Comcast to double Peacock spend
January 28, 2022
Comcast will double down on its investment in streaming service Peacock. The company reports Peacock lost $1.7 billion (€1.52bn) in 2021 and is expected to lose $2.5 billion in 2022 as the company ratchets spending on content from $1.5 billion to $3 billion.
Comcast CEO Brian Roberts told markets that Peacock had the right business model, with its mix of subscription and ad supported offerings. He said Peacock finished 2021 with 24.5 million monthly active accounts in the US, which represented about 75 per cent of how many the company expected to have by 2024.
Roberts said of the 24.5 million users, more than 9 million were paid subscribers, generating ARPU of $10 per month. Another seven million have premium subscriptions free through their cable subscriptions to Xfinity and other operators. He said that the vast majority of paid Peacock subscribers have chosen the $5 option with ads as opposed to the $10 ad-free product.
Roberts said that across NBCUniversal and Sky, the company spends about $20 billion on programming and will be increasing that investment in part to grow paid Peacock subscriber.