CNBC Excerpts: Comcast CEO Brian Roberts on CNBC’s “Squawk Box” Today
WHEN: Today, Thursday, April 25, 2019
WHERE: CNBC’s “Squawk Box”
The following is the unofficial transcript of excerpts from a CNBC interview with Comcast CEO Brian Roberts on CNBC’s “Squawk Box” (M-F 6AM – 9AM) today, Thursday, April 25th. The following is a link to video of the interview on CNBC.com:
Q1 hedge fund letters, conference, scoops etc
Comcast CEO Brian Roberts: Sky acquisition will help grow revenue
All references must be sourced to CNBC.
Brian Roberts on the Best Quarter in 10 Years:
We had the best first quarter in EBITDA in ten years. And broadband is at the center of that growth with broadband revenues growing at 10%. So I think across the board when you adjust out for the Super Bowl and the Olympics pretty much exactly what we expected on the revenue side, at least internally. You know, a few soft spots here or there but mostly the excitement is the power of the broadband network.
Brian Roberts on the Best Changing Ecosystem:
Now that we've completed Sky and we look at ourselves in four major countries, the U.S., the UK, Germany and Italy and if you take just those four countries, they're -- Video and Broadband subscriptions in the world, they represent about 15% of the global subscriptions. But they're 50% of the global revenues, just those four countries. We're number one by a long shot when you combine those four countries. And we've got 54 million customers with $110 average revenue or ARPU. And so that, far and away, puts us in a unique position to take advantage of this changing ecosystem.
Brian Roberts on the Best Broadband:
And in our case, in the U.S., led by the broadband business, which is now substantially larger than the video business. So the more people want to stream, the more you want the best broadband; hence, you're seeing the kind of results we saw today in the first quarter, which is why broadband has been strong. Not just this quarter but all of last year and we hope throughout the remainder of this year.
Brian Roberts on the Best Video Product:
We have the best video product. X1 in our markets and in Sky with the Q Box, these are premium experiences. These are voice navigation, great search, lots-- the best content library. I'm not sure every other provider has invested the way we have. So we're seeing better results and we're also transitions to more of an on demand relationship.
Brian Roberts on Modernizing for the 21st Century:
NBC has looked at its broadcast and said, ‘How do we modernize for the 21st century our content, and be part of streaming?’ And so, we're working on a way, rather than charging for it, making a part of the value you get by being part of the ecosystem and improving the -- by reducing the advertising load and giving a more relevant ad to the consumer. So you put that together, we're producing $24 billion a year worth of content.
