Comcast is expecting a slow churn as the NBCUnviersal streaming platform Peacock recorded an adjusted loss of $978 million during the fourth quarter of 2022, with the overall year in-line with prior company projections, according to CNBC.
As far as the 2022 total numbers, Peacock’s losses were in line with what the company had earlier warned, which was around $2.5 billion, and the company does not anticipate things to get much better in 2023.
In late January, company executives said Peacock losses will peak in 2023 at around $3 billion, but expect it to steadily improve after that, and the perception has changed a bit as Wall Street is questioning the viability due to mounting content costs and slowing new subscriber numbers.
NBCUniversal CEO Jeff Shell said (back in late January) that the company had “made clear from the start we’re going to make a return” on its investment in Peacock adding that “I think we feel better about that now,” as the streamer announced subscriber growth.
“We spend quite a bit of money creating content,” Comcast President Mike Cavanagh said back in late January. “So migrating some of that content as eyeballs move to a more streaming universe, we like what we’re doing and we had a phenomenal year getting paid subscribers to 20 million.”
NBCUniversal movies on Peacock have provided boosts, such as last October’s installment of ‘Halloween’ and their 2022 hit ‘Nope’, executives point out.
NBCUniversal was one of the last to enter the streaming landscape with Peacock and the growing pains have been evident.
