Peacock adds 4 million paid subscribers, up 40% since last quarter

Comcast, the parent company of NBCUniversal, which owns the Peacock streaming service, has reported its Q1 2022 earnings. In today’s earnings report, Peacock’s paid subscriber count is up 4 million subscribers, up 40% since the end of 2021. Of the 28 million current subscribers, 13 million are paying subscribers, up 9 million from last quarter.

In its conference call, Comcast CEO and Chair Brian Roberts stated the streaming platform has seen a 25% increase in engagement year over year. However, the company doesn’t expect this sort of growth to continue.

We expect more modest subscriber gains until we get to the back half of this year. We expect a great fourth quarter with exciting sporting events like Sunday Night Football and Premier League.

This year’s streaming platform has made some improvements to the service. On Sundays in May, Peacock will stream 18 Major League Baseball games. Apple TV+ also has MLB games added to their lineup. This is a result of sports being a popular content type that viewers want to watch on streaming platforms like Apple TV+. Additionally, NBC shows will become exclusive to the platform this fall, leaving Hulu.

The news of this growth also comes after Netflix lost 200,000 subscribers this quarter. One reason for slow growth was competition from other streaming services. With competitors adding live sports to their lineups, should Netflix do the same to revive itself?

Yesterday’s news about

Comcast and its partnership with Charter was also reported. The two cable giants are banding together to create a new streaming platform on 4K devices and smart TVs.