Peacock ended the second quarter of the year with a “relatively flat” 13 million paid subscribers and lost $467 million, Comcast revealed along with its Q1 earnings results Thursday.
That paying customer total is the same as the 13 million Comcast reported for the streamer, which has both free, ad-supported and paid, ad-free tiers, in Q1. But at that time, it was a case of growth, where Peacock was up from the nine million paid subscribers it had at the conclusion of 2021.
When Comcast chairman-CEO Brian Roberts revealed that new paid sub total back on April 28, also announcing Peacock had 28 million monthly active accounts, he warned the company did not anticipate this dramatic level of growth quarter-to-quarter for Peacock becoming the norm, as the four million paid subscriber additions it boasted in Q1 were largely attributed to Peacock streaming both Super Bowl LVI and the Beijing Winter Olympics during the quarter.
The company stuck with that guidance in its Q2 earnings letter to shareholders Thursday, writing that the “relatively flat” 13 million paying Peacock subs come “following a very strong first quarter that was driven by a variety of extraordinary programming.” Peacock certainly boasted a less event-fueled lineup in Q2 after having the Super Bowl and Olympics in Q1, though it did debut originals including the “Queer as Folk” reboot, Emmy Rossum limited series “Angelyne,” and new Craig Robinson-Dan Goor comedy “Killing It” and the second season of “Rutherford Falls.”
Roberts said in a statement in the letter: “At NBCUniversal, terrific results at theme parks fueled our growth in the quarter, and we expect our recent premieres and planned slate of content and live events from our media and studios businesses, including ‘Jurassic World: Dominion,’ ‘Minions: The Rise of Gru,’ ‘Nope,’ ‘Sunday Night Football’ and ‘The World Cup,’ to make significant contributions later this year, including to our subscriber growth at Peacock.”
In May, Peacock took over the next-day streaming rights to currently airing programming on Bravo, a fellow Comcast brand, from Hulu. The Peacock team is eagerly anticipating the streamer grabbing the rights to NBC’s next-day streaming from Hulu in September, as well.
(Pictured: “Queer as Folk.”)
