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Peacock continues to fly with 42 million sign-ups

(Graphic by The Desk)

Comcast’s streaming TV service Peacock continues to see success, with the company reporting more than 42 million customers have signed up for the service since it launched last year.

The number was revealed as part of Comcast‘s quarterly earnings report, which was released to the public before the start of the New York trading session on Thursday. Last quarter, Comcast reported Peacock had 33 million sign-ups.

The figure reflects significant interest in Comcast’s streaming service, which launched to the company’s video and Internet customers last April before rolling out more broadly in July. The streamer offers three tiers, including a free plan with a limited amount of content; Comcast’s video and Internet customers receive Peacock’s premium, ad-supported tier for free when they agree to use the cable company’s X1 or Flex set-top boxes.

While the number of sign-ups is impressive, it remains unclear how many people actually use the service. At least one report published in February indicated the number of people who regularly stream content on Peacock is far lower than the number of people who initially sign up for the service.

But over the last few months, Comcast has given Peacock users a lot of reasons to come back and stick around: The company recently announced it would shut down its NBC Sports Network cable channel, with some sporting events moving to Peacock. The service has already streamed some soccer matches.

Peacock also became the exclusive home of World Wrestling Entertainment content, and while the company has been criticized for censoring some of WWE’s back catalog, it earned praise among users last month when it broadcast the WWE’s blockbuster championship event Wrestlemania. The show is typically an expensive pay-per-view event commanding between $40 and $100 to view on cable, but Peacock’s users received access to the event for free as part of their service.

Comcast also grabbed the exclusive domestic streaming rights to the critically-acclaimed NBC sitcom “The Office” from Netflix earlier this year. The show was a big audience draw for Netflix during its time on that streaming service; Peacock elevated the show by offering extended “fan episodes” and access to deleted scenes that were previously unavailable to streamers.

Peacock is available on most popular streaming TV platforms, including Apple TV, Android TV (Google TV) and Roku (the service is not natively supported on Amazon Prime Video). It is also available to stream on smartphones, tablets, in web browsers and on game consoles.

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About the Author:

Matthew Keys

Matthew Keys covers the business of broadcast and streaming TV, radio broadcasting, social media, technology and telecommunications. A journalist for over 15 years, Matthew previously worked at Thomson Reuters, KGO-TV in San Francisco, KTXL in Sacramento and McNaughton Newspapers. He received 9 California Journalism Awards between 2018 and 2020, and is a member of IRE (Investigative Reporters and Editors).
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