Comcast did not provide new subscriber numbers for Peacock, but NBCUniversal CEO Jeff Shell said the streaming service is heading in the right direction.
During Comcast’s earnings call Thursday morning, analyst Jessica Reif Ehrlich of BofA Merrill Lynch noted that the company had not updated Peacock signup numbers as it usually does. The company did report that Peacock generated a $520 million loss in the third quarter.
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Shell responded by saying “everything on Peacock is headed in the right direction.”
He said Peacock added a few million more subscribers. “All metrics are pointed up, our usage continues to be great. Our mix of users continues to be great,” he said. But he didn’t quantify any of those claims.
Shell added that Peacock started selling advertising beyond sponsorship at the tail end of the quarter. “That is going spectacularly, so we’re really pleased with Peacock,” he said.
Peacock still has not been able to get all of the original programming it had expected to be streaming because of the pandemic, Shell noted. But he added that starting in the first quarter of next year, it will start to benefit from getting the first window of theatrical films from Comcast’s Universal Pictures.
“Then we’ll have a steady supply of movies,” he said. “We’ve seen across all streaming platforms that movies move the dial. And movies move the dial for Peacock in this quarter with Boss Baby and recently with Halloween Kills, which by the way was a huge hit on Peacock and a huge hit at the box office.”
