Peacock, the streaming service of Comcast's entertainment unit NBCUniversal, grew its third-quarter revenue and narrowed its loss to $436 million from a loss of $565 million in the year-ago period, but the loss widened a bit compared with the loss of $348 million posted for the second quarter of 2024 on higher programming costs, driven by the Summer Olympics in Paris . Boosted by the Games, however, the streamer grew its revenue and ended September with 36 million paying subscribers, compared with 33 million as of the end of June, the company said Thursday.
"Peacock revenue increased 82 percent (year-over-year) to $1.5 billion; adjusted EBITDA improved compared to the prior-year period," Comcast highlighted.
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Discussing the Summer Games further on Thursday, the conglomerate touted key results. "Comcast's exclusive broadcast of the Paris Olympics in the U.S. showcased the combined capabilities across our company and captivated the nation's attention for 17 days," it said. "Average daily viewers of the Games across our linear networks and Peacock of 31 million increased 82 percent compared to the prior Summer Olympics in 2021."
And it highlighted that incremental Olympics revenue in media hit a record high of $1.9 billion. In further financial disclosures, it detailed that this included $1.43 billion in incremental domestic advertising revenue and $473 million in incremental domestic distribution revenue.
Cavanagh on Thursday's call also reiterated that the Paris Olympics were profitable, without going into further details. And Roberts in his main contribution to the call described the Games as a big success, mentioning that they also helped promote content and drive broadband trends. "It was probably the proudest moment that I can think of since we've owned NBCUniversal, or certainly right up there, just a tremendous team effort," he said. "And just really bringing the whole country and nation into the drama." He added: "We really look forward to L.A. in four years, we've got Milan in between and we go on from there."
Peacock had its best month to date in August, scoring the largest share of TV use in the United States in the streamer's four-year history thanks to the Summer Games. However, the streamer previously also unveiled price increases that went into effect July 18 for new customers and Aug. 17 for existing subscribers.
TD Cowen analyst Gregory Williams had predicted a Peacock loss of $366 million in the third quarter and a subscriber gain to 36 million.
As streaming profits, which have so far been elusive for most industry giants, remain in focus for Wall Street, Peacock previously posted a full-year 2023 loss of $2.75 billion. But Comcast CFO Jason Armstrong earlier this year emphasized that "2023 marked the peak in annual losses at Peacock, and for 2024 we expect to show meaningful improvements in losses, versus 2023."
Meanwhile, Comcast on Thursday also reported that its core cable and telecom business once again lost pay-TV and broadband subscribers in the third quarter. Video subscribers declined by 365,000, after a year-ago loss of 490,000, to more than 12.83 million; broadband users dropped by 87,000 to 31.98 million.
Revenue for Comcast's media segment increased 36.5 percent to $8.23 billion in the third quarter, "primarily due to higher domestic advertising and domestic distribution revenue." Excluding the $1.9 billion in incremental Paris OIympics revenue, the company posted a gain of 4.9 percent. "Domestic advertising revenue increased primarily reflecting the Paris Olympics and additional Peacock sales, partially offset by lower revenue at our networks," the company said.
Adjusted quarterly EBITDA for the media unit decreased "due to higher operating expenses," primarily driven by increased sports content costs associated with the Paris Olympics, higher programming costs at Peacock, and an increase in other sports programming costs for domestic TV networks.
Quarterly revenue in the conglomerate's studios segment was driven by the strong box office performances of Despicable Me 4 and Twisters . Universal also released Speak No Evil and The Wild Robot in September.
Studios' unit revenue increased 12.3 percent to nearly $2.83 billion in the third quarter, "primarily due to higher content licensing revenue and theatrical revenue," Comcast said and mentioned the 2023 dual Hollywood strikes. "Content licensing revenue increased primarily due to the timing of when content was made available by our television studios under licensing agreements, including the impact of the work stoppages in the prior year period."
Quarterly adjusted EBITDA for studios increased 9 percent to $468 million as the higher revenue outweighed an increase in operating expenses primarily reflecting higher programming and production expenses, "mainly due to higher costs associated with content licensing sales, including the impact of the work stoppages in the prior year period."
Year to date, "we have three of the top 10 box office titles, including Twisters , Kung Fung Panda 4 , and Despicable Me 4 , which has already grossed nearly a billion dollars and is the first animated franchise in the industry to surpass $5 billion in global box office," Comcast CFO Jason Armstrong told an earnings conference call. "Looking to the fourth quarter, Wild Robot debuted in September to terrific reviews and has had nice success at the box office, a great achievement for original animation. And we are particularly excited about Wicked opening in November."
Theme parks unit financials took a hit in the third quarter. Revenue fell 5.3 percent to $2.29 billion, "primarily due to lower revenue at our domestic theme parks, driven by lower guest attendance." Adjusted EBITDA dropped 13.8 percent to $847 million driven by the lower revenue.
"We delivered an incredibly successful Paris Summer Olympics that helped fuel double-digit percentage growth in Peacock revenue and paid subscribers and contributed to NBC's #1 ranking for the 2023-2024 season," Roberts said in the earnings report. "We also released the universally acclaimed Despicable Me 4 , which grossed nearly $1.0 billion in worldwide box office, and announced the grand opening of Universal Epic Universe in May 2025, which will be the most ambitious and technologically sophisticated theme park ever created. Overall, it was a very active and successful quarter, and I couldn't be more pleased with how our team is executing and positioning our company for long-term growth."
On Thursday's earnings call, Comcast Cable CEO David Watson said his team was "excited about AI" for use in sales channels.
And Cavanagh lauded the planned launch of the new Epic Universe theme park in May 2025, saying it will "warrant a premium" in terms of prices and "transform Universal Orlando into a week's-long vacation with the other existing parks."
Comcast shares jumped in early Thursday trading, boosted by Cavanagh sharing that the conglomerate was exploring a spin-off of its cable networks and possible streaming partnerships. As of 9:32 a.m. ET, the stock was up 6.3 percent at $44.92.
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