In a recent interview with CNBC’s David Faber, NBCUniversal CEO Jeff Shell shared an updated subscriber tally for Peacock, saying the streaming service now has 15 million paid subscribers and 30 million monthly active accounts.
For those who count, that’s 2 million more paid subscribers and 3 million more monthly active accounts. And since the start of 2022, Peacock has grown paid subscribers by 70%.
Describing the reasons for this growth, Shell said, “it’s really driven by the content,” including sports which have been “really successful” for Peacock. All major sports deals on linear also have non-linear rights, he noted, such as NFL and English Premier League, as well as certain Big Ten rights starting in 2023. The World Cup is also coming to Peacock.
The second pillar of the service growth is studio films, with NBCUniversal films coming directly to Peacock after their transactional window. These would include hits such as “Jurassic World: Dominion” and “Minions: The Rise of Gru.”
When it comes to the company’s linear network businesses, Shell said that even though they are declining, they are “still very strong and number one across the board.”
Looking down the road, Peacock will get a big content boost as the new next-day streaming home of NBC and Bravo linear content — with shows like “Saturday Night Live” and Dick Wolf’s series like the “Law & Order” franchise, among others.
Some of this content previously went to Hulu, and now it has a new home.
Finally, Shell said they would continue to produce the original series for Peacock.
“All subscribers are not created equal, what you have to do is actually look at the real numbers,” he said, adding that as an ad-supported service, engagement is a key metric. Right now, Peacock is seeing average revenue per user (ARPU) of close to $10 for paid subscribers, with the goal of reaching $2 billion in annual revenues.
“I don’t know a lot of businesses that you’ve covered that in two years have reached the point of $2 billion,” Shell said. “So we’re right on the trajectory that we wanted to, we’re growing subs, we’re growing our revenue, and we have the scale to do things we want.”
On our end, we are always delighted to know the competition is live and well, cause at the end of the day – that’s good news for end users. So if you want to watch Peacock and can’t do it from where you live, you can do that by getting yourself a good VPN. Start by checking out our page with Best VPNs for Peacock and take it from there. All VPNs on that page will also serve other needs you may have…