Peacock in a Pickle: As the Streamer Lags Behind, What Happens Next?
by Zhukov-74
Peacock in a Pickle: As the Streamer Lags Behind, What Happens Next?
by Zhukov-74
12 Comments
As industry consolidation reshapes the streaming landscape, Peacock finds itself in an awkward position.
Since launching in 2020, the NBCUniversal-owned streaming service has grown to a total of 46 million paid subscribers, but has lost more than $10 billion. In its latest quarter, Peacock’s losses widened to $432 million, though Comcast executives say it will “approach” profitability in the second quarter.
[Paywall removed](https://archive.ph/2026.04.29-134620/https://www.thewrap.com/media-platforms/streaming/peacock-profitability-subscriber-growth-analysis/)
They need more shows and movies on their platform.Plus better marketing and cheaper price to get back subs.
The fact that it’s the only streaming service to lose money shows that Universal could have gone the Sony route, by licensing their films & TV shows to third-parties (e.g. Netflix, Amazon and HBO), had they known that their content selection wasn’t going to be big.
Sure, you got the Olympics and the Super Bowl every few years, also sports and a decent catalog as well. But overall what’s left to keep subscribers when those are over for now?
It feels like Universal has had just enough Illumination and Jurassic wins to keep afloat, but as both seem to be diminishing returns, and Dreamworks and Blumhouse seem more miss than hits lately commercially, this summer will be very interesting where Disclosure Day and the Odyssey take Universal as a studio
As for Peacock, please just do a Sony and license everything to Netflix. Combining with HBO, Paramount+ may have a future but Peacock certainly does not
They don’t have nothing on a consistent basis that drives viewership. They’ll get big numbers with the NFL but that’s in isolation. They should’ve fought harder to keep the WWE. Those monthly shows were an automatic 1.5-3 million viewers and that back catalog brought in subs. Your viewership being carried by playoff NFL games, simulcasted NBA games, the Olympics every 4 years and random tv series isn’t sustainable.
Time for them to use that NBC money and license some strong properties. It sucks because Peacock for what it’s worth is the most user friendly streaming service.
Thank you for the AI-generated image, TheWrap. Very fucking cool of you. /s
Anyway, Peacock is going to die relatively soon. They can’t keep throwing good money after bad, and none of the stuff airs on the app overages anyway. Because… there isn’t one.
Comcast should instead talk to David Ellison/Zaslav and try to pry HBO/HBO Max off of their hands. It’s the only strategy they have left, and the two already collaborate a ton overseas. Pull the trigger and make an offer.
Peacock kept raising its prices for sports (which I dont need or want from a streamer) while adding nothing in terms of shows or movies. They are sitting on a reasonably sized catalog of shows/movies they could add to the service, but refuse. It was a easy decision to cancel. We have Office on bluray if we want to go there (although, I am not sure we even have a physical media player hooked up to anything anymore).
They covered this on The Town a few days ago. Sports is going to cripple their budget, and as Belloni put it “The suits are writing checks their subscribers can’t pay” as they continue to poach Taylor Sheridan’s entourage from Paramount
Throw in the towel and sell to Netflix
Expand into other markets. Put more shows and movies on there that draw people in. I use Peacock but out of the streaming services to me atleast the monthly picks are very few.
Cancel the platform and license IP like Sony
One of the huge flaws that I’ve seen with Peacock is that it’s not a central hub for all things Universal and they’re doing little to change that.
Compare that to Disney+. When Disney+ launched, the rights to many Star Wars and Marvel movies were already licensed out to other streamers and cable networks. Disney worked hard to get those rights back so that when Disney+ launched (and since then), you could always watch every Star Wars and Marvel movie. When a new movie in a franchise comes out, they work to have all the other films available.
For years now, if I’ve wanted to watch Jurassic Park movies, where do I go to stream them? Who knows. If you’re lucky, maybe 1 might be on Peacock. If I wanted to watch Fast & Furious movies…same situation. Same deal with a lot of Universal franchises and classic Universal movies.
They’re also not willing to fully commit. Even their new movies aren’t exclusive to Peacock. They’ll also stream on Amazon and Netflix.