Comcast Stock Pops As Olympics, Super Bowl Fire Up Q1 Advertising, Broadband Improves

Comcast blew past Wall Street forecasts on the top and bottom lines for the three months ended in March as ad sales boomed and shaky broadband appears to be turning around. The Winter Olympics the Super Bowl added $2.2 billion in incremental advertising revenue. The shares, which have been poky over the past year, jumped over 10% after the numbers.

Brian Roberts and Mike Cavanagh called 2026 “an important year of execution.”

“We’re seeing tangible early signs our pivot is taking hold” in broadband, a key focus of investors, where subscriber losses improved amid a major push,” said the co-CEOS. Domestic residential broadband
customer net losses improved by 117,000 year-over-year to 65,000. The division is part of Comcast’s giant Connectivity & Platforms segment. It’s been a pain point as subscribers bailed but the company has been working on a national push to woo customers with better service, packages and pricing.

“Legendary February” featured the Milan Cortina Winter Olympics, the Super Bowl, and the NBA All-Star Game, drove record advertising and Peacock growth. The streamer added 5 million subscribers year-on-year to 46 million — up 2 million from Q4 2025. Peacock revenue topped $2 billion, up from $1.2 billion the year before.

Total revenue for the NBCUniversal parent rose 5.3% to $31.46 billion. Adjusted earnings per shares came in at 79 cents, down 27% but above forecasts. Profits were squeezed profit by higher costs in the media division including the new NBA rights deal. Peacock losses expanded to $423 million last quarter from $215 million the year ago.

The company generated $3.9 billion in free cash flow. Numbers were adjusted for the spinoff of Versant Media in January.

Media swung to a loss of $426 million for the quarter from $107 million profit the year-earlier quarter on as revenue surged 60% to $7.28 billion. Revenue was still up 13% (at $5.1 billion) excluding the Olympics and Super Bowl.

Studios revenue was driven by higher content licensing revenue (led by The Office). Theatrical revenue decreased on fewer releases vs the prior year that included Dog Man and Nosferatu. Universal s currently reveling in the global box office smash The Super Mario Galaxy Movie, which blasted out April 1. Upcoming summer tentpoles include Steven Spielberg’s Disclosure Day in June, and Minions & Monsters and The Odyssey by Christopher Nolan in July.

Theme Parks profit surged 33% to $551 million on revenue up 24% to $2.3 billion, fueled by the opening of Epic Universe in May.

More to come