Peacock Topped 15 Million Paid Subscribers in Q3, NBCU’s CEO Says, Touting Movie Strategy and End of Hulu Deal for Next-Day Episodes
variety.comTodd Spangler NY Digital Editor Has Peacock regained its forward momentum? NBCUniversal CEO Jeff Shell claimed the media company’s flagship streamer notched healthy growth in the third quarter — thanks to a strong content lineup, including Peacock’s reclaiming day-after-air rights to episodes of NBCU shows from Hulu.
Shell, in an appearance Tuesday on CNBC, said Peacock added more than 2 million paid subscribers in Q3, to top 15 million. Overall, Peacock’s active user accounts is now at 30 million, he said, up more than 3 million in the September quarter. “If you have the right content, and you offer a broad distribution platform, your consumers are going to find you — and that’s what we’re doing with Peacock,” Shell said.
The Q3 growth is an improvement over the second quarter — when Peacock’s paid customer based was flat at 13 million and Peacock’s overall active accounts actually declined by about 1 million.
One of the drivers for Peacock’s turnaround, according to Shell, is that NBCU now has rights back from Hulu for current seasons of NBC shows as well as Bravo series the day after they air. “All of our content that’s on NBC, Bravo, our other channels for the first time… is coming to Peacock, where it used to go to Hulu,” Shell said. “So if you want to watch ‘Saturday Night Live,’ if you want to watch ‘Real Housewives,’ if you want to watch ‘The Voice,’ all of our ‘Chicago’ shows… all of those are coming to Peacock.” In addition to the next-day rights, Peacock last month clawed back dozens of past seasons of NBCU programming, including the entire run of “Keeping Up With the Kardashians.” Shell also touted Peacock’s sports rights, including NFL and Premier League games, WWE, the 2022 FIFA World Cup and Big Ten
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