Peacock Continues to Pump Out Content. Is That a Good Thing?
By Movieguide® Contributor
While every other major streamer has cut back on the content it produced this quarter, Peacock has remained on pace with last year. However, that decision might hurt the platform in the long run.
A new industry report from MoffettNathanson found that over the past three months, every major streaming service has cut back on original content they released — in comparison to the same timespan last year — except for Peacock. Disney had the largest decline from 2023, releasing only 16 original seasons, compared to 30 during Q2 last year. The rest were down a handful each, revealing a cooling industry.
Peacock, however, kept on the gas, releasing eight new seasons in Q2 2024, the same number as during Q2 2023. While this decision has helped the streamer continue to grow — even reaching the same daily usage rate as Prime Video — it does not necessarily signify a thriving platform. The service continues to run at a deficit, losing NBCUniversal $639 million during the first quarter of the year.
The service, however, has a bright spot in its immediate future as it will serve as the exclusive streaming home of the Paris Olympics. Earlier this year, Peacock saw a boost of 3 million subscribers when it was the exclusive home to a single NFL playoff game — of which over 2 million have remained with the platform — and it hopes to see a similar boost from the Games.
Nonetheless, the decision to continue pumping out content at the same rate as 2023 positions Peacock at a stark difference with the rest of the industry which has identified original content as an area to cut costs.
While last year saw every platform cracking down on password sharing, raising prices and introducing ad tiers, one of 2024’s major trends is for streamers to focus on licensing content rather than producing new shows and movies themselves. They’ve realized it’s often better to pay royalties than fund production for an entire new show. Plus, these licensed shows often perform better than the originals anyway — like SUITS.
Thus, the drop in original content is a strategic decision across the industry that Peacock is choosing not to follow. However, its already low content production — only eight shows with the next smallest being 14 from Hulu — may be playing a large factor in this strategy. Regardless, Peacock remains largely unprofitable with NBCUniversal having no timeline for when it will turn a profit.
Movieguide® previously reported on Peacock:
NBCUniversal will add some new features to Peacock for Summer Olympics fans.
“New features of note are Live Actions and Discovery Multiview, which is aimed at helping viewers find and engage more deeply with Olympic programming,” Deadline reported.
“The former lets viewers select events during live and primetime coverage and create their own feed comprised of only the sports they are interested in seeing. During live coverage, viewers can either keep watching live or stay with ‘whip-around’ coverage. In the social media era, the time-tested whip-around approach has come under scrutiny given that results are often known, sapping coverage of drama,” Deadline said.
Peacock will cover over 5,000 hours of live footage at the game in Paris from July 26 to Aug. 11. NBCUniversal hopes the enhanced features draw more viewers to its platform.
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