USA: Comcast Reports Full-Year 2020 Results: Significant Losses in Theme Park Segment

Extensive operational restrictions for leisure facilities during the global Corona pandemic are also clearly reflected in the recently published full-year results of the American media and entertainment group Comcast Corporation in its theme parks business unit. This segment, which includes the Universal Studios in Orlando, Hollywood and Japan, reported a revenue of 1.846 billion US-Dollars (approx. 1.522 billion Euros) for 2020, a 68.9 percent decline compared to the previous year (total revenue 2019: 5.933 billion US-Dollars). While destinations in Florida and Japan have at least been able to open to a limited total number of visitors and in this way reached their Break-even, leisure facilities in California have so far not received approval to reopen since the start of the lockdown, although comprehensive operating concepts for a safe guest stay were developed at an early stage.

Other Comcast divisions are showing positive revenue trends for 2020, particularly in cable network services – overall, Brian L. Roberts, Chairman & CEO of Comcast Corporation, is confident about a positive development in the coming months: “[…] Our theme parks in Orlando and Osaka reached breakeven; and encouragingly, Sky returned to customer growth in all three of its markets, bringing our total customer relationships and overall revenue in Europe essentially back to 2019 levels. With the vaccines rolling out throughout the world, we are optimistic that the parts of our business that had been most impacted will soon be back on a path towards growth. This confidence is shared by our Board of Directors, which has announced an increase in the dividend for the thirteenth consecutive year. In addition, it is now our expectation that we will be in a position to begin repurchasing shares again in the back half of this year. While this is certainly the most challenging period we have faced, I could not be more proud of how our management team and employees continue to pull together and deliver,“ says Roberts.

In our annual Park Report, which will be published in EAP issue 2/2021, we take a closer look at how the “pandemic year“ of 2020 has affected European leisure businesses and provide you with an outlook to what investments are planned for the coming season. (eap)