Peacock has added another 3 million paid users since early October and now touts 18 million subscribers, double the 9 million with which it finished 2021, NBCUniversal CEO Jeff Shell told investors Monday morning.
“That’s real subscribers paying us real American dollars,” Shell told the UBS TMT Conference.
Shell continued to attribute the accelerated growth of NBCU's hybrid SVOD/AVOD streaming platform to the company's decision to pull its NBC network content off of joint venture Hulu and place it on Peacock.
Also read: Peacock Perks Up: Paid Subs Up to Over 15M, Active Users Reach 30M, NBCU Chief Jeff Shell Says
“We believe in the premium video ad-supported, dual revenue stream -- essentially broadcast and cable on streaming -- driven by key programming,” Shell said. "The flip side is it’s still a giant business. It’s just balancing out the two businesses.”
Indeed, like NBCU's rivals, the conglomerate is balancing the need to grow its direct-to-consumer business while trying to maintain what's left of fast-eroding linear channels.
That's hard right now.
NBCU reported a third-quarter EBITDA loss of $614 million on Hulu. Meanwhile, its flagship NBC broadcast network won premiere week (yay!) ... with a measly 1.0 average demo rating. And Universal Pictures has had a few hits at the global box office with its recent Jurassic Park and Minions sequels. But the overall domestic box office is pacing to come in at no better than 70% of the revenue generated in 2019, the last year before the pandemic.
Shell and his team are further challenged by an advertising market that he said Monday is "definitely getting worse."
Shell's comments were juxtaposed by a Business Insider story which reported planned layoffs for NBCU early next year. ■
