Peacock President Kelly Campbell on the Deals, Acquisitions and Originals That Have Finally Made the Streamer Fly With Its Competition

variety.com:

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer The new regime at Peacock has spent the past nine months preparing to take its baby bird to new heights.

The number of big moves made by the NBCUniversal-owned streamer — from amping up its original content slate to livestream deals with Hallmark, Reelz and Big 10 college football to bringing NBC shows back into the fold for next-day viewing and eliminating its free tier for new users — is setting the stage for what executives hope will be a growth spurt in 2023.

Peacock, which launched three years ago last month, will show of its brighter plumage Tuesday with its New Fronts presentation to advertisers. “It’s all coming together,” says Peacock president Kelly Campbell, who signed on in October 2021 after serving as president of Hulu. “We’re just seeing an increasing interest overall when it comes to inflow and engagement, and people are stickier than they were in the past.” Of the Top 100 most-viewed library titles in 2022, Peacock had 25 of them in its catalog, including “SNL,” “The Office,” “The Voice and “Yellowstone,” a higher share than almost all of their streaming competitors.

And in December, the streamer accounted for 1% of all TV viewing in the U.S., per Nielsen, for the first time. Content chief Susan Rovner’s original series are “punching” hard, Campbell emphasizes, pointing to a slate that includes Rian Johnson and Natasha Lyonne’s critically praised “Poker Face” and the offbeat dramedy “Mrs.