Comcast’s subsidiary, Peacock, which was released last year, in the month of July, has now had more than 33 million subscribers after its fourth quarter. Moreover, NBC Universal has reported that nearly 11 million signups were from the third quarter.
The Coronavirus pandemic which had literally shut the world down for months also had a severe effect on the theme park and filmed entertainment division of Comcast. But what’s commendable is the fact that it has still emerged victories and has generated revenues that have surpassed Wall Street’s expectations.
As a New year surprise to their subscribers, Peacock had announced that they have acquired the rights to the classic show, “The Office”. It’s been streaming from the 1st of January, 2021.
? This is not a drill. ? Presenting a never-before-seen cold open from #TheOffice!
Watch #TheOfficeonPeacock for more exclusive content: https://t.co/83j9pd3Wke pic.twitter.com/NgE1GYsJzm
— Peacock (@peacockTV) January 1, 2021
Ohh God this is gold! ????
— Pronit Roy Chowdhury (@pronitr) January 1, 2021
Check out the Superfan Episodes for more deleted scenes! ?
— Peacock (@peacockTV) January 1, 2021
Growth
If you look at the growth, Peacock in its own rights has well surpassed its own expectations.
Jeff Shell, the NBCU CEO, has previously set a goal for Peacock to reach 35 million subscribers by the end of 2024. So, yes! Peacock is years ahead of that target.
According to Brian L. Roberts, the Comcast CEO –
- Peacock had 10 million sign-ups by early August. It was launched on 15th July 2020.
- By mid-September, the NBCUNiversal’s streaming platform had over 15 million subscribers.
- By the end of October, Peacock had nearly 22 million sign-ups.
- On 8th December, NBCUniversal reportedly said Peacock now has 26 million subscribers.
- Currently, the number of subscribers has well surpassed the 33 Million mark.
That is indeed a tremendous number for a six-month-old, streaming service.
Rising through the ranks
Peacock is also giving stiff competition to its rivals like HBO Max, which was released in May 2020. HBO Max holds a big advantage over the former as it is available in Amazon Fire Stick, which is a key player in the US TV market. HBO Max has nearly 40 million subscribers. Comparatively, Comcast’s Peacock is doing pretty well.
Based on the revenue reports, Comcast generated $27.7 billion for the quarter. Growth wise, its a 2.4 % drop. It also posted $3.3 billion in net income revenue, which is a 7% rise from 2020’s quarter.
Meanwhile, Comcast saw a drop of 6.4% in its cable network revenue, $2.7 billion. It also witnessed a fall of 8% in the filmed entertainment division, reporting $1.4 billion in revenue. But it was the theme park division, which saw the biggest impact of the pandemic. It witnessed a decrease of 63% revenue.
Bright Future
With the vaccine rolling out, Comcast is hopeful that it will be back on track with the theme park division and filmed entertainment division. But their streaming service, Peacock is definitely something they will be having high hopes from!
