Peacock surpasses 20M subscribers in Q4 despite growing losses

The Peacock streaming service, which is owned by Comcast, had its best quarter since it launched in 2020, adding five million new paying subscribers to bring the total to 20 million, up from the over 15 million in the previous quarter. Peacock had 9 million paying customers in Q1 2021.

Peacock’s sports programming is a major factor in its success. The FIFA World Cup, which was streamed in Spanish on Peacock Premium and Telemundo, was the main cause of the increase in paid subscribers. Additionally, NBC and Bravo shows now have next-day exclusive rights on the streamer.
In today’s earnings call, Comcast CEO Brian Roberts stated, “Looking ahead and based on our experience to date, we expect our subscriber cadence will follow our content launches, which will fall more heavily in the second half of ’23, and we continue to see positive trends in engagement churn and ARPU.”

Peacock Premium subscribers will be able to watch the French Open competition in 2023. Additionally, the business is negotiating with partners to add NBC Regional Sports Networks to the platform early in 2019.

Customers now have access to Peacock TV shows and movies thanks to NBC Universal’s partnership with JetBlue, which was announced last month.

Even though Peacock’s revenue nearly tripled to $2.1 billion, its loss increased again from the previous year. In contrast to the loss of $559 million in 2021, the company reported an adjusted EBITDA loss of $978 million. Additionally, $541 million in severance expenses, including $182 million for NBCUniversal, were reported by Comcast.
Even though Peacock had its best quarter to date, it still trails behind its streaming rivals like Netflix, which has over 230 million subscribers, and Disney+, which has 164.2 million. In its third quarter, 46 million people used Paramount+.

The business assured investors during the earnings call that its streaming strategy is perfect the way it is. “We enjoy the work we’re doing. According to CFO Mike Cavanagh, “We had a phenomenal year getting to 20 million paid subscribers from less than a year ago, and we see this coming year as the peak year.

“We decided to put money into Peacock. Given where we are right now, it is abundantly clear that we selected the ideal business model, said NBCU CEO Jeff Shell. We have been up front about the fact that the investment will pay off.