Universal’s Q1 theme park revenue is up 24%, Comcast Corporation (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) reported Thursday during the earnings call. Broadband losses improved sharply, and Peacock will approach profitability next quarter. However, the call flagged early softness in Osaka and Beijing, and Co-CEO Mike Cavanagh hedged on whether elevated oil prices and airline costs will pressure Parks in Q2 and Q3.
Epic Performance
Theme Parks revenue reached $2.3 billion in the quarter, up 24.2% year over year, and Adjusted EBITDA grew 33.3% to $551 million. CFO Jason Armstrong said that, adjusting for roughly $100 million in pre-opening costs at Epic Universe (Orlando, Florida) in the prior-year quarter, Parks’ EBITDA grew over 7% on an underlying basis.
“Lastly, at Parks, Orlando continues to perform extremely well with Epic driving strong resort attendance and higher per cap spending,” Cavanagh said.
Armstrong added: “Under the hood, we had very strong growth in Orlando, where Epic continues to drive higher per cap spending in attendance across the entirety of the resort. We are really pleased with Epic’s performance since its launch. It’s expanding the overall guest experience and helping to position Universal Orlando as a true week-long destination.”
The growth continues the pattern from Q4 2025, when the Parks segment first crossed $1 billion in quarterly EBITDA, and Universal reported hotel average daily rates up 20% after adding 2,000 rooms in Orlando.
Cavanagh used the call to update investors on the broader pipeline. “We’re continuing to invest behind a pipeline of growth. This year, we opened Fast & Furious: Hollywood Drift in Universal Hollywood and our first-ever kids park in Frisco, Texas this summer. Internationally, our UK park is progressing through final planning approvals as site stabilization begins, and we’re building on our strength in Japan with immersive Pokémon experiences.”
Softening in Beijing and Osaka
The sole cloud over the theme parks segment came from Universal’s Asian parks. “Partially offsetting strong growth in Orlando is some pressure at our other parks,” Armstrong said. “Specifically, in Osaka, we’re seeing some impact from China-related inbound travel trends, which is putting pressure on attendance. And in Beijing, we’re navigating a more challenging macroeconomic environment.”
Cavanagh’s Pokémon comment, delivered in the same section of the prepared remarks, signals the company’s response to the Osaka softness. When inbound international travel to a park weakens, the available lever is to sell harder to the local audience. Universal Studios Japan has been running that playbook for a decade through its annual Universal Cool Japan program, which this year includes a three-format Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End activation running from May 30 through January 11, 2027.
No Pullback on Travel, Yet
The first quarter ended March 31, and the Iran conflict began in late February, giving the quarter almost no direct exposure to the oil price and airline cost spikes that followed. Cavanagh addressed the macro question directly when JPMorgan analyst Sebastiano Petti asked whether consumer sentiment at all-time lows was translating into park attendance.
“Inbound international travel to the US parks is something that has not ever gotten back to the level we saw pre-COVID… Inside the US, domestic to domestic, we haven’t yet seen any significant impact in the parks business caused by higher oil, but I think that does not mean that it may not happen depending on the duration of the effect on price of gas, airline tickets, and so forth. So more to come, but thus far, not seeing a pullback of any level that’s concerning in the current results. But like I said, we’ll see what the coming quarters look like and pretty much the same on the advertising side.”
Chairman and Co-CEO Brian Roberts followed up by pointing to the upcoming Olympics as a potential offset. “I just want to comment that the compelling nature of the Olympics pulls forward our relationship with advertisers, obviously, the same for NFL Sunday and the Super Bowl. So, as we look forward to LA, we’ve got tremendous enthusiasm and excitement for how that could also keep the ecosystem very robust. We have a good road map ahead of us.”
Will Universal Expand The Parks?
Bank of America analyst Jessica Reif Ehrlich asked Cavanagh how the company was thinking about capital allocation across NBCUniversal’s three growth assets — Universal Studios, Peacock, and Theme Parks.
“You look at parks, and we’re really pleased with the big initiative last year was Epic,” Cavanagh said. “And ahead of us is a UK park and the expansions of the kids parks in the US and more to come. So I think the creative plans inside our Parks business to keep driving growth, and that’s one of our six important growth drivers is a good one, and we love that business, and we’ll allocate — recycle the capital that they create back into the business over time to keep growing that business and creating value above our cost of capital.”
