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Comcast Q3 2026 earnings: $1.07 EPS beats, broadband sheds 144K
Media and Peacock lifted Comcast's third quarter, but domestic broadband lost more customers than analysts expected and revenue per customer kept falling ahead of the NBCUniversal spin-off.
Key takeaways
- Comcast reported third-quarter 2026 adjusted EPS of $1.07, ahead of the $0.98 Zacks consensus estimate but below $1.12 a year earlier.
- Revenue fell 6.1% to $29.3 billion. On a pro forma basis, after the Versant spin-off and the sale of Sky's German business, revenue rose 0.5%.
- Domestic broadband lost 144,000 customers, worse than the 91,000 lost a year earlier and the 116,800 analysts surveyed by FactSet expected.
- Peacock held 48 million paid subscribers, flat from June. It posted $261 million of adjusted EBITDA, its second straight profitable quarter.
- Share buybacks stay suspended while Comcast prepares to spin off NBCUniversal and Sky as a separate public company.
Comcast Q3 2026 earnings at a glance
Comcast's third-quarter profit came in ahead of Wall Street forecasts, while its core cable business lost more customers than expected. The company released the results on October 22, 2026 in an 8-K filing with the SEC. Shares rose 3.4% after the report, according to a Zacks Equity Research note carried by Yahoo Finance on October 23.
The quarter shows two different businesses inside one company, which is the split Comcast plans to make formal. The media side (NBC, Peacock, Universal's film studio) grew on the FIFA World Cup and a hit film. The connectivity side (Xfinity broadband and mobile) is defending its customer base against fiber and fixed-wireless rivals by cutting prices.
Headline numbers
According to the earnings release, consolidated revenue was $29.3 billion, down from $31.2 billion in the third quarter of 2025. Most of the drop comes from deconsolidation. Versant, the cable-network group spun off on January 2, 2026, is no longer counted, and Sky's German operations were sold on May 31, 2026. Excluding both, Comcast says revenue grew 0.5%.
Net income attributable to Comcast rose 3.5% to $3.45 billion, or $0.97 per diluted share. Adjusted EPS, the figure analysts compare against forecasts, fell 4.0% from a year earlier to $1.07. That was still nine cents above the $0.98 Zacks consensus. Adjusted EBITDA fell 5.8% to $9.1 billion; on a pro forma basis it rose 0.8%. Free cash flow was $4.2 billion, down 14.8%.
Comcast Q3 2026 vs Q2 2026 and Q3 2025
The table below compares the latest quarter with the previous quarter and with the same quarter a year earlier. All figures come from Comcast's Q3 2026 and Q2 2026 earnings releases filed with the SEC.
| Metric | Q3 2025 | Q2 2026 | Q3 2026 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Revenue | $31.2B | $29.9B | $29.3B |
| Adjusted EPS | $1.12 | $1.04 | $1.07 |
| Diluted EPS (GAAP) | $0.90 | $0.99 | $0.97 |
| Adjusted EBITDA | $9.67B | $8.90B | $9.11B |
| Free cash flow | $4.95B | $4.60B | $4.21B |
| Domestic broadband net change | −91,000 | −167,000 | −144,000 |
| Domestic broadband customers | 28.9M | 28.5M | 28.3M |
| Domestic broadband revenue (YoY) | — | $6.28B (−5.5%) | $6.24B (−4.7%) |
| Domestic wireless line net adds | 414,000 | 448,000 | 368,000 |
| Total wireless lines | 8.9M | 10.2M | 10.6M |
| Peacock paid subscribers | 41M | 48M | 48M |
| Peacock revenue | $1.4B | $1.9B | $1.8B |
| Peacock adjusted EBITDA | −$217M | $189M | $261M |
| Theme Parks adjusted EBITDA | $940M | $609M | $780M |
Source: Comcast 8-K Exhibit 99.1 for the quarters ended September 30, 2026 and June 30, 2026. The Q3 2025 Peacock subscriber figure is derived from the reported 17% year-on-year growth.
Broadband: customer losses widen again
Broadband is the main pressure point for investors. Comcast lost 144,000 domestic broadband customers in the quarter, ending September with about 28.3 million. That is an improvement on the 167,000 lost in the second quarter. It is still worse than the 91,000 lost a year earlier and the 116,800 decline analysts surveyed by FactSet had expected, according to Finimize.
Revenue fell faster than the customer count. Domestic broadband revenue dropped 4.7% to $6.24 billion. Comcast attributed the decline to "lower average rates" and fewer customers. The release does not give a broadband average revenue per user (ARPU) figure, but the explanation means each customer is paying less on average.
Competition explains the trade-off. Reuters reported, as cited by Finimize, that aggressive promotions from AT&T and smaller fiber providers leave Comcast choosing between losing customers and cutting prices. Comcast points to the quality mix as a partial offset: nearly 45% of its broadband customers now take gig-speed or faster tiers.
