Peacock Lost $825 Million in Final 2023 Quarter
Peacock lost $825 million in the final three months of 2023 while adding 3 million subscribers. The NBCUniversal streaming service ended December with 31 million subs.
The streamer passed $1 billion in quarterly revenue for the first time ever, Comcast’s Q4 earnings report on Thursday revealed. Peacock is the fastest-growing streaming service in the U.S.
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Peacock had lost $978 million in Q4 of 2022. The streaming platform lost $565 million in 2023’s summer quarter, an improvement over prior quarters.
There was a big bright spot for the streamer in early 2024. With its controversial, exclusive AFC Wildcard NFL playoff game, Peacock set a new record for the largest streaming-signups moment in history (or at least since Antenna began measuring in 2019). Over a three-day period (defined by Antenna as a “moment”), Peacock onboarded 2.8 million subscribers. That’s the most they’ve seen in 72 hours. (The largest-ever single day for streaming signups remains 2.5 million signups for Disney+ on its launch day in 2019.)
The 2.8 million signups include first-time users testing the service out on a 7-day trial. It is too early still to know how many people churned out of (canceled) Peacock after the trial, or after one paid month. That will all be realized in the first quarter of 2024.
Comcast’s NBC Sports said the January 13 Miami Dolphins vs. Kansas City Chiefs matchup was the biggest live-streamed event in U.S. history and drove single-day internet usage in the U.S. to a new record. Peacock was concurrently streamed on 16.3 million devices, and the game consumed 30 percent of all U.S. internet traffic. All told, the Chiefs victory averaged 23 million viewers across Peacock, the NFL+ app, and on local TV in the Miami and Kansas City markets.
Certainly, Comcast and NBCU senior executives will be happy to chat about the game’s success during the company’s Q4 conference call, which kicks off at 8:30 a.m. ET.
Universal Pictures in the quarter released “The Exorcist: Believer,” “Five Nights at Freddy’s,” “Trolls Band Together,” and at the (duck-)tail end, “Migration.” Of those, the star performer was “Freddy’s,” which went day-and-date in movie theaters and on Peacock.
Led by “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” and “Oppenheimer,” Universal was the number 1 studio (in worldwide box office) of 2023 for the first time since 2015.
Comcast topped Wall Street’s financial forecasts for 2023’s fourth quarter. Company net income for Q4 was about $3.2 billion; Comcast’s primary business is providing broadband to consumers. Theme Parks are also a key driver, and Universal Studios Hollywood’s Super Mario World has been the standout for that segment.
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