Cavanagh also described Parks as “a part of the flywheel of creating franchises and feeding parks” that “fits right into what makes a media company great alongside parks.”
Comcast ended the quarter at 2.3x net leverage, generated $3.9 billion in free cash flow, and returned $2.5 billion to shareholders through $1.25 billion in share repurchases and $1.2 billion in dividends. Armstrong said the capital allocation framework “has been and will continue to be balanced and consistent,” with priorities that “continue to start with investing organically behind our growth drivers.”
For context, Six Flags Entertainment Corporation reported 2025 net debt of $5.11 billion and a leverage ratio above 6x, and is currently divesting seven parks to pay down debt.
The Bigger Corporate Picture
Parks generated $2.3 billion of Comcast’s $31.5 billion in consolidated Q1 revenue, roughly 7% of the total. Connectivity & Platforms, the cable and wireless business, generated $20 billion, close to two-thirds of the company. And the biggest macro takeaway was that broadband losses are finally slowing.
“Broadband net losses improved by more than 100,000 year-over-year, the first year-over-year improvement since the fourth quarter of 2020,” Cavanagh said. Residential broadband net losses were 65,000 in the quarter, compared with 182,000 in the prior-year quarter. The company also added 435,000 wireless lines, its best quarterly result on record, bringing total lines to 9.7 million and reaching 16% penetration of the domestic residential broadband base.
Cavanagh credited the new go-to-market strategy and the Legendary February promotional period, anchored by the Milan-Cortina Olympics, Super Bowl LX, and the NBA All-Star Game. “We had a real company-wide moment with Legendary February. We outperformed across audience, engagement, and monetization. And importantly, we leveraged this massive reach to market our connectivity products at scale, a proof point that when we really lean in, we can move the needle.”
Peacock added 2 million subscribers in the quarter to reach 46 million, revenue grew more than 70% to cross $2 billion for the first time, and the Milan Cortina Olympics drew a record 16.7 billion minutes streamed, more than double all prior Winter Games combined. “And as Jason said, Peacock should approach profitability in the second quarter,” Cavanagh said. “And then, because of our straight-line amortization of NBA rights as we look to the next season, so to speak, of NBA lapping itself. I think the prospect for ongoing and durable profitability for Peacock is what we have our sight set on.”
Cavanagh framed the company around “six major growth drivers” that now represent “well over 60% of total company revenue, up from 50% when we introduced this framework three years ago.”
What This Means for the Industry (Analysis)
For industry professionals, there are two stories here: Epic Universe is paying off (despite some negative reviews), and Comcast’s core business is improving. Theme parks account for only 7% of the business, and although they are performing well, it seems Comcast wants to keep that segment proportionate, with the theme parks funding their own reinvestment. That’s a relief for those of us wondering how the Iran War could impact investment in the parks; for now, it seems investment will continue as planned.
However, the executives left the door open for potential disruptions in Q2 and Q3. The phrase “haven’t yet seen any significant impact” and the follow-up “that does not mean that it may not happen” illustrate they’re still considering it.
The Asia softness is the more immediate operational story. Osaka and Beijing face different problems — one is China-related inbound, the other is broader Chinese macro — but the available response at both is the same: activate the locals. Universal Studios Japan has a decade of practice with this through Universal Cool Japan, and Frieren is the latest entry in that program. Pokémon moving deeper into the Japan park fits the same pattern. Beijing will need its own version. Parks that rely on international inbound travel have limited options when that inbound softens, and operators with domestic IP programs already in place have a head start.
The funding question is what separates Comcast from most of the industry. When Cavanagh said Parks would “recycle the capital that they create back into the business over time,” he told investors two things at once. The first is that Parks will pay for its own growth. The second is that corporate will not be writing extra checks to accelerate it. Parks is one of six growth drivers, not the first one named, and it will be resourced accordingly. The ceiling on Parks investment is Parks’ own free cash flow, which is why Epic’s ongoing performance matters beyond Orlando — it literally underwrites the next wave of global expansion.
That model only works because the rest of Comcast is healthy enough to let Parks keep its own cash. The broadband turn and the Peacock profitability milestone are doing structural work for the Parks business, not just the media business. Comcast at 2.3x leverage has the balance sheet to keep investing through a soft cycle. Six Flags at 6x is divesting parks to pay down debt. That gap is the real moat.
