Comcast Corporation (NASDAQ:CMCSA) Q4 2022 Earnings Call Transcript

So what — when we — we were going to grow — we’ve made that investment. We’ve been clear from the start that we’re going to see a return on investment. I think we feel better on that now based on where we are. And we also made that investment to return the Media segment to growth over time, which we feel even more confident today than we did maybe a year or two ago, then that’s going to happen. And the timing of that really is up to macro conditions, how — when does the ad market recover, how — what are linear declines going forward. And then, of course, we continue to cut costs in the linear segment to maintain our margins. So I’m pretty confident that we have a lot of growth ahead in NBCUniversal, particularly after the progress we’ve made this year and the Media segment, we wouldn’t be investing in Peacock.

We didn’t think it was going to return the segment to growth over time.

Mike Cavanagh: And then the — on working capital, we said a year ago that it was going to be spiked to a higher than typical run rate level just on the back of the disruptions caused by COVID in getting content creation in the phase we’re in up to normalized levels. So expect to just ease back off of the levels we saw in 2022. It’s a hard number to predict, but I think we are past peak there.

Marci Ryvicker: Thanks, Ben. Operator we’ll take the next question.

Operator: Our next question comes from Craig Moffett with MoffettNathanson. Please go ahead.

Craig Moffett: Thank you. And congratulations to both of you, Mike and Jason. The question I have is on margins. As I think about the Cable segment, I think most people at this point are aware of the puts and takes where growing broadband, it raises margins, losing video raises margins. As you think about wireless now sort of accounting for a larger and larger piece of the pie, how do those pieces fit together as sort of a longer-term outlook for margins? Is it possible for the growth rate of wireless at whatever margin it sort of contributes to keep margins growing in the cable business?

Dave Watson: Craig, Dave. So I think the good news is we have a great portfolio of opportunities and business lines. So as you said, we have real strength in broadband and not only just solid broadband relationships with the ability to drive revenue in a healthy way. So resi broadband, I believe, will continue to be accretive not just revenue but margin. And business services is a real long-term opportunity has been, will continue to be. So when you look at top line margin impact, including mobile, I think it’s a good — and video slowing down. On the top line, it contributes towards margin. The second thing clearly are the expenses. And just lower activity levels, our constant focus around the two big buckets of the transactional activity, the experience improvements that we have that really drive things like self-install and the apps that help people resolve issues independently.