helped by The Odyssey, which Comcast calls Universal's highest-grossing film of all time, with nearly $1.8 billion at the worldwide box office this year. Universal became the first studio to pass $5 billion at the global box office in 2026, the company said.
Where is the weak spot in the parks?
Theme Parks revenue fell 4.4 per cent to $2.597 billion and adjusted EBITDA fell 17.1 per cent to $780 million. Comcast said the revenue decline came mainly from lower park admissions, "including from the impact of increased promotional activity," and that operating costs at its domestic parks rose.
On the call, Armstrong said "softer demand and difficult comparisons in Orlando" would remain headwinds in the fourth quarter. Cavanagh said he expected the Orlando softness to continue into the first half of next year and pointed to "a return to growth in the second half of the year." Promotions that cut admissions revenue are a sign that demand is being bought, not simply met.
Why did Comcast stop buying back stock?
Comcast paid $1.2 billion in dividends in the quarter. The release says it suspended its share repurchase programme beginning in the third quarter and expects the pause to remain in place through the proposed separation of its businesses into two independent publicly traded companies. Armstrong said the aim is to ensure "both businesses are positioned with strong balance sheets and investment grade ratings." Cavanagh said Comcast is "on track to complete the transaction by the middle of next year."
Free cash flow of $4.211 billion covered the dividend about 3.5 times, by this publication's arithmetic. But Armstrong said the quarter included "favorable timing impacts that we expect to reverse in the fourth quarter," and that the fourth quarter will carry a significant charge "related mostly to our transformation efforts," which he put at "over $1 billion."
What happens next?
Co-chief executives Brian Roberts and Mike Cavanagh said in the release that near-term results in Connectivity & Platforms "reflect the investments we're making to navigate an increasingly dynamic environment." The test is the fourth quarter. If broadband losses narrow from 144,000 while the new pricing holds, the fiber pressure is manageable. If they do not, the company that carries the cable business into 2027 starts life with a shrinking base and less balance-sheet room than the one that built it. The pressure is not unique to Comcast: AT&T added 442,000 fiber customers in the quarter, the kind of competitor Armstrong described.
All reported figures, the buyback suspension and the Roberts and Cavanagh quotation are from Comcast's third-quarter 2026 earnings release, filed as Exhibit 99.1 to its Form 8-K on 22 October 2026. Remarks by Jason Armstrong, chief financial officer, and Mike Cavanagh, co-chief executive, on churn, fiber competition, the fourth-quarter outlook and charge, free cash flow timing, theme parks and the separation timetable are from a transcript of the earnings call published by The Motley Fool on 22 October 2026; Comcast had not posted its own transcript when this was written. The year-on-year change in broadband customers, the revenue-per-customer comparison and the dividend cover are this publication's arithmetic. The analysis is our own.
Topics mediabroadbandearningsstreaming
