-Comcast beat estimates for quarterly profit on Tuesday as strong growth in its Peacock streaming service and a smaller-than-expected loss in broadband customers helped overcome weakness in its studio and theme parks business.

Shares of the company rose 2.5% in premarket trading after Comcast reported that it lost 120,000 broadband customers, compared with estimates for a loss of 143,000, according to FactSet.

Its Peacock streaming service posted a 27.5% rise in revenue to $1.05 billion, driven by a 38% surge in paid subscribers to a total of 33 million.

The media conglomerate is focusing more on Peacock to offset a hit from cord-cutting and is investing heavily in the service to compete with the likes of Netflix and Disney+.

Capital expenditure for its content and experiences segment rose 4.4% to $845 million in the quarter.

Revenue from its studio business, however, fell 27% and was a drag on its total revenue, which fell 2.7% to $29.69 billion in the three months ended June. LSEG was estimating $30.02 billion.

The company had little to offer in the April-June quarter to match the success of last year's "The Super Mario Bros. Movie" and "Fast X" as most of its big-budget movies such as the fourth installment in the hit animated franchise "Despicable Me" and the disaster movie "Twisters" released in July,

Its theme park business posted a 10.6% fall in revenue as a post-pandemic surge in visitors eased.

Comcast is leaning on Epic Universe - a collection of immersive worlds such as Super Nintendo World and How to Tran Your Dragon-Isle of Berk - to bolster its parks business but the launch has been pushed back to 2025 from this year.

  - Reuters