BENGALURU: A few days ago, Comcast Corporation (Comcast) reported a 4 per cent y-o-y growth in consolidated revenue (TR) in Q3-2014 to $ 16,791 million from US$ 16151 million in Q3-2013. However, q-o-q, the company’s revenue was almost flat with a fractional drop of 0.3 per cent from $ 16,844 million.
As per the company’s press release, it receives advertisement revenue (Ad Rev) from two business streams: Cable Communications and its subsidiary NBC Universal.
Ad revenues from two segments that contribute to NBC Universal’s ad revenues include Cable Networks and Broadcast Television while NBC Universal’s other segments includes Filmed Entertainment and Theme Parks.
Advertisement Revenue dropped in the earlier quarter Q2-2014 by 14.1 per cent as compared to Q1-2014 and it has dropped further q-o-q by 8.4 per cent in Q3-2014. Over the 11 quarter period (period under consideration) starting Q1-2012 (quarter ended 31 March, 2012) till Q3-2014 (quarter ended 30 September, 2014 or current quarter), the company’s Total advertisement revenue (Ad Rev) shows a downward linear trend in terms of percentage of TR.
However during the period under consideration, the company’s Ad Rev in absolute dollar terms shows a slight upward trend, as do the Ad Rev from Comcast’s Cable Communication as well as NBC Universal business streams.
For Q3-2014, as mentioned above, the company’s Ad Rev was down 8.4 per cent to $ 2,556 million (15.2 per cent of TR) from $ 2,789 million (16.6 per cent of TR) in Q2-2014, but was 3.1 per cent more than the $ 2,480 million (15.4 per cent of TR) in the corresponding year ago quarter.
Over the 11 quarters under consideration, the company’s average Ad Rev in terms of percentage of Comcast TR has been reported at 17.3 per cent. As mentioned above, the company’s Ad Rev in terms of percentage of TR was much lower during Q3-2014 at 15.2 per cent of TR and at 16.6 per cent of TR during Q2-2014.
Also, for the period under consideration, the highest contribution by Ad Rev in terms of percentage of TR as well as absolute value in dollars was in Q3-12 at $ 3,403 million (20.6 per cent of TR), while the lowest figure for the same period was in Q1-2013 at 14.8 per cent of TR and $ 2,268 million. Please refer to figure 1 for details of Comcast’s Ad Rev during the eleven quarters under consideration.
Cable Communications Ad Rev
As shown in figure 1, Ad Rev from Cable Communications is at a lesser fraction of the company’s Total Ad Rev, averaging around 20.3 per cent of the company’s total Ad Rev during the period under consideration. This trend however seems to be changing with Cable Communications Ad Rev increasing for the second quarter in a row. In Q3-2014, Ad Rev from Cable Communications was 1.3 per cent higher at $ 607 million (5.5 per cent of Cable Communications TR, 23.7 per cent of Comcast Ad Rev, 3.6 per cent of Comcast TR) than the $ 599 million in Q2-2014 (5.4 per cent of Cable Communications TR, 21.5 per cent of Comcast Ad Rev, 3.6 per cent of Comcast TR) and 12.2 per cent more than the $ 541million in Q3-2013 (5.2 per cent of Cable Communications TR, 21.8 per cent of Comcast Ad Rev, 3.3 per cent of Comcast TR).
Impact of NBC Universal Ad Revenue on Comcast Revenue
NBC Universal Ad Rev contributes around 80 per cent to Comcast’s Ad Rev. Obviously, a drop in Ad Rev by both or either of these NBC Universal’s segments will affect Comcast Ad Rev and Comcast TR.
About 60 per cent of NBC Universal’s Ad Rev comes from Broadcast Television. Please refer to figure 2 below for the breakup of NBC Universal’s Ad Rev break-up. In Q3-2014, both of NBC Universal’s segments’ Ad Revs have de-grown.
NBC reported a fall of 11 per cent in Ad Rev in Q3-2014 to $ 1,949 million (32.9 per cent of NBC Universal TR, 76.3 per cent of Comcast Ad Rev, 11.6 per cent of Comcast TR) from $ 2,190 in Q2-2014 (36.4 per cent of NBC Universal TR, 78.5 per cent of Comcast Ad Rev, 13 per cent of Comcast TR), but was just 0.5 per cent more than $ 1,939 million in Q3-2013 (33.1 per cent of NBC Universal TR, 78.2 per cent of Comcast Ad Rev, 12 per cent of Comcast TR).
Cable Networks, on the other hand reported a bigger drop of 15.8 per cent in their Ad Rev reported at $ 796 million (40.8 per cent of NBC Universal Ad Rev, 13.4 per cent of NBC Universal TR, 31.1 per cent of Comcast Ad Rev, 4.4 per cent of Comcast TR) from $ 945 million in Q2-2014 (43.2 per cent of NBC Universal Ad Rev, 15.7 per cent of NBC Universal TR, 33.9 per cent of Comcast Ad Rev and 5.6 per cent of Comcast TR), and 4.7 per cent less than the $ 835 million in Q3-2013 (43.1 per cent of NBC Universal Ad Rev, 14.3 per cent of NBC Universal TR, 33.7 per cent of Comcast Ad Rev and 5.2 per cent of Comcast TR). The company attributes lower Ad Rev from this segment to a drop in ratings.
In Q3-2014, Broadcast TV Ad Rev fell 7.4 per cent in Q3-2014 to $ 1,153 million (59.2 per cent of NBC Universal Ad Rev, 19.5 per cent of NBC Universal TR, 45.1 per cent of Comcast Ad Rev and 6.9 per cent of Comcast TR) from $ 1,245 million in Q2-2014 (56.8 per cent of NBC Universal Ad Rev, 20.7 per cent of NBC Universal TR, 44.6 per cent of Comcast Ad Rev and 7.4 per cent of Comcast TR), but 4.4 per cent more than $ 1,104 million in Q3-2013(59.2 per cent of NBC Universal Ad Rev, 19.5 per cent of NBC Universal TR, 45.1 per cent of Comcast Ad Rev and 6.9 per cent of Comcast TR).
