Comcast’s third-quarter earnings call was on Thursday, and while not all news from the call was positive, improved results at Peacock were met with approval.
Per Front Office Sports, Peacock’s paid subscriber count increased by four million in the third quarter to 28 million. Ahead of Disney’s third-quarter earnings call in November, Peacock subscriptions have now exceeded ESPN+ subscriptions, announced at 25.2 million in the second-quarter earnings call in August.
It’s also a gain of nearly 80% in paid subscriptions from year to year. Comcast eliminated its free Peacock Premium offer to cable subscribers earlier this year, axed its partnership with Cox to offer free Peacock to its customers, and also eliminated the free tier on Peacock for new customers.
During its January earnings call covering the fourth quarter of 2022, Comcast announced 20 million paid subscribers for Peacock. At the end of 2021, the service had just nine million paid subscribers.
In the third quarter, Peacock’s revenue increased 64% to $830 million. The quarterly loss shrank to $565 million, lower than both the $651 million lost in the second quarter and last year’s third quarter loss of $614 million.
Peacock’s slate of live sports, which includes Sunday Night Football simulcasts and both exclusive and simulcast Big Ten and Notre Dame college football, likely helped the subscription numbers in the third quarter. Additionally, Peacock will exclusively stream both a December regular season NFL game and a January NFL Wild Card game. It wouldn’t be a surprise at all to see positive subscriber growth for Peacock continue in the fourth quarter.
