Yahoo Finance Comcast's (CMCSA) NBCUniversal Hikes Peacock's Monthly Price
Comcast’s CMCSA division NBCUniversal is set to increase the monthly prices of its streaming service Peacock for the first time since its launch in 2020. The price hike will be effective from Aug 17, with existing customers seeing the increase on their next billing cycle and new customers experiencing it immediately.
Peacock Premium, which includes advertisements, will see a $1 increase to $5.99 per month, while Peacock Premium Plus, which offers primarily commercial-free content, will rise $2 to $11.99 per month. Despite the price increases, Peacock remains competitively priced compared with other streaming services.
Disney DIS raised the price of its Disney+ last year. In the United States, the ad-free version costs $10.99 per month, whereas the ad-included basic plan costs $7.99 per month. Paramount Global’s PARA Paramount+ with Showtime (launched on Jun 27) costs $11.99 per month, whereas Paramount+ Essential is priced at $5.99 (up from $4.99) per month.
This January, Warner Bros. Discovery WBD raised Max’s (formerly HBO Max) price with the no-ads service costing $15.99, up $1. The ad-supported plan remains at $9.99 per month. Streaming giant Netflix raised its U.S. prices in 2022. Its current plans range from a cheaper Standard with ads worth $6.99 per month to a costlier Premium worth $19.99.
Comcast Corporation Price and Consensus
Comcast Corporation price-consensus-chart | Comcast Corporation Quote
Peacock’s Strong Content Library to Aid Growth
Since its launch three years ago, Peacock has significantly expanded its content library, adding more than 80,000 hours of programming. By the end of the coming year, it is expected to offer 100,000 hours of content. This includes a variety of exclusive content, such as pay-1 window movies from Universal Filmed Entertainment Group, next-day episodes of popular shows from NBC and Bravo, streaming channels from Hallmark and Reelz, and daily news from CNBC and MSNBC.
Peacock offers more than 5,000 hours of live sports content, making it the leading direct-to-consumer streaming service in the United States for live sports coverage. It is set to stream FIFA Women’s World Cup (July), Sunday Night Football, an NFL Wild Card Playoff Game (January 2024), Premier League soccer, Big 10 football (beginning fall 2023), Notre Dame football, and WWE’s SummerSlam.
The subscriber base of Peacock has grown to 22 million by the end of first-quarter 2023, reflecting a year-over-year increase of more than 60%. This growth reflects the streaming service's popularity among viewers.
NBCUniversal justifies the price increase as means to invest in content and enhance the user experience. Additional revenues generated from the price hike will help NBCUniversal mitigate expected losses of $3 billion for Peacock in 2023 and position the platform for profitability.
What Awaits Comcast’s Shares in 2H23?
Comcast shares have outperformed the Zacks Consumer Discretionary sector, and it peers Disney and Paramount on a year-to-date basis. However, it has underperformed Warner Bros. Discovery over the same time frame.
Comcast shares returned 20.4% year to date, and the sector and WBD have gained 13.3% and 29.9%, respectively. Shares of DIS and PARA have lost 1.5% and 9%, respectively.
Comcast has been benefiting from a growing wireless subscriber and broadband user base. Peacock has been a key catalyst in driving broadband sales. However, Comcast persistently suffers from video-subscriber attrition due to cord-cutting. Moreover, broadband prospects are suffering from increased competition from fixed wireless and fiber.
Comcast, which currently has a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold), is set to report second-quarter 2023 results on Jul 27. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.
The Zacks Consensus Estimate for the company’s earnings is pegged at 98 cents per share, down a couple of cents over the past 30 days, indicating a 2.97% year-over-year decline. The consensus mark for revenues is pegged at $30.25 billion, suggesting 0.77% year-over-year growth.
Disclaimer: This article has been written with the assistance of Generative AI. However, the author has reviewed, revised, supplemented, and rewritten parts of this content to ensure its originality and the precision of the incorporated information.
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