Comcast doubles Peacock spending as broadband business takes hit

Comcast is ramping up spending on its Peacock streaming service, executives said on Thursday, aiming to catch up to big media rivals in the global battle for viewers.

Unlike the majority of its rivals, Peacock offers a free, ad-supported version and two paid options: a $5-per-month tier with “light ads” and an ad-free version costing $10 per month.

In a call with investors on Thursday, Comcast Chief Executive Brian Roberts said the “vast majority” of Peacock’s paid subscribers choose the $5 tier over the $10 tier. Going forward, the company will focus its strategy around the ad-supported tiers.

It is doubling Peacock content spend to $3 billion in 2022 and plans to increase domestic content spend for Peacock to $5 billion over the next couple of years, an additional investment that will result in an earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) loss of roughly $2.5 billion. It plans

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Comcast NBCUniversal Celebrates Black History Month by Spotlighting Black Storytellers

Black stories are part of the fabric of American history. These stories, known and still being uncovered, tell of our past, present, and future, and enrich the picture of who we are. This Black History Month, join Comcast NBCUniversal as we celebrate and spotlight Black storytellers. 

With our reach in media and technology, we have an opportunity to support the Black leaders and creators of today and of future generations. From amplifying diverse voices, to creating opportunities for underrepresented entrepreneurs, to bringing broadband and digital skills training to underserved families, we are leveraging our unique platforms to help create positive change.

Celebrating Black Storytellers

The power of Black storytellers can be felt across all our platforms. February marks the one-year anniversary of the Black Experience on Xfinity, and we’re celebrating with the largest curated independent Black film collection on demand.

Curated by industry leaders, the Black Experience on Xfinity features

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Comcast, Goldman Sachs Resume PAC Giving to Republican Election Objectors

WASHINGTON—Political action committees for

Comcast Corp.

and

Goldman Sachs Group Inc.

have resumed giving money to one or more of the 147 Republican lawmakers who voted to object to the certification of President Biden’s election after the Jan. 6 Capitol riot by supporters of former GOP President

Donald Trump,

new filings show.

The two companies were among dozens that announced in the days after the riot that they would pause or review their political donations, decisions that in some cases drew pushback from lawmakers.

At that time, Comcast announced it would suspend donations to the election objectors. Goldman Sachs had said it would stop all political giving as it reviewed its donation criteria. At the time, Goldman Sachs planned to closely examine the records of those who tried to obstruct the results of the election, a person familiar with the matter said then.

Representatives for Comcast didn’t respond to emails

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Buy Comcast Now Before Everyone Else Does (CMCSA)

Stack of $100 bills on a white background

Sezeryadigar/E+ via Getty Images

I know that value investors feel a bit of frustration right now.

x

Charlie Bilello

What with this correction so far seeing a peak 12.4% decline and now the market appears to be ripping higher again.

x

YCharts

The market is now just 7% from its highs and tech stocks are, at least for the moment, screaming higher.

Does this mean the “buy the dip” crowd has won? It depends on your time frame.

  • in the long-term buy the dip is always a good idea
  • because stocks always go up if your time frame is long enough

In 2022 it’s possible that we’ll still see a 15% or even 20% correction, though it might not happen in the first half of the year.

But guess what? Amazing dividend growth blue-chips like Comcast (CMCSA) are still in a bear market and NOT screaming higher… yet.

Remember that it’s always

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Wireless Demand Up, Wireline ‘Flattish’

Not surprisingly, wireless is up. Also not surprising are wireline results.

The top U.S. telco and cableco firms are reporting growth in wireless customers, but business wireline, voice and video tell another story.

Charter (Spectrum) on Friday reported that its number of SMB mobile lines increased from 55,000 in the fourth quarter of 2020 to 116,000  last quarter. Comcast earlier this week reported that it added a net 312,000 wireless customers last quarter. That’s the highest quarterly result for the cableco since the launch of its Xfinity Mobile wireless service. Comcast expanded the Verizon-powered MVNO offering to SMBs last summer.

“Our mobile is key for us. In and of itself [it] is a great growth opportunity, but it’s also very important to broadband. We talked a lot about broadband churn benefits. That continues, but we want to bring mobile value to every segment in every offer,” said David Watson, president

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