Comcast (CMCSA) Q2 2026: Broadband Revenue Falls 5.5% as ARPU Slides 3.9%
Comcast's broadband business — the engine that funds everything else — is now losing revenue roughly three times faster than it is losing customers. Domestic broadband revenue fell 5.5% to $6.28 billion in the second quarter while the domestic broadband customer base shrank only 1.7% year over year to 28.49 million, implying a derived monthly revenue per customer of about $73.5 versus $76.5 a year earlier. That gap is not an accident: management states it simplified broadband pricing and began offering a free wireless line for one year to new and existing customers, a deliberate decision to defend volume with price. Quarterly subscriber losses did narrow to 167,000 from 201,000, so the retention strategy is producing something — but the reported 68.3% collapse in net income is almost entirely optical, driven by a $9.4 billion Hulu sale gain booked in the prior-year quarter.
1. Condensed Consolidated Balance Sheet
1-1. Major asset movements
| Item | Dec 31, 2025 ($M) | Jun 30, 2026 ($M) | Change % |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cash and cash equivalents | 9,481 | 7,661 | -19.2% |
| Receivables, net | 13,869 | 13,955 | +0.6% |
| Film and television costs | 12,214 | 10,467 | -14.3% |
| Property and equipment, net | 65,680 | 66,127 | +0.7% |
| Goodwill | 61,502 | 53,070 | -13.7% |
| Franchise rights | 59,365 | 59,365 | 0.0% |
| Other intangible assets, net | 22,474 | 19,687 | -12.4% |
| Total assets | 272,631 | 257,548 | -5.5% |
The $15.1 billion contraction in total assets is a corporate event, not an operating one. Comcast completed the tax-free spin-off of Versant Media Group on January 2, 2026 — the cable networks including CNBC, USA Network, Golf Channel, E! and SYFY, plus digital properties such as Fandango and Rotten Tomatoes. That single transaction removed $7.7 billion of goodwill and $8.1 billion of retained earnings; the remaining $0.7 billion of the total goodwill decline came from foreign currency translation and other items. A second disposal followed: Sky's German operations were sold on May 31, 2026 for net pre-tax cash proceeds of just $59 million, derecognizing $770 million of assets against $644 million of liabilities and booking a $67 million pre-tax loss. Selling a business of that size for $59 million is a signal about the economics being shed rather than the value being harvested.
Franchise rights held at exactly $59,365 million on both dates. These are indefinite-lived intangibles carried at historical cost under US GAAP with no upward revaluation permitted, so the balance sheet carrying value of Comcast's cable footprint tells an investor nothing about its current market worth in either direction. Film and television costs fell 14.3%, with licensed content including sports advances dropping from $4,663 million to $3,255 million as prepaid sports rights were consumed.
