Comcast’s NBCUniversal expects its new streaming service Peacock to break even by 2024, marking a similar trajectory to the new services from competitors The Walt Disney Co. and AT&T.
Matt Strauss, the former Comcast exec heading Peacock, said the company will be investing $2 billion on Peacock during 2020-21.
He said the company expected to get to 30 million to 40 million accounts by 2024 and generate $2.5 billion in revenue, enough to cover its costs.
Related: Peacock Plans Less Than 5 Minutes of Ads Per Hour
Strauss said Peacock would be generating between $6 and $7 in average revenue per subscriber, mostly from advertising. He said that Hulu, by contrast now generated about $10 in ARPU.
Strauss said that at the same point where Peacock breaks even, its cost for programming and technology should scale, leading to increasing profitability.
“Incremental revenue drops to the bottom line,” he said. “Beyond 2024, there will be growing profitability as we scale the business.”
Related: NBCU to Launch Peacock on April 15 to Xfinity Subs
Those figures are for Peacock’s U.S. business.
Strauss said the company expected Peacock to be an international business, “but we’re for now, we are focusing on the U.S,” he said. International expansion will be looked at on a market by market basis, he added, while providing no timetable.
Comcast CEO Brian Roberts said the he had always believed that the internet was more friend than foe to Comcast and NBCUniversal.
“Our company spent the last year trying to reimagine the NBCUniversal platform so the maximum number of viewers could have personalized, customized, never-before-possible experiences that you just got a glimpse of today,” he said.
He called Peacock “a tremendous and positive business opportunity that will give us years of growth and technological innovation that were not possible a few years ago.”
Next week, Roberts said, Comcast would be reporting a record year and an exceptional fourth-quarter driven by broadband. “I’m super proud and excited,” he said.
