Investor
2011 Financial Highlights
Consolidated revenue increased 47% to $55.8 billion and consolidated operating cash flow increased 26% to $18.4 billion, reflecting strong organic growth in our Cable business, as well as consolidating NBCUniversal on January 28th and the remaining 50% of Universal Orlando on July 1st.
This year's consolidated results were driven by strong growth at Cable Communications, Cable Networks and Theme Parks.
Consolidated free cash flow increased 30% to $7.0 billion, primarily reflecting strong growth in Cable operating cash flow, which accounted for $5.2 billion or 75% of the total, and the consolidation of NBCUniversal, which accounted for $1.8 billion or 25% of consolidated free cash flow.
We believe that operational excellence and strategic differentiation drive shareholder value, so we have a financial strategy that is returns-focused and supports these goals by reinvesting in our businesses, maintaining a strong balance sheet, and providing consistent and sustainable return of capital to shareholders.
To achieve our financial strategy, we manage Comcast and NBCUniversal as two distinct pools of cash flow generation and funding capacity. NBCUniversal retains its free cash flow, which amounted to $1.8 billion in 2011, to build capacity to fund future equity redemptions by GE, while Comcast Cable allocates the majority of its free cash flow to consistently return capital to shareholders.
We have a strong commitment to deliver consistent and sustainable return of capital to shareholders, within a disciplined capital structure, and through a combination of dividends and buybacks. We believe this approach enhances shareholder returns while maintaining adequate liquidity to execute our plans.
In 2011, we returned $3.3 billion directly to shareholders through a combination of dividends and share repurchases. In 2012, our total return of capital is increasing by approximately 45% to $4.8 billion, representing 90% of 2011 Cable free cash flow.5