Peacock Expects Paid Subscribership to Jump Later This Year

Universal is making more films in 2023 than 2022, while other major studios are doing less, NBCUniversal CEO Jeff Shell said Tuesday at a Credit Suisse investor conference. He said its linear video businesses remain strong, though declining, but the ad-supported Peacock streaming service is growing rapidly. He said he went into 2022 concerned about NBCU's movie business until the back-to-back successes of the Top Gun and Jurassic World films. Shell said Peacock growth and the overall economy remain areas where the company is paying close attention. Peacock has more than 13 million paying subscribers, with the Winter Olympics and Super Bowl driving a big jump in growth in Q1. He said despite the lack of big sports events and originals in Q2, Peacock is retaining most of those Q1 subscriber gains: "We thought we would have more churn." Shell said in the back half of the year, Peacock should have more ramping up of paid subscriber growth, driven by other big content draws including content being pulled from Hulu for Peacock.