Nice find.
"..8% of revenue comes from the parks, but 31% of profit." That is phenomenal...and coming from the business world, would indicate to me that the parks are in for a lot of attention for the foreseeable future (anyone know what % of profit for Dis comes from the parks - probably nearly impossible to compare). No company is going to walk the othe way from those numbers, and they aren't, they are charging ahead full steam. Exciting!!
Still, the fact that nearly 1/3 of Comcast profits are being derived out of their parks to me, seems too good to be true - given I think Universal offers a more cost effective alternative to Disney (for example, 14 day unlimited passes for $190) - in other words, they have room to squeeze more profit out of the parks with likely very little consumer unrest.
Either way, its good for all...as competition is the best cure to staleness (which I think has faced Disney World for sometime now)...nothing like competition building at breakneck speeds and continuing to show massive attendance gains.
I'm honestly not too surprised that the margins are much much better for the theme park operations than Comcast's other businesses.
For Cable TV, on average I'd say it's safe to say that 80% of every dollar you spend on your cable bills goes to pay the fees they must pay to the content Providers. That leaves 20% to cover operating costs such as utility bills, insurance, staffing, and the Equipment needed to provide service (from the Comcast trucks, to the plant equipment such as RF cables, trucks, and headend equipment to put the information on the plant for your box's and modems to receive).
With NBCU, the broadcast network is generally accepted to be dragging down overall revenues. For the Cable networks, money they bring in is then spent on producing the content.... and Advertising revenues continue to drop across the entire industry as more people get DVR's to skip the commercials, and more channels are introduced which provides more TV Ad time. And The movie Studios are very much a variable since they invest large sums into film budgets, and some movies bring in a ton of profit, while others lose money. Even still, it's not a steady income across the entire year since it hits it's highs and lows depending upon what movies come to market.
The Theme parks however get a pretty steady income across the entire year. Obviously, The peak times are going to bring in more revenue than the slower times.... but between seasonal attractions, shorter hours, and less staff needed to contain and direct the crowds, You end up with lower expenses so it tends to even out.
What I honestly find MORE interesting is the fact that Universal gets more income out of each of their parks than Disney Does. (If you look at total income for Disney's Parks and Resorts unit vs. universal's theme park income. Universal is still about 1/2 of Disney, but they also have less than 1/2 the number of parks.)
