As you well know, calling your cable company and calmly telling them they’re way overpriced will likely result in your cable bill being lowered significantly. Don’t believe us? Try it.

Now’s a good time to do it, because Comcast just announced that revenue is up 80% this quarter. From The Philadelphia Inquirer:

Revenue rose 32 percent in the period, to $7.39 billion. Cable revenue rose 12 percent to $7 billion.

Wall Street had been expecting 17 cents per share on revenue of $7.36 billion, according to Thomson Financial.

The gain stemmed from the dissolution of a partnership with Time Warner Inc. in Texas and Kansas City.

The company added 1.76 million revenue-generating units in the first quarter, a 63 percent jump from a year ago. A revenue-generating unit, or RGU, represents a service bought, so a customer who bought cable, phone and Internet service from Comcast would count as three RGUs.

Company executives attributed the RGU growth to the popularity of their triple-play package, which offers cable, high-speed Internet and phone service at an introductory rate of $99 a month for one year.

So far, triple-play customers have been less likely to leave Comcast than digital cable customers, even after the introductory rate expires and monthly bills rise by about $30

Tips for using this information, inside.

What this means:

• Comcast values triple-play accounts.
• “Churn” affects their profile on Wall Street.
• If you leave because it’s too expensive, that’s “churn.”
• Churn is bad.
• If you call them and say that the new “triple-play” pricing is too much and you will leave unless you get the “old” price, you will most likely get it.
• Churn is avoided. Everyone is happy.

Try it. Tell us what happens at tips [at] consumerist [dot] com. —MEGHANN MARCO

Comcast quarterly net up 80 percent [Philadelphia Inquirer] (Thanks, TaxChick!)
(Photo: Tom Simpson)

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