Peacock turns quarterly profit for first time in history

Nearly six years after launching, Peacock has finally turned in its first quarter of profitability. Comcast announced the news during an earnings call on Thursday.

Peacock posted profits of $189 million in the second quarter of 2026, up from a loss of $101 million during the same quarter in 2025, which was previously the streamer’s best quarterly performance. Comcast attributes the turnaround to success from the NBA playoffs at the beginning of Q2, the FIFA World Cup at the end of the quarter, and the popular reality dating show Love Island.

Almost exactly six years after NBCUniversal first launched Peacock, the streaming service reported its first-ever profitable quarter.https://t.co/7kamzXfwTi pic.twitter.com/2M8yiqizhu

— The Hollywood Reporter (@THR) July 23, 2026

Per Comcast, Peacock added 2 million subscribers during the period as well, raising its total subscriber base to 48 million, a figure that still trails well behind competitors like Netflix, HBO Max, and Paramount+.

While Q2 marked Peacock’s first foray into profitability, Comcast executives cautioned analysts not to expect similar results each quarter, noting the streamer’s revenue and operating costs fluctuate heavily based on the season. That is in part because of Peacock’s significant investment into live sports. In Q4 2025, for instance, Peacock’s losses ballooned by 48 percent year-over-year because it made its first NBA rights payments. As a whole, NBCUniversal is paying an average of $2.5 billion per year for NBA rights, with a portion of those fees being attributed to Peacock.

The news of Peacock’s successful quarter comes amid a wider shakeup at NBCUniversal as Comcast plans to spin off its media business within the next 12 months.

“This is an extremely valuable collection of assets at NBC, and we think that separating the business, setting it up on its own is going to give it the focus and opportunity and platform to invest behind the growth opportunities that it has in its own businesses and the spaces around these businesses that offer growth and where the business has the right to play,” Comcast CEO Mike Cavanagh told investors during Thursday’s earnings call.

What’s next for Peacock is unclear. The streamer will need to become a reliable profit engine for an independent NBCUniversal as profits for the broadcast network continue to shrink. First and foremost, that likely means getting Peacock in front of more people through partnerships with larger platforms like Netflix or Amazon. Peacock needs greater reach in order to fully capitalize on its expensive sports rights portfolio. Otherwise, the streamer’s profitability might be ephemeral rather than enduring.