Comcast's third quarter of 2025 showed early traction from its broadband go-to-market pivot, with record wireless net additions of 414,000 and the best video result in nearly five years, even as broadband lost 104,000 subscribers and C&P EBITDA fell 3.7%. The quarter also brought the leadership announcement that Steve Croney would become CEO of Connectivity & Platforms in 2026 with Dave Watson moving to Vice Chairman. Parks grew on the first full quarter of Epic Universe and Peacock losses narrowed sharply, while total revenue declined 3% against the tough Paris Olympics comparison.
Thank you, operator, and welcome, everyone. Joining us on today's call are Brian Roberts, Mike Cavanagh, Jason Armstrong, and Dave Watson. I will now refer you to slide two of the presentation accompanying this call, which can also be found on our investor relations website and which contains our safe harbor disclaimer. This conference call may include forward-looking statements subject to certain risks and uncertainties. In addition, during this call we will refer to certain non-GAAP financial measures. Please see our 8-K and trending schedule issued earlier this morning for the reconciliations of these non-GAAP financial measures to GAAP. With that, I'll turn the call over to Mike.
Good morning everyone and thanks for joining us. First I'll start with the leadership news. We announced earlier this morning that Steve Croney will be elevated to CEO of our Connectivity and Platforms business at the beginning of 2026 and at that time Dave Watson will become Vice Chairman of Comcast Corporation. This will be a well-earned and seamless transition for Steve, who has already made a significant impact as Chief Operating Officer, leading the operational transformation of our CMP business over the past year. He has the full trust and confidence of our entire management team and he's exactly the right person to take the business forward. I want to congratulate and thank Dave for his extraordinary leadership of the business for the past eight years. Over more than three decades, Dave has been an integral part of building the best connectivity business in the industry.
The fact that Steve comes from inside the company also speaks to how thoughtfully Dave has developed the leaders in his organization. I really look forward to continuing to partner with you, Dave, in your new role as Vice Chairman. Brian will have more to say about this leadership transition later in the call. Now let me get into the quarter. I have two topics to discuss: convergence and sports. Starting with convergence, the broadband environment remains intensely competitive, which we do not expect to change anytime soon. Over time, though, we believe that the vast majority of the broadband market will be comprised of two multi-gig symmetrical providers serving most addresses and we aim to be a winner in this segment. With the rest of the market likely being served by capacity-limited alternatives, we've been seeing this end state begin to take shape.
Fiber expansion continues at a steady pace and as we've said before, we expect most of our footprint will eventually be overbuilt. At the same time, fixed wireless remains a durable competitor serving price-sensitive segments with moderate performance needs. Against this backdrop, we have adapted our approach to compete more effectively for the long term. Our strategy rests upon three pillars: network, product, and customer experience. Our network is built to scale and now leverages AI end to end to optimize performance throughout the home. This enables best-in-class Wi-Fi, which matters more than ever as usage continues to rise. We're seeing this on our network where broadband-only customers average 800 GB a month in the third quarter, up 9% year-over-year in product. Broadband, wireless, and our Entertainment OS operate as one system, integrated and designed for how customers actually connect.
Taken together or individually, they deliver a seamless experience that differentiates us in the marketplace, and finally in customer experience where we need to improve over the long term. Our near-term focus is on price transparency and in making it easier to do business with us. With respect to these pillars, we made meaningful progress in the quarter. First, we streamlined our organizational structure to better align with our strategy. Dave has centralized key functions such as marketing, data science, and customer experience, and reduced management layers to sharpen local execution. Second, we're pressing ahead on Wi-Fi, an area where we are already recognized as a market leader. Strong, consistent Wi-Fi remains the number one factor driving customer choice, and this is where we excel. Opensignal recently ranked Xfinity the top provider in our footprint, outperforming Verizon, T-Mobile, and AT&T in reliability, download speeds, and streaming.
This leadership comes from the technology behind our network, especially our gateways, which power the strength and consistency of the Wi-Fi experience. During the third quarter, we began rolling out our most powerful gateway yet, the XB10, supporting multi-gig symmetrical speeds and up to 300 devices, using AI to self-optimize network performance in real time. With our new national pricing, gateways are included in every package, ensuring every customer receives our best technology and an integrated experience with mobile. Third, we've accelerated momentum in wireless, now reaching more than 14% penetration of our broadband base and adding over 400,000 lines in the quarter. Our best result yet. Xfinity Mobile is a standout growth engine for us. We're leaning in with sharper marketing, stronger brand awareness, and compelling offers like a free mobile line for one year.
