- Comcast lost 65,000 broadband subscribers in Q1 2026
- But as MoffettNathanson wrote, “turnarounds take time."
- Wall Street was happy with the quarterly results
It’s interesting when a company celebrates because its losses were better than expected. But that’s exactly the case with Comcast’s Q1 2026 earnings, which it reported today. Its broadband subscriber losses came in much better than expected at -65,000 for the quarter.
Comcast Co-CEO Mike Cavanagh said, “Despite what remains an incredibly intense competitive environment, broadband net losses improved by more than 100,000 year-over-year, the first year-over-year improvement since the fourth quarter of 2020.”
Of the competition, he cautioned, “Fixed wireless continues to market aggressively across our footprint. Fiber over-build is moving at a rapid pace, and promotional convergence offers remain elevated. We're not assuming this gets easier anytime soon.”
The company is in the middle of a pivot in its broadband business to provide better customer service and more competitive, transparent pricing.
Cavanagh said, “Customers are responding to our go-to-market strategy, with roughly 40% of our residential broadband base already on our simple, transparent packaging, and the majority still expected to migrate by year end.”
Comcast CFO Jason Armstrong added, “We continue to execute our broadband go-to-market pivot and customer experience improvements with the goal of stabilizing our customer base and returning the category to revenue growth over time.”
Cavanaugh added, “I think the negativity on the business is something we need to work on, changing people's sentiments.”
MoffettNathanson analyst Craig Moffett probably summed it up best. “A single quarter of ‘less bad’ results isn’t reason to declare victory. The goal isn’t to ‘lose less.’ And it’s not to ‘lose less’ if the cost of the price reductions is greater than the benefit to net additions. But turnarounds must start somewhere. It’s not unreasonable to be at least a little optimistic.”
The company’s stock rose from about $29 per share yesterday to about $31.50 today.
ARPU is still a problem
Lower prices resulted in a broadband average revenue per user (ARPU) decline of -3.1% year-over-year in the first quarter to $73.65.
Steve Croney, Comcast’s CEO of Connectivity & Platforms, noted that the company has been warning the market of increased broadband ARPU pressure. “We do see some incremental pressure in Q2, but we do expect relief as we exit the year,” he said. The primary drivers of the decline include the absence of a broadband rate increase and migration to simplified pricing.
Moving forward, the company will group broadband revenue and wireless service revenue together into a new convergence view — average revenue per account (ARPA). Armstrong said Comcast’s ARPA currently stands at roughly $85. “For context, our telecom competitors are roughly double this amount on the same metric,” he said.
Wireless is a bright spot
Comcast reported wireless additions of 435,000 during the quarter. “We delivered the best wireless net additions of any quarter in our history,” said Cavanaugh.
A year ago, the company launched its Premium Unlimited plan, which includes unlimited talk, text and data in the U.S. and internationally. Today, it reported uptake is now around 30% of its postpaid phone connects.
Building on that momentum, yesterday Comcast launched Mobile Plus, which includes lifetime device protection for all devices. Cavanaugh said, “We're the first in the industry to include this feature as part of the core offering, a disruptive shift away from the traditional pay-per-device model used by incumbent carriers.”
Comcast ended Q1 with 9.7 million total lines at 16% penetration of its domestic residential broadband customer base.