Comcast’s new Peacock streaming service has added 10 million customers since its limited launch in April and its national launch in mid-July. The announcement was a bright spot in the cable giant’s second-quarter earnings report, otherwise quite grim as it continued to feel the effects of the coronavirus pandemic on its entertainment divisions. Net income for the quarter fell 4.4 percent to $ 2.99 billion in revenue of $ 23.7 billion.
“NBCUniversal successfully launched Peacock on Cable’s footprint in April, prior to the national launch of the broadcast service in the United States earlier this month, with 10 million subscriptions to date,” said Comcast President and CEO Brian Roberts, in a statement announcing the earnings results. Peacock, considered a relatively late participant in the busy streaming market, is ahead of new rival HBO Max, which has attracted 4.1 million subscribers since its launch in May.
Comcast’s home cable and internet segment was flat, at around $ 14.4 billion, even when it lost 477,000 video customers. The company added 323,000 broadband clients. That figure does not include the 600,000 subscribers who are part of a free special promotion for low-income customers or customers who are behind on payments due to the coronavirus pandemic.
With theme parks and cinemas closed and major sporting events canceled during the second quarter, Comcast’s entertainment divisions suffered the most. Revenue from its NBCUniversal segment decreased 25 percent to $ 6.1 billion, and revenue from its film division decreased 18 percent to $ 1.2 billion. Universal announced Tuesday that it had reached an agreement with AMC Theaters to reduce the release window of its films from 90 to 17 days.
(Disclosure: Comcast and NBCUniversal are investors in Vox Media, parent company of The edge.)
Comcast’s theme park division revenue fell from $ 1.4 billion in the prior year quarter to $ 87 million as all of its Universal theme parks closed in March due to the pandemic.
Advertising revenues from its cable networks, which include Bravo and USA Network, decreased 27 percent to $ 679 million. And for NBC and Telemundo broadcast networks, advertising revenue decreased 28 percent to $ 959 million. Revenue from its Sky division in Europe decreased 15 percent to $ 4 billion.