This was also the first full quarter of our new premium unlimited plan designed for higher-value customers that delivers what they want at $40 per line on a two-line plan and the ability to upgrade devices twice a year with a guaranteed discount on a new phone. Our progress in mobile is clear with meaningful product uptake, higher attachment rates across our broadband base, and growing recognition of Xfinity Mobile as a leader in value and performance. Fourth, video performance improved meaningfully this quarter with subscriber losses down more than 100,000 year-over-year, which is our best result in nearly five years. Churn is at record lows, supported by our focus on delivering the right products for each customer segment. Our Entertainment OS continues to lead the market, enhanced by features like Multiview which allows our customers to view several live events simultaneously.
Fifth, we introduced a simpler, more transparent pricing model. As we detailed last quarter, we've moved to nationwide offers built around four clear speed tiers. Each plan includes our gateway, unlimited data, Wi-Fi controls, and cyber protection at a lower everyday price backed by a one or five year price guarantee. It's a more predictable experience for the customer and a clearer value proposition in the market. Finally, we're taking meaningful steps to simplify the customer experience across all channels. Our new AI engine now supports agents, technicians, and customers through assisted chat, phone, our website, and our AI-enabled Xfinity Assistant platform. We also launched a program that connects customers to a live agent in seconds, which is now available to half of our customer base. It's still early, but we're moving fast and executing with focus towards a simpler, smarter, and more seamless customer experience.
Taken together, these efforts mark tangible progress in what is an important shift to position our connectivity business for future sustained growth. This is a deliberate investment phase, one that will take time and carry a cost as reflected in the 3.7% decline in connectivity and platforms EBITDA this quarter, and we expect this decline to build slightly over the next several quarters as we continue to invest in pricing, product, and customer experience. My second topic is sports. Last week's NBA tip off marked the start of one of the biggest stretches of live sports in our history and drew the largest audience for an NBA opening doubleheader since 2010. We're in the heart of the NFL and college football seasons, and in February we'll have the Super Bowl, Winter Olympics, and NBA All Star Weekend, followed by the World Cup on Telemundo in June.
Sports remains a cornerstone of our media business. The NBA's return to NBC and now Peacock expands both our reach and our creative opportunities. Sunday Night Basketball launches in February, modeled after the success of Sunday Night Football, which has been the number one primetime show for 14 straight years and now averages roughly 25 million viewers. We're proud of the sports portfolio we've built. Each property adds value across our entire media ecosystem, driving NBC's distribution, helping Peacock attract and retain subscribers, and powering our advertising business. As audiences continue to shift from linear to streaming, the multiple benefits of sports becomes an even greater advantage. Live sports continue to deliver strong viewership and ad performance across broadcast and streaming. Momentum at Peacock remains solid and retention has held steady even after our $3 price increase.
Running linear and streaming as one integrated media business gives us real scale and flexibility. It allows us to align programming, marketing, promotion, and monetization across NBC, Peacock, and our studios. As we near completion of the Versant spin, NBCUniversal's media business will be more focused and well positioned to grow. Let me turn it over to Jason to go over the third quarter results in more detail.
Thanks Mike and good morning everyone. Let me start with a high level overview of our consolidated results before getting into more detail on our businesses. Total company revenue declined about 3% year-over-year, primarily due to the tough comparison to last year's Paris Olympics. Excluding that impact, revenue increased nearly 3%, driven by strong performance across our six growth businesses, highlighted by nearly 20% growth in theme parks and 14% growth in domestic wireless. EBITDA and adjusted EPS were both consistent with last year, while free cash flow increased 45% to $4.9 billion. We returned $2.8 billion to shareholders this quarter, including $1.5 billion in share repurchases and $1.2 billion in dividends, reflecting our ongoing commitment to disciplined capital allocation. Now turning to our businesses, starting with connectivity and platforms, the competitive environment for broadband remains intense as we've highlighted.
