Comcast’s streaming service Peacock saw little growth during the company’s second financial quarter (Q2) of the year, with the entertainment giant logging 41 million subscribers to the NBC-operated streaming service by the end of June.
The figure was largely unchanged on a sequential basis, Comcast said. The service struggled to generate net positive subscribers due to a lighter load of premium sports once the National Football League’s (NFL) season was over.
The same scenario is unlikely to repeat itself around this time next year, with NBC Sports and Peacock set to offer a trio of high-profile sporting events: Super Bowl LX from San Francisco, the 2026 Winter Olympic Games from Milan and regular season National Basketball Association (NBA) games.
None of that helped Comcast much this year.
There were a few bright spots for Peacock: New episodes of “Love Island USA” began streaming during Q2, and the program generated quite a buzz on social platforms like TikTok, Instagram and X (formerly Twitter).
On the financial side, Peacock earned $1.2 billion in revenue, up 18 percent. Its financial loss also narrowed to $101 million, better than the $348 million the service cost Comcast around this time last year.
Streamers are helping to narrow that loss by shelling out more for Peacock: Earlier this month, Comcast rolled out a price adjustment that raised the price of Peacock’s ad-supported, sports-inclusive plan to $11 per month. A version of Peacock that removes commercials during on-demand content also increased to $18 per month.
New customers are already paying the higher fee for Peacock, and all existing customers will be pushed into the new pricing structure by late August. Comcast is readying a new Peacock plan that allows streamers to watch TV shows and movies with ads for $8 per month — a price that comes with a compromise: No live sports.
