NBCUniversal Media LLC's aggregate streaming service saw its revenue rise by more than half in the fourth quarter of 2023, eclipsing $1 billion in a single reporting period for the first time.
Peacock's revenue jumped about 56% from $660 million in the final reporting period of 2022 to $1.03 billion in the most recently completed quarter. Paid subscribers totaled 31 million at year-end, up from 28 million at the close of third quarter 2023.
Peacock's adjusted EBITDA loss declined to $825 million from a $978 million adjusted EBITDA deficit in the fourth quarter of 2022. The service finished 2022 with 21 million subscribers and $660 million in revenue.
On the company's Jan. 25 earnings call, Comcast Corp. CFO Jason Armstrong pointed to Peacock's presentation of NFL "Sunday Night Football" and its freshman season covering Big 10 Conference football, among other sports, as key reasons behind the subscriber advances.
For the full year, Peacock revenue soared 62% to $3.37 billion from $2.08 billion in 2022. The segment posted a $2.7 billion adjusted EBITDA loss, down from $3 billion. Armstrong said last year marked Peacock's peak in annual losses, and for "2024 we expect to show meaningful improvements, versus 2023."
Comcast President Mike Cavanagh highlighted Peacock's presentation of the inaugural primarily streamed NFL playoff game. The defending champion Kansas City's 26-7 win over Miami in the wild card matchup on Jan. 13 scored an audience of 23.0 million on the streamer, on NBC (US) affiliates in the participating clubs' home markets and on the NFL+ mobile app, according to data from Nielsen Holdings PLC. Kansas City-Miami is now the most-streamed event ever in the US, according to Nielsen data.
The game also set a bandwidth high mark, accounting for 30% of all internet consumption in the US, a new record for total US internet traffic on any night.
Comcast, which paid the NFL $110 million for the rights to the game, did not disclose the number of people who signed up to watch the wild card contest on Peacock. Cavanagh did say the company expects the deal to result in Peacock subscriber gains and increased engagement.
Antenna estimates the game resulted in 2.8 million sign-ups for Peacock over the three days of Jan. 12-14, making it the biggest single subscriber acquisition event the company has measured.
Cavanagh anticipates more growth lies ahead, spotlighting the service's Feb. 16 debut of "Oppenheimer," which scored 13 Oscar nominations, including best picture. Other films from Universal Pictures will also come to Peacock in the Pay 1 window, and Peacock will have expansive coverage of the Summer Olympics from Paris in July and August.
Peacock's revenue also increase due to a 50% rise in advertising, after excluding contributions from Telemundo Deportes' coverage on the service for the 2022 FIFA Men's World Cup in the prior-year period, according to Armstrong.
Overall, though, NBCU's domestic advertising revenue receded 6.9% to $2.64 billion in the fourth quarter of 2023, down from $2.83 billion. That total reflected the World Cup ad schedules. Backing out the FIFA event, the company said ad revenue would have grown at a 2.7% clip in the final 2023 reporting period.
As to the current state of the ad market, Cavanagh said there has been stabilization across categories, with consumer product goods and retail showing the most improvement. He said NBCU is not seeing any real pressure from cancellations from last year's upfront market, where media agencies and clients secured schedules ahead of the 2023-24 TV season. Premiums in the scatter market, in which marketers secure inventory much closer to a program's air date, have been "pretty healthy" of late, with double-digit increases.
Still, Cavanagh cautioned that it is too early to tell if a sustainable rebound is underway, as macroeconomic uncertainties remain. Also, NBCU is heading into a period with diminished sports programming. Sports ad sales have remained strong, while the overall marketplace has been challenged for more than a year.
"Whether the environment macro-wise gets better from here or it doesn't, we feel like we're well-positioned with our must-see tent poles, which include, obviously, the Olympics coming up and the elections," Cavanagh said. He added the company is also benefiting from scale at Peacock. "We're seeing nice progress on the capacity and inventory that we have there."