We've made a significant pivot in our go to market strategy this year focused on simplifying pricing, improving transparency, and enhancing the customer experience. While it's still early, we're encouraged by what we're seeing in our broadband customer base, continued stabilization in voluntary churn, a healthy mix of customers opting into our five year price guarantee, and nearly 40% of new connects choosing Gig speeds, which is up about 10 points from the start of the year. We're also seeing higher utilization of our new packaging, including new everyday pricing in retention, helping transition more of the base into simplified market based plans. We continue to accelerate our wireless net additions this quarter to a new record high.
As we've said from the beginning, this pivot carries several costs including rate reinvestment through pricing simplicity, which carries revenue dilution as well as investment in customer experience which carries additional operating costs. This quarter is the first quarter where these impacts are reflected in our financial results. You see it in broadband ARPU growth, dilution as well as elevated marketing, product, and customer service expense, all contributing to a 3.7% decline in EBITDA this quarter. As Mike mentioned, as these investments continue, we expect continued EBITDA pressure over the next several quarters until we lap this transition.
On the other side of this, we're positioning ourselves for growth with a more durable broadband customer base on stable market-based rate plans combined with a larger wireless base that gives us a very strong hand in convergence along with meaningful monetization upside as customers roll off promotions and we expand the relationship over time. All in, our converged product offerings provide customers with substantial savings versus comparable plans from telecom competitors. Now let me get into some further details of the quarter. Broadband subscribers declined 104,000 in the quarter. We saw the typical seasonal benefit from back-to-school activity as well as the early traction from our new go-to-market initiatives, but this was more than offset by the continued intense competitive environment.
The rollout of our new everyday pricing structure at the end of June, combined with the success of our free wireless line offer, caused a deceleration in our broadband ARPU growth, resulting in 2.6% growth this quarter. As we continue to transition customers to more consistent pricing and ramp up free wireless line additions, we expect ARPU growth to step down more than a point in the fourth quarter, and we expect continued pressure on ARPU in early 2026 as our current plan is to not take a rate increase in broadband in the early part of next year. As we've said, this pivot we are making will take time, but it sets the foundation for a far more stable broadband base in a more challenged competitive environment, and we're confident we're on the right path. While we invest to stabilize broadband, wireless is our core growth engine.
On that note, convergence revenue grew 2.5% supported by mid-teens growth in wireless. Wireless net additions hit a new record at 414,000, and nearly half of our residential postpaid phone connects came from customers taking a free line, which is a great way to bring new customers into the ecosystem. At the same time, we saw strong uptake in our new premium unlimited plans, enhancing our position in the high-value postpaid market. Our total wireless lines are now approaching 9 million, with penetration of our broadband base surpassing 14%, and we're pleased with the momentum in wireless net additions. Looking ahead, in the second half of next year, many of the free lines will come up for monetization. Our intention is to convert the majority to paying relationships, which should provide a significant tailwind to convergence revenue growth at that point.
Turning to business services, consistent with prior quarters, revenue was up 6% and EBITDA grew by nearly 5% in the quarter. In the SMB segment, we're seeing elevated competition, particularly from fixed wireless. Despite this, we still delivered modest revenue growth by driving ARPU higher through increased adoption of our advanced services like Cybersecurity Cloud Solutions and Comcast Business Mobile. Where we're seeing real momentum is in our Enterprise Solutions, which continues to be a key growth driver. These customers have more complex needs and we're leaning in to deepen relationships and expand our advanced solutions mix. It's a segment where we're investing and we expect continued strong growth in content and experiences. There are a few items I'd like to highlight. At parks, we delivered another strong quarter with revenue up 19% and EBITDA growth of 13%, benefiting from the first full quarter of Epic Universe.
We're really pleased with the early results from Epic, which are driving higher per cap spending and attendance across the entirety of Universal Orlando. We remain focused on expanding ride throughput as we build to run rate capacity and expect Epic to continue scaling over the next year. With higher attendance, stronger per caps, and improved operating leverage at studios, we had solid theatrical results led by the strong performance of Jurassic World Rebirth early in the quarter, which has grossed nearly $900 million in worldwide box office and pushed the franchise's cumulative total to $7 billion. While this success contributed to top line growth, studios EBITDA was impacted by higher marketing spend tied to our larger film slate this year. Looking ahead, we're excited for a strong fourth quarter slate including the highly anticipated release of Wicked: For Good on November 21st.
