Peacock posts a second straight profitable quarter as Universal's 'The Odyssey' lifts Comcast's media results

Comcast Corporation reported third-quarter 2026 results on Thursday showing its entertainment businesses outperforming the rest of the company, with the streaming service Peacock turning a profit for the second consecutive quarter and Universal Pictures' "The Odyssey" becoming the studio's highest-grossing film of all time.

The results, filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission and detailed on an earnings call with co-chief executives Brian Roberts and Mike Cavanagh, arrive as Comcast prepares to break itself into two separate public companies — one built around NBCUniversal and Sky, the other around its Xfinity cable and broadband operations.

A streaming service in the black

Peacock generated $261 million in adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization in the quarter, an improvement of $478 million from the $217 million loss it posted a year earlier, according to Comcast's earnings release. Revenue rose to $1.8 billion from $1.4 billion. Paid subscribers climbed 17 percent year over year to 48 million, Comcast said in its quarterly filing.

It is the second straight profitable quarter for the service, which first broke even in the spring quarter after six years of losses since its 2020 launch. Comcast has cautioned that Peacock's results will keep swinging quarter to quarter depending on the timing of sports rights and marquee programming rather than settling into steady profitability.

Nolan's epic carries the studio

Universal's film business was the other bright spot. "The Odyssey," Christopher Nolan's adaptation that premiered in July, has taken in nearly $1.8 billion at the worldwide box office so far this year, making it Universal's highest-grossing release ever and helping the studio become the first to cross $5 billion in global box office in a single calendar year, Comcast said.

Theatrical revenue in the Studios segment jumped roughly 77 percent to $1.13 billion for the quarter, even as licensing revenue fell. Segment-wide, Studios revenue slipped slightly to $2.97 billion, but adjusted EBITDA rose nearly 19 percent to $402 million.

Companywide, Comcast reported revenue of $29.3 billion, down 6.1 percent from a year earlier on a reported basis — a decline driven mainly by the spinoff of its Versant cable networks in January and the sale of its Sky Germany operations in the spring — but up 0.5 percent on a pro forma basis that strips out those divestitures. Adjusted earnings per share were $1.07, down 4 percent, while free cash flow fell nearly 15 percent to $4.2 billion. Comcast suspended its share-buyback program during the quarter, a pause it said would likely continue through the planned corporate separation.

A company preparing to split in two

The quarter's results land against the backdrop of a corporate restructuring Comcast announced in a securities filing in late June, when the company said it would spin off NBCUniversal and Sky — including Peacock, the NBC and Telemundo networks, Universal's studios and its theme parks — into a separate, tax-free public company, leaving Comcast as a standalone broadband and wireless provider. Comcast's most recent quarterly filing says the separation remains on track for completion in mid-2027, pending board approval, tax rulings, regulatory sign-off and financing.

Under the plan, Cavanagh would become chief executive of the new, independent NBCUniversal, while Michael Angelakis, Comcast's former chief financial officer, would return as chief executive of the slimmed-down Comcast. Brian Roberts, whose family controls the company, would remain involved with both entities. The NBCUniversal spinoff follows Comcast's separation of its Versant Media Group — home to CNBC — into its own public company at the start of the year.

"We are taking decisive steps to strengthen our businesses and unlock the full potential of their structural advantages," Roberts and Cavanagh said in the companies' third-quarter earnings release.

Not every part of the business shared in the quarter's momentum. Comcast's Connectivity & Platforms unit — the cable, broadband and wireless business that will remain under the Comcast name after the split — continued to lose residential customers, and executives flagged near-term softness at the company's theme parks even as they said they remain confident in that business over the longer term.

What's next

Industry coverage of the results, including a report from Deadline, framed the quarter as evidence that Comcast's entertainment assets are gathering momentum just as the company moves to carve them out as an independent company. Whether that momentum holds will matter directly to the roughly 48 million Peacock subscribers, Universal's film and theme-park employees, and investors in both the current Comcast stock and the shares they are due to receive in the new NBCUniversal once the spinoff closes. Comcast has not set an exact closing date beyond its mid-2027 target, and the company has repeatedly cautioned, in its own securities filings, that there is no guarantee the separation will proceed on that timeline or at all.