Peacock may not have a ton of subscribers or must-see originals, but its three-tier approach may be the future of streaming.
By most accounts, including ours, Peacock got off to a rough start. But the NBCUniversal streaming service may have teeth – er, beak? – after all.
In the first quarter of 2022, usage of Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Hulu, and Disney+ were all relatively flat, according to market research and consulting company HarrisX. The data came from a survey with 22,839 respondents between January and March, which was analyzed and reported Monday by media analysts MoffettNathanson.
Peacock (and Paramount+, for that matter) experienced “tremendous growth,” they wrote. “The star of these charts is the rocket ship that is Peacock,” MoffettNathanson said.
Take a moment to read that sentence again: “star… rocket ship… is Peacock.”
MoffettNathanson tacked on a few caveats to that bold statement. Peacock’s ad-supported tier likely serves to exaggerate its growth; the Winter Olympics and the Super Bowl also served to goose the quarter. Being a relative newcomer that’s only begun getting the benefit of original content tends to be a good look for a quarterly snapshot.
Now home to “The Office” as well as the WWE Network, Peacock had more than 9 million paid subscribers at the end of 2021, Comcast executives noted in January. Most come from the service’s cheaper, $4.99-per-month, ad-supported option as opposed to the $9.99 ad-free option. (There’s also the totally free sign-up option, but it’s limited.)
All told, Peacock had nearly 25 million monthly active accounts, the NBCUniversal parent company said in its fourth-quarter earnings release, and made about $10 per user when including advertising. (At the time, Peacock tacked on another 7 million monthly users from Xfinity bundles; Peacock President Kelly Campbell told Vulture last month that 75 percent of Peacock’s viewership comes from paid and bundled…