In media, excluding the comparison to last year's Paris Olympics, which generated $1.9 billion in incremental revenue, revenue increased a healthy 4% and on the same basis, Peacock revenue grew at a mid-teens rate driven by strength in both advertising and distribution. Advertising was up 2.6%, our best result year to date, fueled by sports with the strong return of Sunday Night Football. In fact, our 20th season is our highest grossing season to date. Distribution revenue grew 1.5% supported by 25% growth at Peacock. Overall media EBITDA increased 28%, driven by nearly $220 million year-over-year improvement in Peacock losses which landed at a loss of just over $200 million in the quarter.
Peacock subscribers were flat this quarter as the strength of our content late in the quarter as well as our strategic distribution initiatives offset the impact of additional churn from our in quarter $3 rate hike. Looking ahead, the NBA just premiered on NBC and Peacock last week and is off to a great start. While we expect a positive impact on advertising and distribution revenue, it also introduces a new expense. As we've said, we'll straight line the amortization of these sports rights which will create some upfront dilution, particularly in the first season with the game counts driving quarterly realization of this expense. Over time we'll offset this through advertising growth. A recent record upfront tied to sports including the NBA is a good indicator and through subscriber acquisition and monetization across both linear and Peacock.
We also expect to optimize NBCUniversal programming investment across sports, entertainment, and news. Now I'll wrap up with free dash flow and capital allocation. As I mentioned earlier, we generated $4.9 billion of free cash flow this quarter, up significantly year-over-year and year to date we have generated $14.9 billion in free cash flow. The increase in the quarter was driven by a tailwind in cash taxes from the new legislation, along with favorable working capital timing, particularly around studio production spend and the comparison to the Olympics. These benefits were partially offset by higher organic investment with total capital expenditures of $3.1 billion this quarter reflecting increased spending in connectivity and platforms where we're investing to pass more homes to strengthen our broadband network and to deploy our market leading gateways into homes at a faster rate.
Our gateway is now included in our broadband offers which is a key part of our product strategy. On the content and experiences side, capital spending declined as we're past the construction on Epic that elevated capital spending last year. Through our investments and our significant pivot in broadband, we have maintained a healthy balance sheet, ending the quarter with net leverage at 2.3x. We also returned $2.8 billion to shareholders, including over $1.5 billion in share repurchases, contributing to a mid single digit year-over-year decline in our share count. As we look ahead to next year, our capital allocation strategy remains unchanged. Our priorities are to invest organically in our growth businesses, maintain a strong balance sheet, and return capital to shareholders. That formula has served us well, and it will continue to guide our approach.
Thanks, Jason. Mike, as you referenced a moment ago, I want to talk about our recent leadership announcements. Let's start with you, Mike. I could not be more thrilled to have you become our Co-CEO. Working side by side for over a decade, you're an incredible partner. Now, especially as we manage the pivot we're making to meet the moment in all of our businesses that you just laid out so well, you are critical to navigating our plan to achieve sustainable growth for the future. I'm also very excited and proud for you, Dave, to become Vice Chair working with me, Steve, and all the others on the strategic initiatives as we look forward.
As I step back and think about Comcast culture, doing the right thing, caring about people, building something truly unique, so much of that started with my dad, but has actually been brought to life for decades now by you, Dave. On behalf of thousands and thousands of employees, a huge thank you. Steve, who's sitting right here, not going to speak today, we're going to start him next quarter. You have been off and running from day one, when you became COO just under a year ago. All of the changes you're hearing about and have seen in our pricing, packaging, customer experience, and infusing AI across the connectivity businesses have been driven really by Steve and his energized team.
We're clearly at an inflection point in the industry and a transformational moment in our company, and we now have a leadership team adding on to the great successes of the past that's leaning in to change and actionize all the plans you just heard about. We're excited about the future. Before we get to Q&A, Mike, back to you for one last word.
Hey, thanks, Brian.
I truly appreciate the confidence that you and the board have in me, and I couldn't be more excited to become Co-CEO at such interesting times in our industries. I know that I, and I think I can speak for the next wave of leaders across the company, are very eager to meet these challenges, and we're very confident, I'm very confident that we will drive value over the next several years on the back of the strength.
Of our people, our business assets, and.
The strategies that we already have in flight. We will make whatever adjustments need to be made, but couldn't feel more excited and more confident. With that, I look forward to diving into your questions. Back to you, Marci.
Operator, let's open the call for Q&A, please.