Boosted by its live programming, Peacock paid subscribers grew nearly 50% year-on-year as three million net adds propelled the subscriber count to 31m in Q4 2023, Comcast announced on Thursday.
The platform, which Comcast chairman and CEO Brian Roberts described as “the fastest growing streamer in the US”, generated $1bn in quarterly revenue for the first time, climbing 57% year-on-year.
The streaming service became the first to show a live NFL play-off game and the January 13 Wild Card contest between Miami Dolphins and Kansas City Chiefs – whose tight end Travis Kelce is dating Taylor Swift and therefore brings added interest – recorded the biggest audience yet for a streamed event in the US with an average audience of 23m.
Peacock cut its losses from $978m on revenue of $600m a year ago to $825m, with 2023 losses amounting to $2.75bn, which Comcast executives forecast last year would represent peak losses.
Comcast executives also touted the success of Universal Pictures, which finished 2023 as the top studio at the global box office for the first time since 2015, powered by Super Mario Bros. Movie, Oppenheimer and Fast X.
Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer garnered a field-leading 13 Oscar nominations this week and will begin streaming exclusively on Peacock on February 16, some six months after it opened in cinemas en route to $327m and counting. It
Revenues at the studio division climbed 4.3% in Q4 to $3.1bn, and adjusted EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation) went up 83% to $308m.
Comcast revenue overall for the quarter beat Wall Street forecasts, climbing 2.3% from $30.6bn to $31.3bn.
Consolidated free cash flow in the quarter went up 28.5% from $1.3bn to $1.7bn.
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