Yahoo Movies Peacock Lost $639 Million to Start 2024
Peacock added 3 million subscribers in the quarter of its exclusive NFL playoff game, Comcast revealed Thursday as part of its earnings announcement. It now has 34 million subs, up from 31 million at the end of 2023.
Still, Peacock lost $639 million in the quarter. At least that wasn’t as bad as the last one!
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Peacock lost $825 million over the final three months of 2023. It lost $704 million in the first quarter of 2023 — so the current loss is technically an improvement from the comparable quarters. It certainly helps when revenue grows, as Peacock’s did, to $1.1 billion in the first quarter of the current year.
Universal Pictures in the first quarter released “Argylle” and “Kung Fu Panda 4” in theaters. The latest in the Jack Black karate-bear movie series has done great: it made $481 million worldwide. “Argylle” didn’t even make $100 million. “Migration” was released at the end of 2023, so a chunk of its near-$300-million haul at the worldwide box office came in early 2024.
Q1 2024 was the quarter when “Oppenheimer” dominated awards season, culminating in seven Oscar wins.
In the days ahead of the first-ever streaming-exclusive NFL playoff game, Peacock added 3 million new paid signups; coincidentally, or not, the same overall growth it saw during the quarter. The Kansas City Chiefs vs. Miami Dolphins AFC Wildcard game was the biggest acquisition moment in SVOD history, and January 13, 2024 was the biggest usage day in internet history. In March, research from Antenna found that an impressive 71 percent (2.13 million) of the new Peacock members were still around by the end of February, nearly seven weeks after the game. It now seems that the one event made up for about two-thirds of Peacock’s overall subscriber growth by the end of March.
Non-sports highlights for Peacock from January-March 2024 included the premieres of “Apples Never Fall,” “The Traitors,” and the “Ted” series.
NBCUniversal’s management has not yet announced when they expect Peacock will be profitable. Even its key competitor Paramount+ has a target for profitability: 2025, in the U.S.
In his prepared remarks, Comcast Chairman and CEO Brian L. Roberts touted his corporation’s “double-digit growth” in (adjusted) earnings per share and free cash flow. He called Comcast’s balance sheet “strong,” and shouted out Peacock as “one of the fastest growing domestic streamers with impressive acquisition.” (It used to be the fastest.)
Comcast’s main revenue stream remains its broadband business.
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