Though it launched without the support of the two biggest streaming TV hardware platforms in the United States, Comcast’s Peacock is off to a great start.
The newest streaming TV app to enter the market was downloaded around 1.5 million times in the Apple and Google app stores, according to data analyzed and reported y the firm Sensor Tower on Wednesday.
The data was first reported by the Verizon-owned technology blog TechCrunch.
Sensor Tower said the data shows it had more momentum than Quibi, which saw 1.2 million installs in the same time frame, but not as many as Disney Plus which had 13 million downloads in the same period.
The data firm said it chose not to compare Peacock to AT&T-owned HBO Max, which launched in late May, because it largely supplanted HBO Now on supported devices. But a comparison to Quibi and Disney Plus may also not be apt — Quibi launched as a mobile-only service (it’s slowly starting to support streaming on TV sets), while Peacock soft-launched to millions of Comcast X1 and Flex platform users in April.
Disney Plus also had the benefit of being widely available across a number of devices, including Roku and Amazon Fire TV, two platforms that have 70 percent of the streaming TV market share. Peacock launched last week with no support for either platforms.
Still, the number is impressive no matter how you slice it, and it shows strong support out of the gate for Comcast’s first foray into a streaming-only service that attempts to rival Netflix, Hulu and Amazon Prime Video. It also shows that a campaign by NBC’s independently-owned broadcast affiliates to not air a lengthy ad for Peacock that was disguised as a “30 Rock” special did not hurt marketing efforts or consumer interest in the service (like Peacock, NBC is owned by Comcast).
What’s less clear is how people are receiving Peacock: The service offers three programming tiers, including a limited free plan and an ultra-premium, commercial free subscription. A Comcast executive in charge of Peacock said earlier this month he felt most streamers would take the service’s mid-level plan — a premium, ad-supported version of Peacock that offers an expansive library of TV shows and movies for $5 a month (Comcast and Cox Cable subscribers get it for free).
That information may be disclosed when Comcast reports its quarterly earnings to investors on July 30.
