PAY TV | STREAMING | NEGOCIOS
Jeff Shell
While all eyes will be on the fallout of ex-NBCUniversal CEO Jeff Shell’s abrupt departure, Parrot Analytics has analyzed where NBCUniversal and Peacock stand in the fight for consumer attention.
How much more money is Comcast CEO Brian Roberts willing to part with before Peacock turns a profit? The streamer is set to lose $3B in 2023, after a $2.5B loss in 2022.
By several metrics, Peacock had its best quarter ever in Q1 2023. It hit a new high in US demand share for streaming originals, with the debut of Poker Face and Season 2 of Bel-Air both setting new records for peak US demand for the platform. Parrot Analytics’ Contention Valuation analysis has found that Poker Face is a powerful subscriber acquisition driver for Peacock.
However, questions remain about Comcast’s endgame with both Peacock and NBCUniversal as a whole. Can a major SVOD succeed with demand mostly driven by library titles like Peacock? Only one of the top 25 titles on Peacock with US audiences was a Peacock Original (Poker Face). How much more money is Comcast CEO Brian Roberts willing to part with before Peacock turns a profit? The streamer is set to lose $3B in 2023, after a $2.5B loss in 2022.
NBCUniversal still has one of the most in-demand and valuable TV libraries in the industry. The company has been successfully leveraging this to both increase Peacock’s paid subscribers, which now stands around 20 million, and keep said subscribers on the platform.
If Comcast is serious about its long term streaming ambitions, it must weigh its two most likely expansion plans. Buying out Disney’s ownership stake in Hulu is likely to cost nearly $20B, and would probably put an acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery or Paramount Global off the table. But scaling via taking over Hulu or M&A with a competitor is likely necessary if Comcast wants to be a top player in the streaming era long term.
