Peacock widens second-quarter losses


Since 2020, the Comcast / NBCUniversal streaming service has been trying to find a place for itself in the face of particularly dynamic competition. In 2020, Peacock grossed $118 million for a loss of $663 million. In 2021, Peacock generated $778 million for a cumulative loss over 2020 and 2021 of $2.36 billion. For the record, Comcast executives had previously told investors that they planned to invest approximately $2 billion in Peacock in 2020 and 2021. Separately, Comcast had forecast Peacock to break even in 2025, but Mr. Cavanagh, Comcast’s Chief Financial Officer, said that date could be pushed back beyond initial expectations. Which seems obvious with the loss of $467 million at the end of June 2022.

Peacock Premium subscriber numbers stalled at 13 million at the end of June 2022, the same figure as at the end of March, but the streaming service contributed to an 8% increase in year-on-year distribution revenue. other, posting revenues of $444 million. While no overall monthly active account count was included in the financial results, Comcast reported 28 million monthly active accounts in April, ahead of its own forecast of 30 to 35 million monthly active accounts. ‘by 2025. But, Comcast CEO Brian Roberts said the company had 27 million monthly active accounts at the end of the second quarter, down slightly from the previous quarter.

Among the explanations given by the leaders of Comcast, there are mainly the effects of the programming of the service which impacted the second quarter, very poor in novelties compared to the first quarter which included several major events: the Winter Olympics, the Super Bowl but also the Bel Air program. The third quarter should again offer a very dense program with several films (Jurassic and Minions) and sporting events such as Sunday Night Football, the Premier League and the FIFA World Cup in Qatar. The leaders also remain very confident in the Peaock model, which relies on a dual source of income: subscriptions and advertising. Indeed Peacock offers three subscription plans: a completely free one that is completely financed by advertising, a 4.99 dollar version with less advertising and a 9.99 dollar version without advertising.

By playing on several fronts, Peacock limits the risk of seeing its recruitment of paid subscribers peak at a time when the economic context and the competitive context in the United States are beginning to produce negative effects on the streaming market.





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