Key Highlights

  • CFO Jason Armstrong said Sep 9 that Q3 broadband subscriber losses won't improve year over year; shares fell about 7%.
  • Q2 2026 Revenue was $29.94 billion; Comcast lost 167,000 domestic broadband customers but added a record 448,000 wireless lines.
  • The planned NBCUniversal and Sky separation, expected to take about a year, will leave Comcast focused on connectivity.
  • Shares traded around $22.91 on Sep 17, down about 14% from the high-$26 range in late August, after UBS cut its price target from $32 to the mid-$20s.

Comcast (NASDAQ:CMCSA) is still losing broadband customers because fiber-to-the-home rivals and wireless carriers keep undercutting it on price and speed. Its own management said this month that the trend will not improve this quarter. On Sep 9, Chief Financial Officer Jason Armstrong told the Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS) Communacopia + Technology conference that Comcast does not expect third-quarter broadband subscriber losses to improve compared with a year earlier. He described competitors' fiber pricing as "irrational," and the stock fell about 7% that day.

That warning matters more than it once would have. Comcast completed the spin-off of most of its cable television networks into Versant Media Group in January. On Jun 29 it announced a plan to separate NBCUniversal and Sky into a new public company. Once that separation is done, the remaining Comcast will be primarily a broadband and wireless business, so connectivity trends will increasingly determine how investors value the stock.

The company is not standing still. It has rolled out simplified pricing, bundled mobile lines with home internet and added a record number of wireless lines. Even so, the numbers show that defending its broadband base has come at the cost of revenue and profit in its largest segment.

What the CFO Told Investors on Sep 9

Armstrong said Comcast expects "no improvement" in third-quarter broadband subscriber losses year over year, while projecting a "modest" improvement in the trajectory of third-quarter adjusted EBITDA. Consensus had expected about 89,000 domestic residential broadband losses for the quarter, compared with 91,000 in the same period of 2025. KeyBanc analyst Brandon Nispel was modeling a loss of about 125,000.

Nispel warned that faster subscriber losses could force further cuts to average revenue per user. He argued that competitors offering gigabit speeds for $30 to $40 a month would make year-over-year improvement difficult. Charter Communications (NASDAQ:CHTR), Comcast's closest cable peer, fell about 5% in the same session. Armstrong also acknowledged softness at the Universal theme parks.

A Second Leg Lower and Analyst Target Cuts

The pressure continued the following week. The shares were trading around $22.91 on Sep 17, down about 14% from the high-$26 range in late August. UBS cut its price target from $32 to the mid-$20s and kept a Neutral rating, citing accelerating broadband losses and an expected decline of about 8% in parks revenue in the third quarter. Those are analyst views and projections, not company guidance.

The Q2 Numbers Behind the Worry

Comcast's Jul 23 second-quarter release shows both the scale of the Business and the strain on it. Revenue was $29.94 billion, down 1.2% from a year earlier; on a pro forma basis, adjusting for the Versant separation, revenue rose 4.7%. Adjusted EBITDA fell 13.4% to $8.90 billion, and adjusted EPS fell 16.7% to $1.04. Free Cash Flow rose 2.3% to $4.60 billion.

In Connectivity & Platforms, revenue fell 3.0% to $19.80 billion. Comcast lost 167,000 domestic broadband customers in the quarter, an improvement of 34,000 from a year earlier. It added a record 448,000 domestic wireless lines, bringing its total to 10.2 million lines, or about 7% penetration of its broadband base.

The Content & Experiences side was stronger. Revenue there rose 22.9% to $10.73 billion. Theme parks revenue grew 2.7% to $2.41 billion, and Peacock reached 48 million paid subscribers and turned profitable, with $189 million in adjusted EBITDA. Comcast returned $1.2 billion in dividends and repurchased $900 million of stock, though the company said Buybacks were paused on Jun 29 because of separation planning.

Why Fiber and Fixed Wireless Keep Winning Share

Comcast's cable network faces competition on two fronts. Telephone companies and independent builders are extending fiber-to-the-home networks that offer symmetrical upload and download speeds, often at aggressive introductory prices. Meanwhile, wireless carriers have signed up millions of households for fixed wireless access, which uses spare 5G capacity and is typically sold at low monthly prices bundled with mobile plans.

Comcast's response has been to bundle mobile lines with home internet, simplify its pricing and upgrade its network for faster speeds. The wireless growth shows that bundling is working to some degree. The tradeoff is lower broadband revenue per customer and pressure on connectivity margins, the pattern KeyBanc warned about.

The Spin-Off Reshaping the Story

The Jun 29 plan would put NBCUniversal's studios, Peacock, NBC, Telemundo, the Universal theme parks and Sky's European operations into a separate company. Comcast would keep broadband, wireless and business connectivity services. The proposed tax-free separation is expected to take about a year, subject to Shareholder and regulatory approvals, and Comcast would retain up to 19.9% of the new company for a period after completion.

For investors, the separation sharpens the focus on broadband. The standalone connectivity company would lose the growth that parks and a now-profitable Peacock provide, so its valuation would depend more heavily on subscriber trends, pricing and Capital spending.

Risks on Both Sides of the Ledger

Several downside risks stand out. Subscriber losses could accelerate beyond consensus, as KeyBanc projects. Price cuts could erode revenue per user, and competitors keep expanding fiber and fixed wireless. The parks business is showing softness, and the separation carries execution and cost risk.

There are also offsetting factors. Comcast still generates billions of dollars in free cash flow a quarter, its wireless business is growing quickly, and Peacock has turned profitable. Management guided to a modest improvement in the EBITDA trajectory. Some investors may view the separation as a way to unlock value, though that outcome isn't assured.

The Next Broadband Read

The next test is Comcast's third-quarter report. The company typically reports in late October, although the date had not been confirmed at the time of writing. Investors will compare the broadband net loss with the roughly 89,000 consensus estimate and KeyBanc's 125,000 estimate. They will also look for trends in revenue per user, the pace of wireless line additions and theme parks revenue after the CFO's cautious comments.

Beyond the quarter, milestones for the NBCUniversal and Sky separation, including regulatory filings and shareholder votes, will shape how the market values the remaining connectivity business. Any sign of whether competitors' fiber pricing becomes more rational would also matter. For now, Comcast's own guidance points to continued losses in the broadband battle against fiber.