Comcast has posted a third-quarter loss ©Getty Images

The United States media conglomerate Comcast has posted a third-quarter loss after including $8.6 billion (£7.5 billion/€8.6 billion) of impairment charges related to its United Kingdom-centred Sky media and telecommunications business.

The impairments partly reflected reduced estimated future cash flows stemming from what Comcast described as "macroeconomic conditions in Sky's territories".

Brian Roberts, Comcast chairman and chief executive, said that Sky "continues to prudently manage through a difficult and rapidly changing macroeconomic and geopolitical period in the UK and Europe".

Despite "challenges that may lie ahead", Roberts claimed, Comcast - whose operations also include the key Olympic broadcaster NBCUniversal - was in "an enviable strategic and financial position, and our future remains bright”.

Taking everything into account, Comcast recorded a pre-tax loss of $3.65 billion (£3.16 billion/€3.65 billion) on revenue of $29.8 billion (£25.8 billion/€30 billion) for the three months to September 30.

This compared with income of $5.17 billion (£4.5 billion/€5.2 billion) on revenue of $30.3 billion (£26.3 billion/€30.5 billion) in the comparable 2021 period.

NBCUniversal's revenue contribution amounted to $9.57 billion (£8.3 billion/€9.6 billion), down from fractionally over $10 billion (£8.7 billion/€10 billion).

Beijing 2022 has helped to boost NBCUniversal revenues ©Getty Images
Beijing 2022 has helped to boost NBCUniversal revenues ©Getty Images

Comcast said that the 2021 period had included "an incremental $1.8 billion (£1.56 billion/€1.8 billion)” from the delayed Tokyo 2021 Olympic Games.

Over the year to date, NBCUniversal revenues are running well ahead of 2021 levels - at $29.3 billion (£25.4 billion/€29.4 billion) versus $25 billion (£21.7 billion/€25 billion).

This partly reflects the fact that the 2022 number includes $1.5 billion (£1.3 billion/€1.5 billion) of incremental revenue from the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics and the Super Bowl.

Beijing 2022 was the first event to be covered by a 12-year deal for US broadcasting rights to the Olympic Games agreed with the International Olympic Committee (IOC) back in what now appears the enviably stable political and macroeconomic environment of 2014.

The price agreed was $7.65 billion (£6.6 billion/€7.7 billion).

This is set to account for a sizeable proportion of the IOC's - and by extension the Olympic Movement's - revenues all the way through until 2032.