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Friday, July 23, 2010

Ads aid Comcast, but FCC move a threat: reports

Comcast quarterly earnings are due next week, and they'll be boosted by "solid revenue growth" for advertising (which is also boosting U.S. newspapers, billboards, magazines and radio, but especially cable and broadcasting); a gain of over 700,000 customers in digital video, high-speed Internet and voice customers (minus a 100,000+ loss of basic cable users); and limited capital spending, writes David C. Joyce, analyst at Miller Tabak + Co., in a note to clients.

By contrast, Verizon added 174,000 net FiOS TV customers in the quarter, the company said today - more than expected, but still a "dramatic decline" from over 300,000 new FiOS TV users last year. Verizon also picked up nearly 200,000 new FiOS Internet users.

Separately: Comcast keeps piling on the paperwork to justify its planned purchase of NBC Universal. Read latest 300-plus-page filings, dated 7/21, at the FCC here.

Longterm, things are less rosy for the cable broadband Internet business, writes Craig Moffett of Bernstein Research. He expects the FCC (while approving the NBCU merger) will go ahead and start regulating (reregulating?) broadband Internet distribution by companies like Comcast.

Will the FCC limit prices? "The FCC's protests that they have no intention of regulating rates are not entirely persuasive," since the Communications Act of 1934, which FCC says gives it this power, not only allows but frankly "compels... rate regulations," Moffett told clients in his weekly note today.  While Comcast and its allies (and key Republicans) are fighting hard to keep the FCC at bay, "the 'vast majority' of comments favor" regulation, boosting the FCC's case.

With all the legal challenges, "this is gonna take awhile." But there may be, after all, a case for getting the government involved, notes Moffet: The U.S. now ranks just 23rd on Strategic Analytics' list of "the top 57 countries for broadband" Internet use.
Posted by Joseph N. DiStefano @ 2:14 PM  Permalink | 4 comments
Comments   
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 7:39 AM, 07/25/2010
    And how does this keep my rates going up twice a year?
    — richw38
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 8:54 AM, 07/25/2010
    During a horrible recession, Comcast raised its rates again. I know Brian Roberts really likes getting $400 million a year, but how about some awareness of what the rest of us are going through?
    — Susie from Philly
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 10:19 AM, 07/25/2010
    GREED WILL IMPRISON US ALL!!!
    — timmy12
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 9:05 PM, 07/25/2010
    Susie want is really sad is the idiots keep paying it
    — JFM557


4 comments
About Joseph N. DiStefano
Joseph N. DiStefano writes this blog to feed his PhillyDeals column in the Philadelphia Inquirer. Joe has been a member of Bloomberg LP’s New York Finance Team, wrote the book “Comcasted,” taught writing at St. Joseph’s University, and studied economics and history at Penn. Reach Joe at 215-854-5194 and JoeD@phillynews.com
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