NBCUniversal’s Peacock has garnered 42 million subscribers, according to its Q1 2021 earnings report. “Peacock users are consuming nearly 20 percent more programming hours each month than our traditional audience on NBC," CEO Brian Roberts said. “The streamer has just crossed 1 billion total hours watched, nearly double our plan. That has allowed the company to offer new advertising inventory with rates "at a material premium" to linear primetime.”
The figure represents significant growth from the 33 million subscribers the company reported in January. Surpassing its goals of 35 million subscribers by the end of 2024, Comcast reported its first-quarter financials. Peacock revenue reached more than $100 million last year, but the streamer brought in a loss before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization of $700 million given investments. NBCUniversal continues to expect losses of $2 billion for Peacock for 2020 and 2021. The company recorded $91 million of first-quarter revenue and a loss of $277 million related to Peacock, while NBCUniversal earnings drop.
Studios revenue declined 0.6 percent to $2.4 billion in the first quarter, "primarily reflecting lower theatrical revenue, offset by higher content licensing revenue." Theatrical revenue dropped by 87.7%, while Content licensing revenue increased by 14.1%, primarily due to a new licensing agreement for content that became exclusively available for streaming on Peacock during the quarter. Media revenue rose 3.2 percent to $5 billion in the first quarter as higher distribution and other revenue outweighed a 3.4 percent decrease in advertising revenue caused by rating declines.
The ad-supported service first became available to Comcast and Cox customers on Mid-April, three months before its full launch on 15th July Unlike HBO Max, Peacock is still not available on Amazon Fire TV devices. Much of the success was credited to “The Office” as the popular show has become accessible on the platform. WWE Network has also contributed several wrestling match episodes.