Peacock has finally topped 20 million paying subscribers to the ‘little streaming service that could’. However, this announcement comes to pad the bad news- their financials show a nearly $1B loss in Q4, and NBCUniversal warns that’s not the worst yet. Brandon Blake, our entertainment attorney on the ground from Blake & Wang P.A, breaks down the news.
Near $2.5B Losses
Peacock field a $978M loss on Q4’s EBITDA (Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation, and Amortization). That builds on previous quarter losses for almost $2.5B of loss in 2022. That’s a rather scary amount in any report, but news that 2023, not 2022, will be the peak of losses for the streamer no doubt soured the news further. Apparently we’re to expect about $3B this year, too.
While Comcast and NBCUniversal seem convinced there’s a path to profitability in all this, some media analysts aren’t convinced. Some doubt there’s ever a scenario where Peacock's scale and margins come together well. However, the 5 million additional paying subscribers in Q4 is the service’s best single-quarter result since its launch date. Much of this growth was attributed to their onboarded sports streaming offerings, although their new originals caught some traction too.
Not the Only Thorn
Peacock wasn’t the only thorn in Comcast’s balance sheet this quarter, either. Severance expenses chewed up a significant portion of the balance sheet. And we still have the hovering question of what will happen to Comcast’s share in Hulu, which has to be resolved soon.
Despite the naysayers, Comcast management remains convinced Peacock is progressing ahead of anticipated milestones currently. Paid subscription numbers are now higher than they were anticipated to be. The only question is whether you buy their assertion that that heavy loss-load is also a benchmark of on-track development. They will still post a 82c earnings per share to appease investors this quarter, 7c ahead of predictions. So maybe they’re right after all.
