'Comcastic quarter' as profits triple

PHILADELPHIA — Comcast Corp., the nation's largest cable TV operator, said Thursday its net income for the first quarter more than tripled, buoyed by strength across all its business lines, including once-lagging digital voice.

The Philadelphia-based company earned $466 million, or 22 cents a share, in the latest quarter, compared with $143 million, or 6 cents per share, in the same period a year ago. The most recent quarter also got a boost from an investment gain of $64 million.

Operating income soared by 21 percent to $1.05 billion in the quarter while revenue rose by 10 percent to $5.9 billion from the prior year.

"Let me be corny and say, this was a Comcastic quarter," said Brian Roberts, chairman and chief executive of Comcast, borrowing a catch phrase from the company's ad slogans. "I can't imagine a stronger start to this year," Roberts said during a conference call with analysts.

Shares of Comcast rose $1.25, or 4.3 percent, to close at $30.45 on the Nasdaq Stock Market.

Analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial on average expected earnings of 14 cents per share on revenue of $5.83 billion. That estimate includes expenses for stock options, which Comcast and all other public companies are now required to include in their net income calculations.

Comcast added 47,000 customers that subscribe to at least basic cable, compared to a decline of 29,000 in the first quarter of 2005. The monthly revenue per subscriber across all lines of business was $86.75, up from $79 last year.

"There's an acceleration in the core video business. That's what drove the quarter," said Philip Remek, media analyst at Guzman & Co. in Coral Gables, Fla. "Comcast has been losing basic subscribers, and in the last couple of quarters that's turned around."

Comcast added 340,000 new digital-cable subscribers for a total of 10.1 million. Digital cable penetration as a percentage of all video subscribers rose to 47 percent from 41 percent a year ago.

Overall, the number of basic subscribers was about flat year-over-year at 21.5 million.

As for high-speed Internet, Comcast collected revenue of $1.1 billion in the quarter, up 22 percent from a year ago.

The company added 437,000 net new Internet subscribers, up from 414,000 a year earlier.

Comcast had 9 million Internet subscribers at the end of the quarter, keeping its position as the country's largest provider of broadband.