In spite of 'Battleship' box office dud, Comcast's second quarter profits increase

Despite Battleship's poor box office performance, Comcast managed to increase its second quarter profits thanks to their impressive growth in cable operations, including high-speed internet subscribers.

The second largest cable company in the United States reported a net income of $1.35 billion, with 50 cents per share for their second quarter, namely from April to June. Compared to last year's second quarter performance, Comcast shares managed to go up 13 cents, surpassing industry analysts' expectation of 48 cents.

The cable company currently serves over 22 million television subscribers, which roughly translates to one in five American households. As the heavily anticipated NBC would-be blockbuster "Battleship" flopped, profits shrunk for several television networks, including Bravo, MSNBC, CNBC, and Universal Studios.

While NBC started airing the Olympic games in the United States at the end of the second quarter, the effects will only be seen during the third quarter of 2012. The CEO of NBC was quoted saying that the network will "break even" on the Olympics, in spite of previously anticipated financial losses. NBC also added that ad sales for the Olympics garnered $1 billion, setting a new industry record. Comcast CFO Michael Angelakis also commented that the company expects to see small gains from the Olympic event during the third quarter.

Comcast's revenue also managed to rise by 6%, to $15.2 billion, compared to only $14 billion a year before. Senior analyst Craig Moffett with Bernstein & Co. explained that "the cable division sparkled in Q2 ... and the peacock lays an egg," referring to Comcast's impressive performance over the second quarter.

Comcast's shares came close to $33.55 on Wednesday, marking their highest stock growth since 1999. Their positive trend across all fields of activity stood to show once again that Comcast can outperform smaller companies serving similar markets.

Moffett also added that "unfortunately, the picture in the programming business is less appealing. Aggregate revenue growth was marginally negative, with notable misses in every division except, ironically, Filmed Entertainment, where the bar was set so low that they were able to clear it."