Comcast could be close to filling the last major hole in the distribution of its Peacock streaming service -- Amazon Fire TV support -- after chairman and CEO Brian Roberts told an industry audience that it should be on all major platforms soon.
Comcast launched Peacock nationally on July 15 and has said it has signed up about 33 million people to the service as of January. But the streaming offering has come under some criticism. A report in The Information claimed that only 11.3 million subscribers are actually watching Peacock on a regular basis. Several analysts have called for Comcast to spin its NBCUniversal content unit -- which includes Peacock -- with WarnerMedia in order to achieve more scale for the streamer.
"We're not on every platform yet with Peacock, we're on most,” Roberts said at the Morgan Stanley Technology, Media & Telecom Conference on Wednesday (March 3). “I believe we'll get to all the major platforms soon."
Roberts didn't break down Peacock subscribers but said the service was the second fastest growing brand in 2020, behind video conferencing app Zoom.
Peacock is available on Roku, Apple TV, Google Chromecast, Android TV, PlayStation, Xbox and on Comcast’s X1 and Flex set-tops. Landing an Amazon deal would substantially boost Peacock’s presence. Amazon said in December that Amazon Fire had about 50 million monthly active users.
Comcast has been beefing up content on the Peacock service of late. Roberts said that sports content from the NBCSN sports channel after it is shuttered at the end of this year will make it to the streamer, and he hoped that it will be able to shift some shows currently on Hulu -- in which it owns a 33% interest -- to Peacock in the next few years.
“We’re going to be disciplined trying to find the balance, so it allows us to redirect assets to streaming or other technologies that might emerge over the next few years that allows you to say this is the right bet for us,” Roberts said. “We’re looking at every sports relationship we’re doing to have a streaming aspect to it, not just a linear television aspect. We’re using it, as we did with Peacock -- if you look at Premier League, golf, WWE, all of those events are also on Peacock, as certainly [will be] the Olympics.”
