Comcast Scores With NBA Deal and Olympics, but Financial Issues Brew

NBC Sports and its parent company, Comcast, are in the midst of one of the greatest sports weeks in company history between the return of NBA media rights and Friday’s start of the Paris Olympics. But a new quarterly earnings report also detailed a series of headwinds that Comcast is now facing. 

In a Tuesday call with financial analysts, Comcast confirmed its 11-year rights deal with the NBA, preceding any sort of official announcement from the league, or even the formal conclusion of the increasingly fraught rights process. Those rights for NBC Sports, known as the NBA’s “B” package, include All-Star weekend, regular-season and early-round playoff inventory, a conference final every other year, and WNBA rights, among other assets, and are estimated at $2.5 billion annually. 

“Much like our long-standing relationships with the NFL and the Olympics, we look forward to putting the weight of our entire company behind our partnership with the NBA for decades to come,” said Comcast president Mike Cavanagh.

The Return of ‘Roundball Rock’

Cavanagh also said that the matching currently being attempted by TNT Sports parent company Warner Bros. Discovery is not expected to impact NBC Sports, as that effort is targeted at Amazon’s separate “C” package with the NBA. The return of the league to NBC Sports, recalling the 1990s glory days highlighted in part by the celebrated “Roundball Rock” theme song, is also seen by Comcast as something that “completes our year-round calendar for sports” while delivering young audiences.

“We are uniquely able to drive strong value with the NBA in multiple ways,” Cavanagh said. “First, by growing ad sales [and] selling NBA ad inventory with the rest of our marquee programming. Second, by acquiring and monetizing subscribers both on linear and Peacock. And third, by optimizing NBCUniversal programming investment across sports, entertainment, and news.”

Financial Issues

Comcast’s sports-related highlights, however, were joined by a set of less bullish results for the company. During the second quarter, Comcast posted a 2.7% decline in revenue to $29.7 billion, a 7.5% drop in net income to $3.9 billion, a surprising retreat in Peacock subscribers from 34 million in the first quarter to 33 million in the latest period, and losses in both cable and broadband subscribers.

Among the issues were weaknesses in Comcast’s movie studio and theme-park businesses.

There were other signs of improvement for Peacock, though, as revenue for the streamer increased 28% from the comparable period last year to $1 billion, and an adjusted loss of $348 million, a sharp improvement from a loss of $651 million in 2023’s second quarter.

“The competitive environment remains intense, but it’s stable. It’s sort of no worse, no better than we’ve seen over the past couple of quarters,” said Comcast CFO Jason Armstrong. “I think that’s the starting point. … The same things that were headwinds in the second quarter largely become tailwinds in the third quarter.”