Peacock Rises to 24.5M Users as Super Bowl, Olympics Loom

Comcast saw gains in streaming as it gears up for what might be its busiest sports month in a decade.

The media and telecommunications company will see the convergence of its two most high-end sports properties in February when it broadcasts both the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing and Super Bowl LVI in Los Angeles.

• Peacock, the company’s steaming service, reached 24.5 million monthly active users and 9 million paying users at the end of 2021. The service was rolled out in the U.K. and Ireland in the fourth quarter.
• Peacock’s revenue grew to $778 million in 2021, but its adjusted EBITDA loss increased to $1.7 billion. Those figures rose respectively from $118 million and $663 million in 2020.
• Despite Peacock’s losses, adjusted EBITDA for the entire NBCUniversal portfolio grew 6% year-over-year to $5.7 billion.

Comcast CFO Mike Cavanagh said that the company plans to double its content spending to $3 billion in 2022.

Bounceback Quarter

Comcast reached $30.3 billion in revenue in Q4 2021, up 9.5% from the previous year and 6.7% above the same period in 2019. EBITDA grew 17% year-over-year to $8.4 billion.

The Summer Olympics brought in $1.8 billion in media revenue in 2021.

Comcast-owned Sky, which holds Premier League rights, saw its revenue dip 2.5% to $5.1 billion in the quarter.