Peacock lost a lot of money for NBC last quarter — but declining broadband subscribers and a boost in streaming subscribers signals that the company is not straying away from the strategy anytime soon.
The company announced on April 26 during its Q1 2024 earnings call that revenue for Peacock rose 54% in the quarter versus last year and gained 3 million subscribers in the quarter.
That puts the Peacock subscriber count to 34 million, marking about at 10% increase in subscribers in the month.
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And most of that can be credited to the first ever exclusively aired NFL Playoff Game — the Wild Card game between the Kansas City Chiefs and Miami Dolphins on Jan. 13 — which reportedly netted 2.8 million subscribers despite the fact that it received a ton of backlash from fans.
Comcast executives recognized sports being a major driver for the growth of Peacock's subscriber base — which could help justify the $100 million it reportedly paid to air the game.
"When you look at this quarter in particular, you end up with a start with a Wild Card game that brought in a tremendous number of subs ahead of where we expected it to be," Comcast President Michael Cavanagh said in the call. "And then retention, that was ahead of where we expected it to be. And so that's obviously great and the power of sports to bring audiences together and will stay committed because of our strength in sports."
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Comcast is saying that these subscriber counts are all good news for the company that only launched the service three and a half years ago. But Peacock is still losing a lot of money for Comcast. The company had an adjusted EBITDA loss of $639 million related to Peacock in the quarter, which was better than the $704 million from last year.
Peacock has lost $8.3 billion since launch in January 2020. Let that sink in a for a moment. $CMCSA pic.twitter.com/1U7IUT4vvp
— Rich Greenfield, LightShed 🔦 (@RichLightShed) April 25, 2024
But Peacock will continue to be a staple, particularly in the sports space as it is expected to continue to seek out exclusive NFL games and is banking on a huge subscriber increase from the 2024 Paris Olympics that start in July.
NBC is also in talks with the NBA to get a chunk of its next media rights deal, which expires at the end of next season. The company is reportedly looking at a package that would carry games on traditional channels like NBC and include games on Peacock.
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