I'll research CMCSA before writing the preview. Let me start by pulling recent earnings materials, filings, and news.Let me read the most recent quarter's materials and gather more news on the spinoff and competitive dynamics.I have strong background. Now let me get details on the recently announced NBCUniversal/Sky spinoff, recent news, and stock performance.Let me read the June 29 press release (likely the spinoff announcement) to get the details of the restructuring.Let me quickly pull the prior-year Q2 (2025Q2) metrics for the year-over-year comparison framing.I now have everything I need. Here's the earnings preview.

Comcast (CMCSA) — Q2 2026 Earnings Preview

Reports before market open, Thursday, July 23, 2026 | Q2 2026 Earnings Call

The one-line setup

This is the first earnings report since Comcast dropped a bombshell on June 29 — a plan to spin off NBCUniversal and Sky into a separate public company — and the stock is sitting near multi-year lows. The quarter itself matters less than what management says about (1) whether the fragile broadband stabilization from Q1 is real, and (2) how the two-company breakup will be structured financially. Numbers are almost a sideshow; the narrative is everything.

1. Where the stock and sentiment stand

Shares closed around $23.54 on July 22, roughly at the bottom of a brutal ~30% decline over the trailing year and down ~15% year-to-date. The stock now trades at only ~6.7x forward earnings — among the cheapest names in the S&P 500.
The de-rating is not about content or Trump's broadcast-license threats — those assets are a small slice of the story. It's about broadband: Comcast is bleeding internet subscribers to fixed wireless (Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile), fiber overbuilders, and increasingly satellite (Starlink). Connectivity generates ~60% of the company's ~$130B in annual revenue, so this is the whole ballgame for the stock.
Sell-side is split, reflecting the "value-trap vs. deep-value" debate: RBC is at Sector Perform / ~$27; Benchmark is a Buy at $44 (implying 80%+ upside); Deutsche Bank flagged ~30% upside on the spin-off "value unlock." The gap tells you how much rides on whether the breakup and the broadband turn are credible.

2. Consensus expectations for Q2

Metric	Consensus	Prior-year Q2'25 (as reported)*
Revenue	~$29.3B (down ~3.6%)	$30.3B
Adjusted EPS	~$0.97 (down ~18%)	$1.25
Domestic broadband net losses	~(165,300)	(226K) total / (201K) residential
Domestic wireless line adds	(watch)	+378K

*2025 figures include Versant Media, which was spun off Jan 2, 2026. Comcast now reports on a pro forma ex-Versant basis, so headline YoY comparisons will look distorted — focus on the pro forma trending schedules, not the raw prints. For reference, Q1 2026 adjusted EPS was $0.79 and adjusted EBITDA fell 9% pro forma, weighted down by peak NBA cost dilution and broadband go-to-market investment.

3. The mega-catalyst: the NBCUniversal + Sky spin-off

Announced June 29, this is the frame for the entire call:

Structure: Tax-free spin of NBCUniversal and Sky (Universal theme parks, film/TV studios, NBC/Telemundo, Peacock, Bravo, Sky) into a new public company, expected to close in ~one year. NewCo will have the same dual-class structure; Comcast keeps up to a 19.9% stake to monetize tax-efficiently over time.
RemainCo "Comcast": Pure-play connectivity/technology — broadband, wireless, business services, entertainment platforms — spanning the largest converged network reaching 65M+ homes/businesses, with substantial free cash flow.
Leadership: Brian Roberts stays chairman/involved in both; Mike Cavanagh becomes NBCU CEO; former CFO Michael Angelakis returns as Comcast CEO (Strategic Advisor in the interim). Both entities are to get investment-grade balance sheets.

What investors will press management on: the financial split (debt/leverage allocation between the two), dividend policy for each company post-split, standalone cost structures, and whether a cleaner broadband RemainCo becomes a takeout/consolidation vehicle. Note management has repeatedly signaled openness to cable-sector M&A but faces debt, tax, and regulatory constraints. Expect limited hard financials this early — but any framework will move the stock.

4. Broadband — the metric that decides the reaction

This is the number that matters most.

