A humble suggestion to executives who feel compelled to comment on current events: Don’t treat it like promotional fodder.
During Comcast’s Q4 earnings call on Thursday, Co-CEO Brian Roberts ended his opening remarks by vaguely alluding to the recent deaths and abductions of Minneapolis residents by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers – and then segued that sentiment into a plug for NBC’s upcoming Winter Olympics coverage.
“Like so many, I’m heartbroken by the tragic events of recent weeks, and our thoughts are with the families and communities that have been deeply impacted in a time of profound division,” Roberts told investors. “We hope the Olympic Games can offer a moment of connection for our country and for people everywhere.”
Tone-deaf corporate statements aside, sports content is a significant part of the company’s growth, and political tensions could impact its upcoming broadcasts.
This year, NBCUniversal will deliver roughly 40% of the industry’s major live events, according to Co-CEO Mike Cavanagh. This includes the Winter Olympics in Milan (where Italian politicians are currently outraged over plans to include ICE agents as security forces), the Super Bowl (where ICE will likely also be deployed to conduct immigrant operations), the NBA All-Star Game (featuring many players who’ve publicly spoken out against ICE) and the World Cup (which is already facing growing calls for boycotts of US-hosted matches).
These conflicts likely won’t have a chilling effect on advertisers in the immediate future, given that much of the inventory has already been sold. But unanticipated consumer backlash could always throw a wrench in company plans – just look at the impact that Jimmy Kimmel’s suspension had on Disney’s affiliate networks, not to mention its subscriber numbers.
Not that Comcast’s executive team spoke at all about the possibility of things going wrong, of course. Instead, Cavanagh said the company expects “another year of meaningful EBITDA improvement” for Peacock in 2026.
Stick to sports, or something
During the earnings call, Comcast shared the results of last year’s fourth quarter, as well as the full year overall.
Total Q4 revenue saw a 1.2% increase to $32.3 billion compared to the prior year. For the full year, revenue remained flat at about $127.3 billion.
Meanwhile, the company’s quarterly media revenue grew 5.5% YOY to $7.6 billion. Within that, domestic advertising revenue rose by 1.5% to $2.68 billion.
Both of these increases came primarily from Peacock, which grew nearly 20% as a result of its sports content for a record $1.6 billion in revenue last quarter, said Cavanagh. However, they were also offset by lower political advertising this quarter compared to last year, as well as increased costs associated with obtaining the NBA rights in the first place, which negatively impacted adjusted EBITDA by a whopping 140%.
Even still, those NBA costs were worth the increased interest from both consumers and advertisers. Despite a $3 monthly increase late last summer, Peacock’s paid subscriber base grew 8 million YOY for a total of 44 million going into December, which Cavanagh said contributed to 30% of the platform’s quarterly revenue growth.
NBCUniversal also added 170 new advertisers as a direct result of its NBA inventory, 20% of which were new businesses, he later added.
Is it midterms already?
Unfortunately, not all of Comcast’s advertising revenue is on the upswing.
Within the business’s Connectivity & Platforms business (which includes Comcast’s digital broadband and wireless services), advertising declined 12.3% YOY to $1 billion.
But, just like last quarter, Comcast is confident in its ability to turn around this side of the business. Newly promoted CEO Steve Croney even got the chance to speak about it this time around, too.
Of course, based on what Croney told investors during the call, his turnaround plan is more focused on simplifying operations, developing customer loyalty and maintaining their internet and wireless network – not in increasing ad dollars, which make up a minuscule portion of revenue anyway.
Still, given that the company attributed this Q4 advertising decline to lower domestic political advertising in 2025, it feels safe to say that the 2026 midterm elections will have an especially outsized impact later in the year.
It seems like this side of the business can’t escape politics either.
