Comcast president Michael Cavanagh has revealed that its streaming service Peacock is predicted to lose $3 billion this year despite subscriptions increasing significantly in 2022.
Per The Hollywood Reporter, Peacock reported losses amounting to $2.5 billion in 2022, despite the streaming service's revenue and subscribers growing in the fourth quarter. Comcast expects that number to rise to $3 billion in 2023 before stabilizing and steadily diminishing. "As we have said before, we believe 2023 will be peak losses for Peacock, and from there (they will) steadily improve," Cavanagh said on a conference call.
Comcast's entertainment subsidiary NBCUniversal launched Peacock -- named after the NBC logo -- on July 15, 2020. The streaming service has both several ad-supported and ad-free tiers with content primarily consisting of films and series owned by NBC Universal, including acclaimed NBC comedy series The Office and Parks and Recreation. The service is also home to select content from NBC Sports, Hallmark Channel and WWE. As of December 31, 2022, Peacock has over 20 million paid subscribers.
Peacock Cancels Vampire Academy
Despite its extensive acquired content library, Peacock has struggled to produce original hits, with the streamer recently canceling Vampire Academy, a drama series based on the Richelle Mead novels, after one season. The streamer also canceled the high-school murder mystery drama One of Us is Lying after two seasons. Both series came as a shock to their respective fanbases, with fans already using the hashtags #SaveVampireAcademy and #SaveOneOfUsIsLying in hopes that it will entice another streaming service in picking up the series for future seasons. Peacock also bid farewell to the Saved by the Bell revival and Rutherford Falls in 2022, with fan-favorite series Girls5eva moving to Netflix for Season 3.
Despite the string of cancelations, Peacock is still moving forward with original scripted content and has several promising series in the works, including the Friday the 13th prequel series, Crystal Lake, which is being developed by Star Trek: Discovery co-creator Bryan Fuller. Rian Johnson's Poker Face, a murder mystery series starring Natasha Lyonne as a casino worker with the extraordinary ability to determine when someone is lying, also recently premiered on the streamer to glowing reviews from critics. The series currently holds a perfect 100% critics' score on the review aggregate website Rotten Tomatoes. The streamer has also ordered additional episodes of Pitch Perfect: Bumper in Berlin and Bel-Air, with the latter's second season set to premiere on Feb. 23.
Source: The Hollywood Reporter