Wireless keeps growing
Mobile is the main counterweight. Comcast added 368,000 domestic wireless lines in the quarter, down from a record 448,000 in Q2, and finished with 10.6 million lines. Wireless service revenue rose 14.7% to $1.05 billion. The company said this partly reflects promotional free lines converting to paid service. Combined broadband-plus-wireless "convergence" revenue still fell 2.3% to $7.3 billion, so mobile growth is not yet offsetting the broadband decline.
Peacock: profitable, but subscribers flat
Peacock, NBCUniversal's streaming service, had 48 million paid subscribers at the end of September. That is 17% more than a year earlier but unchanged from June. Revenue was $1.8 billion, up from $1.4 billion a year earlier and down from $1.9 billion in the second quarter, which included the start of the World Cup. Adjusted EBITDA was $261 million, compared with a $217 million loss in the third quarter of 2025 and $189 million in Q2 2026, when the service first turned profitable.
The flat subscriber count matters because Peacock is a central part of the planned NBCUniversal spin-off. Streaming rivals are still adding users. For comparison, see Bullquill's coverage of Netflix's Q3 2026 results and margin guidance.
Media, studios and theme parks
The media segment was the quarter's strongest performer. Media revenue rose 13.0% to $5.36 billion, or 8.3% excluding $224 million tied to the FIFA World Cup. Adjusted EBITDA rose to $769 million from $247 million. Studios EBITDA rose 18.6% to $402 million; Comcast said The Odyssey became Universal's highest-grossing film.
Theme parks went the other way. Revenue fell 4.4% to $2.6 billion and adjusted EBITDA fell 17.1% to $780 million. Comcast cited lower attendance, more promotions and higher costs at its domestic parks, and called these "near-term cyclical headwinds."
Capital returns and the planned separation
Comcast paid $1.2 billion in dividends during the quarter. It repurchased no shares: it suspended buybacks from the third quarter and expects the pause to last through the separation. Comcast announced on June 29, 2026 that it plans to spin off NBCUniversal and Sky as a standalone media company. The remaining Comcast would focus on broadband, wireless and business connectivity. Reuters-based reporting puts the expected completion around mid-2027, subject to board approval and regulatory clearances.
Capital expenditure held at $3.1 billion in the quarter. Total debt was about $87.4 billion at September 30, 2026, down from about $98.9 billion at the end of 2025, based on the balance sheet in the release.
What it means
The quarter shows why Comcast wants to separate the two halves. The media assets are now producing profit growth: Peacock is in the black, the film studio had a record hit, and the World Cup lifted media revenue. The connectivity business still generates most of the cash, but it is shrinking in customers and price per customer at the same time. Mobile is not yet large enough to offset that.
The earnings beat came mainly from the media side and from cost control, not from a turnaround in broadband. Upcoming reports will show whether broadband losses keep narrowing from the Q2 level and whether Peacock can grow subscribers again without the World Cup. The separation timetable will also matter. For upcoming results across the season, see Bullquill's guide to Microsoft, Alphabet and Amazon earnings dates. For another large-cap earnings breakdown from this week, see Blackstone's Q3 2026 results.
What is not yet known: Comcast's release includes no formal financial guidance. It also does not say how much broadband pricing will fall further, or how the debt load will be divided between the two companies after the split.
Frequently asked questions
Did Comcast beat earnings in Q3 2026?
Yes. Comcast reported adjusted EPS of $1.07 for the third quarter of 2026, above the $0.98 Zacks consensus estimate, although it was down from $1.12 a year earlier. Revenue fell 6.1% to $29.3 billion, mainly because Versant and Sky's German business are no longer included.
How many broadband customers did Comcast lose in Q3 2026?
Comcast lost 144,000 domestic broadband customers in the quarter, ending with about 28.3 million. That compares with 91,000 lost a year earlier and a FactSet analyst expectation of about 116,800.
How many subscribers does Peacock have?
Peacock had 48 million paid subscribers at the end of September 2026, flat from June and up 17% from a year earlier. It posted $261 million of adjusted EBITDA on $1.8 billion of revenue in the quarter.
Is Comcast still buying back shares?
No. Comcast suspended share repurchases from the third quarter of 2026 and expects the pause to last through the planned spin-off of NBCUniversal and Sky. It paid $1.2 billion in dividends in the quarter.
Sources
- Comcast — Q3 2026 earnings release, 8-K Exhibit 99.1 (SEC EDGAR, Oct 22, 2026)
- Comcast — Q2 2026 earnings release, 8-K Exhibit 99.1 (SEC EDGAR, Jul 23, 2026)
- Comcast Investor Relations — Quarterly results
- Zacks Equity Research via Yahoo Finance — Company news for Oct 23, 2026
- Variety via Yahoo Finance — Comcast Q3 sees continued broadband downturn (Oct 22, 2026)
- Finimize — Comcast's broadband slide deepens as NBCUniversal preps spinoff
- AP via ABC News — Comcast plans to split into two public companies by spinning off NBCUniversal and Sky
This article is for information only and is not investment advice.
