Comcast CEO Brian Roberts Says Disney-Charter Deal ‘Not One Size Fits All’

Comcast chief executive officer Brian Roberts is “very glad” that Disney and Charter Communications resolved their carriage dispute and “happy for both companies that they figured something out good for consumers.” But as it relates to potential carriage disputes for Comcast, he acknowledged that the deal is “not one size fits all” for the rest of the industry.

“Each situation is slightly different,” Roberts said when asked during the company’s third quarter earnings call if the NBCUniversal parent is headed in the same direction with its own carriage negotiations. “What I think is important for us is finding a way to help our customers have a great network, aggregate that content and have access to the great content and I think we’re really well positioned to do that and we’re looking forward to executing upon that.”

Comcast Cable CEO Dave Watson touted the company’s “unique position” and “great relationships with content providers” given their streaming service Peacock and linear networks.

“We have a way of figuring things out, but it will be case by case as they come up, and we’ll see,” Watson added. “But a big part of it, one of the things we talked about is value of the content, and how that model evolves we’ll figure it out. But I think we are in a good position to be a bridge builder as we go, considering each one of these options in the marketplace.”

The Disney-Charter dispute lasted a week, during which all Disney channels went dark for Charter subscribers until a deal was reached.

Under the new carriage agreement with Charter, ad-supported Disney+ Basic will be available to Spectrum TV Select package customers in the coming months. Additionally, ESPN+ will be provided to Spectrum TV Select Plus subscribers as will the sports network’s flagship direct-to-consumer service when it launches.

Meanwhile, Charter maintains flexibility to offer a range of video packages at varying price points based upon customer viewing preferences and will use its distribution capabilities to offer Disney’s streaming apps to its customers, including its broadband-only subscribers.

While Spectrum will continue to carry ABC Owned Television Stations, Disney Channel, FX, the Nat Geo Channel and the full suite of ESPN networks, the deal notes that Baby TV, Disney Junior, Disney XD, Freeform, FXM, FXX, Nat Geo Wild and Nat Geo Mundo will no longer be included in Spectrum TV video packages.

At a Bank of America investor conference last month, Charter chief financial officer Jessica Fischer said the deal would allow the company to “moderate the growth in content costs for consumers” in future carriage negotiations.

Roberts and Watson’s comments come after the media conglomerate beat Wall Street expectations for its third quarter of 2023.

However, shares fell as much as 8% in pre-market trading Thursday after the company shed 18,000 domestic broadband customers and domestic advertising revenue fell 8% year over year. It also reported a 25% year-over-year revenue drop in its Studios segment thanks to a dismal film output (“Oppenheimer” aside) and the Hollywood strikes.

In Comcast’s Connectivity & Platforms segment, its cable business, adjusted EBITDA grew 3% to $8.2 billion and revenue grew 1.1% year over year to $20.2 billion. Residential connectivity and platforms revenue grew 0.7% year over year to $17.95 billion, while business services connectivity revenue grew 4.7% year over year to $2.32 billion. 

Total customer relationships for the cable business increased by 40,000 to 52.3 million, while total domestic broadband customers fell by 18,000 to 32.3 million and total domestic video customers fell by 490,000 to 14.5 million. Meanwhile, total domestic wireless lines increased by 294,000 to 6.28 million.

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