As Earnings Drop 32%, Comcast Raises Dividend

The Comcast Corporation, the nation's largest cable TV provider, said Wednesday that its fourth-quarter earnings fell 32 percent, hampered by a $600 million write-down of its investment in the Clearwire Corporation, the wireless technology provider. Excluding items like the Clearwire charge, Comcast earned 27 cents a share, up 7 cents a share from the same quarter last year. Comcast's revenue and adjusted earnings beat Wall Street estimates, however, helped by growth in Comcast's video segment. Comcast also raised its annual dividend by 2 cents a share, to 27 cents. Comcast's video revenue rose 3 percent to $4.74 billion. The company lost 233,000 basic subscribers in the quarter but gained 247,000 digital customers, who pay more for service. Its average revenue per video customer rose 9 percent, to $113.80 a month, helped by customers adding to their cable channel lineup, even in the recession. Revenue from broadband Internet services rose 9 percent, to $1.86 billion. Comcast added 184,000 Internet subscribers during the quarter, down 46 percent from the 341,000 it added in the year-ago quarter. The company ended the period with 14.9 million broadband customers. Revenue from Comcast's digital phone segment rose 45 percent, to $731 million. However, the company's addition of 344,000 digital phone customers was down 44 percent from the amount added in the fourth quarter of 2007. For the year, Comcast earned $2.55 billion.