Comcast’s streaming platform Peacock thrived during the first three months of 2025, with a lucrative NFL playoff game in January and a new partnership with peer telecom operator Charter helping to grow subscribers during the first quarter (Q1).
Peacock added 5 million new subscribers between early January and late March, ending Q1 with 41 million customers who either pay outright for the service or who have complementary access bundled with their pay TV subscription.
Historically, customers of Comcast’s Xfinity TV and Xfinity Internet products have been able to access Peacock Premium for free, though the company pulled back considerably on the perk a few years ago, relegating premium access to costlier tiers of both products and rolling it into its “Xfinity Rewards” program.
On the other hand, customers of Charter’s pay TV service Spectrum TV now have access to Peacock Premium if they subscriber to certain programming plans — a new perk that launched during Q1 that helped grow Peacock’s overall subscriber base, the company said.
It also helped increase Peacock’s overall revenue to $1.2 billion during Q1, a 16 percent increase compared to 2024, when NBC had streaming rights to the Super Bowl. The platform’s operating loss substantially narrowed to $215 million, compared to $639 million one year ago.
“I do expect Peacock to be on a continuing trend of driving towards improved monetization, bigger scale and therefore declining losses over time,” Mike Cavanagh, Comcast’s President, said during a conference call with reporters.
Peacock continues to be a focal point in Comcast’s programming and distribution strategy, at a time when the company continues to shed traditional pay TV subscribers. The service offers simulcasts of NBC’s network programming and local stations and affiliates (if subscribers opt for the “Premium Plus” tier at $14 per month), as well as simulcasts of sports airing on NBC and its co-owned cable channels.
Some of NBC Universal’s cable channels will be separated from Comcast later this year, with the latter retaining NBC, NBC Sports and Bravo. Reality-based shows from Bravo continue to be a significant driver of viewership to Peacock, according to a source who spoke with The Desk earlier this year, and Comcast’s intention in retaining Bravo is meant to ensure it has long-term rights to the network’s programming once the other cable networks are spun off.
Some of its other cable networks, including MSNBC and CNBC, distribute shows on-demand through Peacock, and that will continue when the networks are spun out into the separate company tentatively called “SpinCo.” Comcast and SpinCo executives are working through various licensing deals that will keep some programming from MSNBC, CNBC and its cable networks on Peacock for a short time after the separation is complete, the executive source confirmed. The discussions also involve ways to distribute NBC Sports programming, including the Olympic and Paralympic Games, on the cable networks in the years to come.
