Back in 1910, a man named Franklin Pierce Adams wrote a poem called "Baseball's Sad Lexicon." It dealt with the 1902 Chicago Cubs' crackerjack infield of shortstop Joe Tinker, second baseman Johnny Evers, and first baseman Frank Chance, and their legendary double-play prowess.
But progress is inevitable, and the famous Tinker to Evers to Chance double-play combination has been handily outdone. Comcast (NASDAQ:CMCSA), the quantitative -- and possibly qualitative -- leader among cable multi-systems operators, has a triple play that has subscribers flocking to the company. On Thursday, Comcast reported that triple play-induced customer additions, combined with a one-time $300 million gain from the dissolution of a partnership with Time Warner Cable (NYSE:TWC), pushed its first-quarter net income 80% above the year-ago level.
For the quarter, the company recorded net income of $837 million, or $0.26 per share, compared to $466 million, or $0.15 per share, in the first quarter of 2006. Quarterly revenue reached $7.39 billion, 32% higher than the year-ago figure. Only free cash flow bucked the trend, sliding from $807 million last year to $442 million in the most recent March quarter, as the company upped spending to roll out additional anti-competitive functionalities in the face of challenges from phone companies Verizon (NYSE:VZ) and AT&T (NYSE:T).
The quarter saw 644,000 digital TV subscribers sign on with the company, versus 355,000 a year ago; 563,000 high-speed Internet customers were added, versus 511,500 a year ago; and 478,000 new phone users signed on, compared to 163,000 in the March 2006 quarter.
But enough of the metrics. What does all this mean for Comcast's future, and for those who would consider joining the ranks of the company's owners? First, the company's share price has risen 40% in the past year, and more than that since the beginning of 2006, so its shareholders have been rewarded for their perspicacity -- or their luck.
But more importantly, Comcast is a superbly managed company that I believe is well-positioned to compete effectively with the aforementioned telephone companies' own triple play offerings and with satellite television providers DirecTV (NYSE:DTV) and EchoStar (NASDAQ:DISH). I'm convinced that it should be at least watched carefully by Fools with an interest in media investments.
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Fool contributor David Lee Smith does not own shares in any of the companies mentioned. He welcomes your questions or comments. The Fool's disclosure policy is available on demand.
