Comcast’s unsung growth driver
Company is bullish on its theme parks
NEW YORK >> One of Comcast’s fastest-growing businesses hasn’t been selling cable or internet subscriptions — or making movies and TV shows, or selling TV ads. It’s been theme parks.
Since 2011, when Comcast first took over NBCUniversal’s film and TV studios, cable and broadcast networks, TV stations and theme parks, the parks have been one of its biggest revenue drivers. It was, of course, a smaller business to begin with, leaving more room for growth, but that isn’t the whole explanation.
Cable subscriptions dropped for a decade before growth resumed last year (although cable revenue still inexorably ticked higher). TV advertising faces a
threat from digital giants Facebook and Google, who can target ads precisely to users. Films are an up-anddown business.
And the company is bullish on the parks. “We’re expecting a big year,” said Comcast CEO Brian Roberts at an investor conference in February. It continues to spend on them. NBCUniversal’s capital expenditures will rise 10 percent this year to about $1.6 billion, largely because of parks investment.
SURPRISE RESURRECTION
The Universal parks in Orlando, Florida, and Hollywood, California, were “probably the last thing on our list” in acquiring NBCUniversal, the entertainment conglomerate’s head, Steve Burke, recounted at a September 2011 investor conference. Disney was then the reigning king of theme parks. But the Florida Universal park had opened a Harry Potter attraction in 2010, before Comcast took control, and it was a smashing success. Since then Comcast has spent billions of dollars refurbishing and expanding its park empire, moving into Asia and adding rides and attractions to its California and Florida destinations.
That included a second Harry Potter area in Florida and a Wizarding World of Harry Potter opened last April in California. This latest witches-and-wizards attraction “shattered attendance records,” the company said in January. Harry Potter is also in the Osaka, Japan, park, of which Comcast bought a stake in 2015.