Comcast continues to lose cable TV subscribers, but its streaming platform peacock has registered an increase in customers despite rising losses.
Comcast CFO Jason Armstrong, who recently joined Peacock, Comcast-owned NBCUniversal’s streaming platform, thus sees the streaming platform as an ad-supported streaming platform rather than a drag on the entertainment conglomerate’s overall business. , we believe will help offset the continued decline in linear TV revenues. .
“We run our business holistically. You’ve got a linear business, which is a very good business and a cash flow business you want to protect, but [we’re] We will move to streaming,” he said during a webcast session on Monday at Deutsche Bank’s Media, Internet and Telecom Conference.
As the entertainment industry looks to the continued pressure of linear TV and the loss of streaming, Armstrong noted a “delicate balance” in the media giant’s shift to streaming. This is due to his Comcast’s protected linear TV business emerging from his expensive cable bundles and investing in the Peacock platform as viewer habits change.
His appearance at the investor conference comes amid mounting skepticism from Wall Street about earnings and content spending projections for entertainment conglomerates that operate costly direct-to-consumer streaming platforms. With NBCUniversal facing technology and marketing costs in his Peacock launch, Armstrong said, “It’s been a costly pivot and we’re right in the middle right now.” subscription.
For Comcast, the challenge in making a costly pivot to Peacock — Armstrong reiterated that 2023 is the peak year for investing in the new platform and expects a loss of $3 billion — We’re listening to market concerns about the marginal return on that precious investment capital.. “The good news is linear, streaming is a growth business,” argued Armstrong, as NBCUniversal pivoted from one to the other. We returned to the theme of managing holistically.
To that end, investors say TV content is key, especially placing content on both linear and streaming platforms and maintaining the flexibility to move it around to drive engagement with Peacock. spoke at the conference.
“That’s the balance we have to get right. We want to focus more on parity trade-offs. We have to replace some mechanisms. We’re adding streaming service subscribers because of that, and right now we’re kind of in peak-cost mode when it comes to funding this transition,” Armstrong told investors.