Universal Studios parent Comcast (CMCSA 1.62%) reported fresh financials on Thursday morning. There are many moving parts to the media and connectivity giant. It's the country's leading provider of internet access and cable TV through its Xfinity banner. It's a major player in content through NBCUniversal.
Comcast also operates several popular gated attractions, and as the first of the five publicly traded companies with major interests in theme parks and amusement parks that reports every earnings season it's an update that shareholders in Walt Disney (DIS -0.45%) and SeaWorld Entertainment (SEAS 0.45%) can't ignore. Six Flags (SIX -0.84%) and Cedar Fair (FUN -0.47%) investors should also pay attention, but that's more important during the springtime and summertime quarters when the largely seasonal regional amusement park operators derive most of their revenue and all of their profits.
Image source: Comcast.
Let's go for a ride
Thursday morning's fourth-quarter results weren't exactly impressive. Comcast's baseline numbers were largely flat with revenue rising a mere 0.7% and adjusted net income slipping 0.4%. Cord-cutters continue to eat into its flagship cable TV business. It suffered a rare sequential dip in broadband accounts, but argues that it would've been marginally positive if not for the negative impact of Hurricane Ian displacing some of its customers.
Like Disney+, Peacock keeps growing. Its subscriber base has doubled to 20 million over the past year with revenue tripling in that time. The 5 million net additions it landed during the fourth quarter is a record for the fledgling streaming platform. However, also like Disney+, losses continue to widen as investments are made to to grow the audience.
In light of all of the ho-hum in the Comcast report, its theme parks segment is a relative winner. Revenue rose 12% for the final three months of 2022 compared to the prior year's holiday quarter. Adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) climbed an even healthier 16%. Only Comcast's studio -- benefiting from a couple of successful releases and folks returning to the multiplex -- and its nascent wireless subsidiaries fared better than the theme parks segment.
Investors with a keen sense of short-term financial history will point out that this is a big step down from where the Universal Studios theme parks were just three months ago. The segment clocked in with 42% year-over-year growth in revenue for the third quarter with an 89% surge in adjusted EBITDA. This shouldn't be a deal breaker.
Universal Studios Beijing opened in September 2021, making this the first time in which the Chinese resort was open for the entirety of the two comparable quarters. The parks in Japan and California also had COVID-19-related closures earlier in 2021 and reopened with tighter capacity controls. Investors are now seeing comparisons on an apples-to-apples -- or coasters-to-coasters -- basis. Low double-digit growth is a good thing, especially in the current climate as consumers are getting a little tighter with their disposable income.
Disney and SeaWorld won't report their quarterly results until next month. They should also match the sequential deceleration that Comcast just reported. SeaWorld shareholders would be delighted if they were able to match Comcast's performance. Analysts are holding out for a mere 3% year-over-year increase in revenue on a 21% decline in earnings per share. Wall Street pros offer quarterly targets for Disney as a whole, and not its individual segments.
Disney, SeaWorld, Six Flags, and Cedar Fair investors still need to pay attention, and perhaps even more so than Comcast where theme parks made up just 6% of the revenue and 7% of the adjusted EBITDA for all of 2022. It's a small part of the Comcast report, but gated attractions are a much larger part of the Disney revenue mix and make up the entirety of the financials for SeaWorld, Six Flags, and Cedar Fair. Take notes now. They will come in handy with four financial updates that will happen in the coming weeks.
