For An ISP, Comcast Still Earns A Lot Through TV

By the numbers, Comcast is now, first and foremost, an Internet service provider.

As of its most recent earnings report, the company claims 22.5 million Internet subscribers to its 22.3 million video subscribers.

This flip-flop was just a matter of time. Comcast marked a cable television loss of 144,000 subscriptions in the second quarter of 2014, and 69,000 this year, while Internet subscriptions jumped 203,000 this time last year and 180,000 in 2015.

But despite the decline of cable, those bills still account for about twice the revenue of Internet subscriptions. And Comcast still managed to grow that portion of its revenue stream by 3.7 percent since this time last year. (Video via Comcast)

Of course, the only way this works is by charging more from its fewer customers.

One analyst who talked to Bloomberg expects that will work out to an increase of about $16 on each cable TV bill over the next five years, even as another 113,000 subscribers cut the cord.

Comcast also sees potential to draw some traditionally television-based revenues from its Internet user base.

Its streaming service, intuitively called Stream, will add TV content from HBO and other channels onto Internet subscriptions for another $15 per month. (Video via HBO)

This video includes images from Getty Images. Music by Frenic / CC BY 3.0.