The Q1 tease: Broadband losses of just 65K improved 117K YoY — the first year-over-year improvement since Q4 2020. But management admitted more than half of the improvement came from a one-off marketing surge around "Legendary February" (Olympics + Super Bowl LX). Q2 has no such tentpole, so it's the first clean read on whether the go-to-market pivot (simple/transparent pricing, 5-year price guarantee, free mobile line) is structurally working.
Consensus ~165K net losses would still be a meaningful YoY improvement vs. the 226K lost in Q2'25 — watch whether Comcast beats or misses that bar, and the connect/churn commentary underneath.
ARPU is the offset: Broadband ARPU fell 3.1% in Q1, and management explicitly guided to incremental pressure in Q2 (no rate increase, simplified pricing, dilution from free wireless lines). The promised "relief" doesn't come until they lap these actions and start monetizing free lines in 2H. So expect the classic tension: better subs, worse ARPU. How the market weighs volume vs. price will drive the stock.
Competitive framing to listen for: fixed wireless, fiber overbuild (~55% of footprint now overlapped), and satellite. Management's thesis is that its network/WiFi advantage plus simpler packaging lets it win.

5. Wireless — the convergence engine

2025 was a record year (1.5M net lines); Q1 2026 set an all-time quarterly record (+435K), reaching 9.7M lines at ~16% penetration of broadband homes.
The free-line strategy is the swing factor: roughly half of connects are free lines, and the crucial test — converting free lines to paid, beginning in 2H 2026 — is just starting. Early cohort retention was described as encouraging; any hard conversion data will be a highlight.
Convergence ARPA sits around $85 vs. ~2x that for telecom peers — management's headline growth-runway argument. Also watch the new Mobile Plus premium plan (free lifetime device protection) and the upcoming T-Mobile MVNO for business customers.

6. Theme Parks — summer quarter, watch international

Domestic remains the bright spot: Epic Universe (opened May 2025) has been driving strong Orlando attendance and per-cap spending; Q2 is a seasonally important summer quarter with easier pre-opening-cost comps.
Watch two risks management flagged: international softness (Osaka pressured by China-related inbound travel; Beijing macro) and any U.S. consumer/macro pullback (gas/airfare). So far no concerning domestic slowdown, but this is a key Q&A topic.
Pipeline: Frisco, TX kids park (this summer), UK park progressing through approvals.

7. Media / Peacock / Studios — the inflection quarter

Q1 was explicitly the peak NBA cost dilution (Media EBITDA loss of $426M; Peacock loss $432M). Management guided that Q2 is the inflection: Peacock should "approach profitability" for the first time. Confirming that — and framing durable profitability as the NBA amortization normalizes — is the key content narrative.
Q2 tailwinds: NBA playoffs and the FIFA World Cup on Telemundo/Peacock, plus a record upfront.
Studios momentum is strong: Super Mario Galaxy has crossed $750M+ globally (franchise over $2B), and Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey just opened to a blockbuster ~$265M worldwide ($125M domestic / $140M international). Good box office feeds both the media and parks flywheel — and the future NBCU standalone story.

8. Capital returns & balance sheet

Comcast returned ~$2.5B to shareholders in Q1 ($1.25B buybacks + $1.2B dividends) and ~$11.7B in full-year 2025, reducing share count ~5%. The well-above-market dividend yield is a core part of the deep-value thesis.
Net leverage was 2.3x at Q1; expect it to tick up as Versant rolls out of the trailing calculation, with a stated intention to bring it back to 2.3x. Free cash flow generation (Q1: $3.9B) underpins the returns — watch for any signal that the spin-off changes capital-allocation priorities.

Bottom line — what to watch

Broadband subs & ARPU: A clean-quarter YoY sub improvement (beating the ~165K loss estimate) without ARPU falling off a cliff = bull case validation. Worse ARPU with soft subs = value-trap fears reinforced.
Spin-off financials: Any color on leverage split, dividend policy, and standalone cost/growth profiles for the two companies.
Peacock inflection: Does it actually approach breakeven as promised?
Free-line monetization: Early conversion evidence heading into the 2H tailwind.
Parks/consumer: Domestic resilience vs. international drag amid macro noise.

With the stock at ~6.7x earnings and near lows, expectations are low and sentiment is "gloomy" — which cuts both ways. A credible broadband trajectory plus a shareholder-friendly spin-off framework could drive an outsized relief rally; another quarter of ARPU erosion or a vague breakup plan risks pushing an already-cheap stock cheaper.

Note: Prior-year comparisons are complicated by the January 2026 Versant spin — anchor on Comcast's pro forma disclosures rather than raw year-ago prints.