• by Wayne Friedman , October 30, 2013

Comcast’s NBCUniversal had modest financial gains for its third quarter -- when excluding Summer Olympic comparisons of 2012.

Overall revenue for NBCUniversal sank 14.2% to $5.9 billion.Taking out the London Olympics' $1.2 billion in revenue for the third quarter of 2012, NBCUniversal's revenue was up 3.9%.

This also affected operating cash flow, which sank 9.6% to $1.3 billion compared to $1.1 billion in the third quarter of 2012. Without the $120 million of cash flow from the Olympics, NBC’s cash flow was up 22.4%.

NBC’s cable networks witnessed 4.0% higher revenue to $2.2 billion as a result of a 5.4% increase in distribution revenue and a 4.6% rise in advertising business. Content licensing revenue declined by 6.5%. NBC’s broadcast television business witnessed a substantial 41.1% decline to $1.6 billion, given the lack of Summer Olympics revenue.

Filmed Entertainment climbed 3.3% to $1.4 billion thanks to higher theatrical box office revenue from “Despicable Me 2.” Home entertainment revenue was down because of fewer releases compared to last year.  

NBCUniversal’s theme parks climbed 7.9% to $661 million in revenue from better business at the Orlando and Hollywood theme parks.

Comcast’s Cable Communications unit was up 5.2% to $10.5 billion as a result of gains in high-speed Internet (7.9%) business services (26.4%), and video (2.9%). Local cable advertising sales sank 10.8% to $541 million, primarily due to lower political advertising revenue.

Comcast spent $1.28 billion in advertising and promotion during the period compared with $1.23 billion. Comcast overall revenue was down to 2.4% to $16.2 billion from $16.5 billion, primarily as a result of comparisons to the London Summer Olympics revenues.

Net income was off by almost half -- to $1.78 billion against $2.98 billion in the third quarter of 2012. Taking out the Olympics -- when looking at operating cash flow -- Comcast gained 10.5% to $5.4 billion .