Peacock Adds 4 Million Q3 Paid Subs to Reach 28 Million
October 26, 2023
NBCUniversal’s Peacock subscription streaming video service added 4 million subscribers to finish the third quarter (ended Sept. 30) with 28 million paid subscribers, up 75% from 16 million subs in the previous-year period.
Peacock revenue increased 64% to $830 million from $506 million in the prior year period, while the platform’s operating loss decreased 8% to $565 million from an operating loss of $614 million in the prior year period. The streamer is expected to lower its full-year operating loss to around $2.8 billion from a previous estimate of $3 billion.
Comcast attributed the Peacock subscriber gains to the continued success in converting free Xfinity bundled subscribers to a paid subs, as well as organic growth driven by programming, including the start of the NFL season, having the Big Ten streaming for the first time, as well as The Super Mario Bros. Movie landing exclusively on Peacock in the pay-one window.
With the addition of English Premier League soccer and the Tour de France bicycle race, Peacock has more live sports than any other subscription streaming service in the U.S.
Since its nationwide launch in July 2020, however, Peacock remains a lagging competitor to rivals Netflix, Hulu, Prime Video, Disney+, Max and Paramount+ in paid subscribers.
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But that doesn’t seem to bother Comcast President Michael Cavanagh.
“We continue to be pleased with our progress in the few short years since we’ve pivoted our streaming strategy, as a result of the ownership changes at Hulu,” Cavanagh said on the fiscal call. “And for 2024, we expect to show meaningful [pre-tax earnings] improvement [in Peacock] over 2023.”