In its first quarter as the majority owner of NBCUniversal, Comcast beat analysts' expectations and reported net income of $943 million, up 9 percent from the first quarter of last year.
The company had earnings of 34 cents per share. In the first quarter of 2010, it had earnings of 31 cents per share and reported net income of $866 million.
Also read: CBS Earnings Surge on Advertising, NCAA Basketball
Excluding costs of the NBCU acquisition, which closed in January, the company had per-share earnings of 36 cents.
The company's overall revenue was $12.1 billion — up 32 percent from $9.2 billion in the previous first quarter. Its consolidated pro forma revenue, $13.3 billion, was flat compared to last year's results, which included NBCU's revenue from the Winter Olympics. Excluding the Olympics, pro forma revenue increased 6.1 percent.
NBCU had overall operating cash flow of $496 million, up 4.9 percent from first quarter 2010's $473 million. It was powered by the company's thriving cable networks, which posted cash flow of $817 million, up 7.2 percent from $762 million.
The broadcast television division — which includes NBC — posted operating cash flow of just $20 million — which was still an improvement over the $182 million loss it incurred in the first quarter of 2010 due to the costs of the Winter Olympics.
Excluding the $223 million loss from the Olympics, cash flow declined from $41 million to $20 million, which the company said was the result of investments in new programming. NBC has especially bet big on its much-hyped "The Voice," which had strong ratings in its debut and an encore airing last week.
"While we've only been operating the NBCUniversal businesses for three months, we're encouraged by a seamless integration, and we are working diligently to invest and build value for our shareholders," said Comcast chairman and CEO Brian L. Roberts.
Comcast's number of video customers slipped to 22.76 million, which allowed Netflix, as expected, to become the biggest subscription video company with 23.6 million users.