DESPITE MAJOR LOSSES, COMCAST REPORTS SOLID EARNINGS OVERALL

Comcast shareholders had every reason to suspect a dismal third-quarter report on Wednesday. After all, Comcast’s movie studio, Universal, released one of the biggest bombs of the period, Battleship. Its broadcast television network, NBC, remained thrashing about in last place in the ratings. Its cable division, the soul of the company, lost 176,000 subscribers. But the actual results turned out to be … not bad. Net income rose 32 percent to $1.35 billion versus $1.02 billion for the same period a year ago. Revenue grew 6 percent to $15.2 billion from $14.3 billion last year. The company credited solid performances by its cable networks, an increase in sales of its high-speed Internet services, and strong ticket sales at its Universal Studios theme parks for keeping it out of the red.