Comcast CEO Brian L. Roberts has revealed capital expenditures (Capex) plans for cable and other business divisions for 2018.
Comcast said the Capex for cable business as percentage of cable revenue will decline by up to 50bps vs. 2017. Comcast had made an investment of $7.952 billion towards Capex in cable unit in 2017 as compared with $7.596 billion in 2016.
Comcast said it expects the 2018 NBCUniversal capital expenditures to continue to increase, driven by investment in Theme Parks. Comcast’s Capex for NBCUniversal was $1.502 billion in 2017 as compared with $1.452 billion in 2016.
Comcast has enhanced its Capex by 4.5 percent to $9.550 billion in 2017 from $9.135 billion in 2016 with focus on both cable and NBCUniversal business divisions. Comcast’s Q4 Capex rose 5.4 percent to $2.7 billion.
Comcast has lowered the Cable Capex ratio to sale to 16.2 percent in Q4 2016 from 16.3 percent and 15.1 percent in 2017 from 15.2 percent in 2016.
The US-based broadband and media company said cable communications Capex increased 2.8 percent to $2.2 billion, representing 16.2 percent of Cable revenue in Q4, up 4.7 percent, representing 15.1 percent of Cable revenue in 2017.
The focus of Capex was investment in scalable infrastructure. Comcast said it increased its investment in line extensions, while lowered spending on customer premise equipment and related solutions.
NBCUniversal Capex increased 13.6 percent in Q4 and increased 3.4 percent in 2017 – reflecting investment in Theme Parks and infrastructure.
Comcast said its consolidated revenue for the fourth quarter of 2017 increased 4.2 percent to $21.9 billion with a net income of $15 billion. Total revenue for 2017 increased 5.1 percent to $84.5 billion with net income of $22.7 billion.
Comcast said Q4 revenue for Cable Communications increased 3.4 percent to $13.3 billion, driven primarily by increases in high-speed Internet, business services and video revenue. High-speed Internet revenue increased 8.4 percent, driven by an increase in the number of residential high-speed Internet customers.
Business services revenue increased 12.2 percent, primarily due to increases in the number of customers receiving our small and medium-sized business services offerings.
Comcast’s video revenue increased 1.5 percent, primarily reflecting rate adjustments, as well as an increase in the number of customers subscribing to additional services, partially offset by a decrease in the number of residential video customers.
