Comcast First Quarter Profits Soar 80%

Comcast Corp.’s profits jumped by 80 percent in the first quarter, bolstered by increases in triple-play subscribers and savings from the end of a partnership with Time Warner Cable.

Net income increased to $837 million, or 26 cents per share, compared to $466 million or 15 per share in the first quarter 2006, the company reported on Thursday.

Philadelphia-based Comcast, the nation’s largest cable operator, saw its largest gains in the digital cable division.

The company added 644,000 digital cable subscribers in the three months ending March 31. That marked the highest level of quarterly additions in the provider’s history and its third consecutive quarter of digital subscriber growth. Revenue from the digital cable business totaled $7 billion.

Other units remained on the upswing as well.

Comcast snagged 563,000 high-speed Internet users, up 10 percent from the same quarter a year ago. That division brought in $1.5 billion in revenue.

Finally, the company got 571,000 new digital voice, or VoIP, customers during the first quarter of 2007. That was nearly 2.5 times more than the 232,000 subscribers added during 2006’s first quarter. Revenue from that unit also grew by $216 million, reaching $353 million.

"We are off to a fabulous start to the year and see increasing momentum as we move ahead,” said Brian Roberts, chairman and CEO of Comcast.

The operator’s stocks were down 62 cents mid-morning on Thursday, trading at $27.47 on volume of 14.4 million shares.

Comcast Corp. www.comcast.com

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