Business Segments of Comcast Corporation

Business Name	Comcast Corporation
Headquarters	Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States
Industries served	Entertainment, Media and Technology
CEO	Brian L Roberts.
Net Revenues 2021	$90,926
Net Income 2021	$13,833
Employees	189,000

About Comcast

Comcast is a leading international media and technology company based in the United States. Incorporated in December 2001, under the laws of Pennsylvania, the company has its headquarters in Philadelphia. However, it has been in operation since 1963 and in the business of managing and operating cable systems. The company has made some important acquisitions in its history to achieve faster growth. Over the last five years, it has experienced consistent growth in its net revenues.

The chairman and CEO of Comcast is Brian L Roberts. The company completed its acquisition of NBC Universal in 2013. Following that, it also acquired Sky in 2018. It has divided its business operations into five major segments. The largest of these five segments is the Comcast Cable which is also referred to as Cable communications. In 2021, this segment accounted for 53% of the total net revenues of the company.

In this article, we will discuss the five operating segments of Comcast.

Brief description of the business segments of Comcast Corporation:

Cable Communications:

The cable communications segment of Comcast includes the operations of Comcast Cable. It provides broadband, video, voice, wireless, and other services to customers in the United States through the Xfinity brand. The company also offers its services to the business customers and sells advertising services.

Media:

The media segment of Comcast mainly includes the television and streaming platforms of NBC Universal. This segment includes the national, regional and international cable networks, NBC and Telemundo broadcast networks as well as NBC and Telemundo owned local broadcast TV stations and peacock.

Studios:

The studios segment of Comcast mainly includes the film and television studio production and distribution operations of NBC Universal.

Theme Parks:

This segment includes the operations of Comcast Corporation’s Universal theme parks in Orlando, Florida; Hollywood, California; Osaka, Japan; and Beijing, China.

Sky:

Sky is a leading European entertainment company and mainly includes DTC business offering video, broadband, voice and wireless phone services, and a content business, operating entertainment networks, the Sky News broadcast network and Sky Sports networks.

Apart from these five leading segments, Comcast’s business interests include Comcast Spectacor. Spectacor owns the Philadelphia Flyers and the Wells Fargo Center arena in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Detailed description of the business segments of comcast corporation:

Cable communications Segment:

The Cable communication segment offers broadband, video, voice, wireless, and other services to both individual and business customers in the United States. Apart from selling subscriptions of its services to individual and business customers, the company also gee rates revenues from advertising.

Comcast offers broadband services to over 29.6 million customers and video services to over 17.5 million customers. It also offers vice services using VOIP to more than 9.1 million customers. The company offers broadband services over its hybrid Fiber-optic and coaxial cable network with downstream speeds up to over a gigabit per second. It offers its eligible customers flex- a streaming device that includes integrated search functionality and a voice activated remote control. Users can stream content from Peacock’s premium tier using Flex and other third party apps like Disney+ and Netflix.

Comcast offers a wide variety of video services through its X1 platform. X1 is similar to flex and allows customers to access cable video service packages and stream content online from platforms like Netflix and Disney. Comcast offers a large range of cable packages starting from the basic packages that allow customers to access 20 to 65 channels to full-service packages that allow access to more than 300 million customers.

Media Segment:

The media segment of Comcast mainly includes the television and streaming platforms of NBC Universal:

• National, regional and international cable networks.
• NBC and Telemundo broadcast networks and the local broadcast television stations that they own.
• Peacock the DTC streaming service owned by NBC Universal.

NBC universal had a wide portfolio of television networks and streaming platforms that cater to the interests and preferences of a wide range of audiences across various demographics and geographies.

This segment includes the NBC universal owned programming as well licensed programming. The media segment generates revenues mainly through the sale of advertising on the various television networks owned by NBC universal, Peacock and other digital properties as well as from the distribution of its television and streaming network programming. The advertising prices vary by the demographic being targeted ratings of the various television networks, and the number of advertisements placed.

NBC:

The NBC network distributes original entertainments, news and sports programming to television households in the United States through a network of 200 affiliated stations including NBC owned 11 local broadcast TV stations. As of December 31, 2021, the NBC owned Local TV stations reached 35 million TV households in the United States or 28% of all the TV households.

Telemundo:

Telemundo is a Spanish language broadcast network that offers original entertainment, live specials, and sports programming  to viewers in more than 90% of all the US based Hispanic television households through 82 affiliated stations, which also include Telemundo owned 30 local TV stations.

Peacock:

Peacock is Comcast Corporation’s DTC streaming service launched in 2020. It offers NBCUniversal content including exclusive Peacock originals, current NBC and Telemundo shows, news, late-night comedy, live sports and a wide range of television shows and movies. Customers can access tens of thousands of hours of programming. It provides three tiers of service including:

• a free, ad-supported version;
• a subscription based, ad-supported version with access to all Peacock content;
• and a similar subscription based, ad-free version.

