NBCUniversal streamer Peacock swung to a $189 million profit for the three months ended in June, its first quarter in the black, and added 2 million paid subscribers to reach 48 million.
Streaming, along with wireless and the studio umbers all contributed to parent Comcast‘s quarterly earnings report Thursday, its first since announcing it plans to split into two companies.
The FIFA World Cup, the NBA Playoffs, and Love Island USA were all key drivers for Peacock.
The Studios division had a standout quarter, with left-field horror hit Obsession taking in more than $400 million at the box office.
Total revenue dipped 1.2% from the prior-year period to hit $29.9 billion. That beat Wall Street forecasts, as did adjusted earnings per share. Net income plunged 68% with the year-earlier quarter was inflated by a one-time $9.4 billion gain – $7.1 billion net of tax – reflecting a check from Disney to acquire Comcast’s stake in Hulu.
Comcast is reporting some proforma numbers to account for the spinoff of Versant early this year as well as the sale of Sky Germany.
The World Cup ran from June 11 to July 19 on Telemundo and Peacock (and Fox of course) with the juggernaut final between Spain and Argentina generating record viewership that will boost the current third quarter. The final was the most-watched World Cup in Spanish-language history with 23.9 million tuning in to Telemundo and Peacock. Overall, it was the most-watched World Cup in Spanish-language history with an average of 6.3M viewers on Telemundo across the 104 games.
Curry Barker’s low-budget indie Obsession released May 15 quickly became a massive hit, becoming the top grossing film ever from ever Universal’s specialty label Focus Features. The Super Mario Galaxy Movie grossed more than $1 billion after its April bow. International distribution of Michael also buoyed studio profits, which rose to $141 million.
Fresh off the Versant spin, which took effect last January, Comcast is now busy working on another, spinning off NBCUniversal and Sky into a standalone company. The NBCUniversal business will be run by Comcast co-CEO Mike Cavanagh. Comcast’s former CFO Michael Angelakis will become CEO of Comcast after the separation is complete, anticipated in about a year, and will join as a strategic advisor until then.
Shortly after that news hit in late June, Sky inked a £1.6 billion ($2.1 billion) deal to acquire ITV‘s television network operations, a major shakeup in the UK media landscape.
Wall Street is enthusiastic about the separation. It’s designed to unlock the value of assets that can likely perform better apart than together and is likely to generate M&A interest.
Investors will be looking for updates on Comcast’s plans at a post-earnings call set for 8:30 ET.
More to come …