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Updated with executive comment. Nearly four years after the launch of Peacock, NBCUniversal streaming's flagship service, Comcast president Mike Kavanaugh says the service is “gaining traction” with its blend of entertainment and sports.
Executives made the comments to Wall Street analysts after Comcast reported strong first-quarter financials for Peacock, including $1.1 billion in revenue, narrowing losses and 34 million subscribers.
Asked about Peacock's initial content spending outlook, Kavanaugh responded in a qualitative rather than quantitative manner.
“I think you can expect us to take a very broad approach,” he said, without providing specific numbers. At Peacock, sports and entertainment are “well intertwined,” he said.He noted that the following phenomena were occurring ted and traitor The first quarter of Season 2 coincided with the record-setting NFL Playoffs telecast.
“It’s sports, it’s originals, it’s next-day NBC content, it’s our library, it’s pay-per-view movies,” Cavanagh said of Peacock’s recipe. The April-June quarter “will be a little bit lighter in terms of the pace of content,” he advised. “But if you look to the middle of the year, we'll have the Olympics, then right after that we'll have the NFL, the Big Ten coming back, an exclusive NFL game in São Paulo, Brazil, and we'll have some great movies, too. Slate – fall guy, twisters, despicable me 4 plus Kung Fu Panda 4 inches reach Peacock. As in 2020, Peacock's mission is to “bring our existing strengths and assets into the digital future,” Cavanagh summed up.
Before:
Comcast reported first-quarter results that beat Wall Street expectations, and Peacock reached 34 million subscribers, but programming costs were high.
Total revenue increased 1% to $30.1 billion, and adjusted earnings per share were $1.04, up from 92 cents in the year-ago period.
The media division, which includes NBCUniversal and streaming mainstay Peacock, reported revenue rose nearly 4% to $6.4 billion. However, higher operating expenses, particularly Peacock's programming expenses, contributed to the higher loss. Adjusted EBITDA, a key measure of profitability, fell 6% to $827 million.
Peacock brought in revenue of $1.1 billion, up 54% year over year, and its loss narrowed to $639 million from $704 million a year earlier. The earnings release did not provide details about rising programming costs, but in January Peacock featured an NFL Wild Card Playoff game that is separate from NBCU's long-term broadcast rights agreement with the league. It was acquired through a broadcast rights contract.
Domestic advertising revenue was flat at $2.025 billion, primarily due to lower revenue from the company's linear network, offset by increased revenue from Peacock.
Studio division revenue fell 7% to $2.7 billion, and profits fell 12% despite strong theatrical revenue. kung fu panda 4 and emigration. Content licensing revenue for the period decreased primarily due to the timing of theatrical titles being distributed in other windows.
Results from the company's studios, media holdings, and theme parks are now reported as Content and Experiences. Content and Experiences revenue increased 1% to $10.4 billion, but adjusted EBITDA decreased 7% to $1.5 billion. Theme park revenue increased by 1.5%, offset by negative foreign currency impact.
In the company's pay TV and broadband divisions, video losses continued to decline steadily, with 487,000 fewer home video customers during the period.
Even more in the future…