Programming:

Comcast Corporation’s television and streaming platforms include content licensed from its studios segment and third parties as well as the content that is produced by its media segment businesses like News, sports, certain original shows like late night comedies and telenovelas for Telemundo.

Studios Segment:

The studios segment of Comcast mainly includes the film and television studio production and distribution operations of NBC Universal. This segment generates its revenues mainly from licensing of its owned content including film and television content in the United States and abroad to cable, broadcast and premium networks, and DTC streaming services providers. Other sources of revenue for this segment include video on demand and pay per view services provided through multichannel video providers and OTT services providers. The studios segment also generates its revenues from the worldwide distribution of its produced and acquired movies for exhibition in theatres. It also sells its owned and acquired content on DVDs and through digital subscription services. Another important source of its revenue is the production and licensing of live stage plays.

The operations of the studios segment can be divided into two segments including television and film studios.

Film Studios:

The film studios segment makes, acquires, markets, and distributes films worldwide. It makes films under the following brand names.:

• Universal pictures
• Illumination
• Dreamworks Animation
• Focus Features
• Working Title

Apart from distributing its films to movie theatres worldwide, the company also sells films to the DTC streaming services providers. Comcast also makes films in collaboration with other companies.

Television Studios:

The television studios segment makes original content including scripted and unscripted television series. The brand name of the NBBC Universal’s television studio group is the Universal Studio Group and makes content under the following brand names:

• Universal television
• Universal Content productions
• Universal Television Alternative Studio
• Universal International Studios

Initially, the company mainly licenses its television content to cable, broadcast and premium networks, as well as streaming services providers includign its own media segment.

Theme Parks Segment:

The Theme parks segment of the company includes the following theme parks:

Universal Orlando resort: The Universal Orlando resort includes two theme parks – Universal Studios Florida and Islands of Adventure, and a water park, Volcano Bay – all located in Orlando, Florida.

Universal studios Hollywood: The Universal Studios Hollywood includes a theme park located in Hollywood, California and Universal City Walk Hollywood.

Universal Studios Japan::

The Universal Studios Japan includes a theme park located in Osaka, Japan.

Universal Beijing Resort: The Universal Beijng resort opened in September 2021. It includes a theme park located in Beijing, China, Universal Studios Beijing, as well as Universal City Walk Beijing and on-site themed hotels.

Sky Segment:

Sky is among Europe’s leading entertainment companies that operates across six territories including the UK, Italy and Germany. This segment generates most of its revenues from the direct to consumer business that has around 23 million customers. Its operations mainly involve the distribution of a wide array of video channels. Sky owns a diverse portfolio of video channels which offer entertainment, news, sports and movies. The Sky segment of the company is divided into three subsegments that include direct to consumer, advertising and content. The company delivers its direct to consumer services through both satellite transmissions and streaming services. Sky markets these services under its own brand name in the UK, Germany, Italy, Ireland, and Austria.

Sky operates a diverse portfolio of Sky brand channels including:

• Entertainment channels that feature entertainment content including Sky Max, Aky Atlantic and Sky Showcase.
• Premium sports channels that operate under the Sky Sports brand and mainly dedicated to a specific sports including European Football.
• Premium movie channels that operate under the Sky Cinema brand including family and children’s movie channels.
• Sky branded free to air channels including sky news.

Sky also sells advertising across its owned television channels.

The following table shows the net revenues of Comcast from each of its operating segments:

Segment	2019	2020	2021
Cable Communications	$58,082	$60,051	$64,328
Media	$19,947	$18,936	$22,780
Studios	$9,352	$8,134	$9,449
NBC Universal	$33,958	$27,211	$34,319
Sky	$19,219	$18,594	$20,285
Corporate & Others	$333	$248	$461
Eliminations	$(2,650)	$(2,540)	$(3,008)
Total	$108,942	$103,564	$116,385

Comcast revenue by operating segment.

As the above table shows the largest operating segment of the company based on net revenues is the Cable communications segment which accounted for around 55% of the company’s revenues in 2021. In 2021, Comcast generated around $64.33 billion in net revenues, which was around 7% higher compared to the last year. NBC Universal is the second largest segment of the company based on net revenues, followed by Media and Sky. NBC Universal generated $34,319 million in net revenues in 2021 compared to $27,211 million in 2020 or around 26% higher than the previous year.

Comcast revenue from the media segment was $22.780 million in 2021 compared to $18,936 million in 2020. The Sky segment generated $20,285 million in net revenues in 2021 compared to $18,594 million in 2020. The total net revenues of the company was $116,385 million in 2021 compared to $103,564 million in 2020. Over the previous three years, its revenue has increased consistently driven by increased focus on innovation and performance.