Peacock Announces $1.7 Billion Losses In 2021
The NBCUniversal streaming platform has hosted WWE Network content in the US since 2021.
NBCUniversal Peacock platform has announced adjusted losses of $1.7 billion for 2021, more than doubling the previous year's total.
NBCU's parent company, Comcast, announced its Q4 earnings earlier this week. Peacock's 2021 revenue total sat at $778 million, which was up significantly from the previous year's $118 million. Nonetheless, $1.7 billion is significantly worse than 2020's $663 million EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization) loss.
Comcast anticipates Peacock losing around $2.5 billion in 2022. This, like 2021's loss increase, is to be attributed to greater investment in content rights. Around $1.5 billion was spent on such acquisitions in 2021, with that number expected to double to $3 billion this year.
A $1 billion deal to bring WWE Network content to Peacock in the United States was announced in January 2021. This meant the end of the Network in the country, with all content migrating over to the NBCUniversal platform over the course of several months. The Network remains active in countries like the United Kingdom, where no such deals are in place.
Per Comcast CEO Brian Roberts, Peacock had around 9 million paid subscribers by the end of 2021.