• by Wayne Friedman , December 4, 2023

All the elements of NBCUniversal’s major linear TV assets can continue to be considered as “infrastructure” for Peacock, the company’s growing streaming platform, according to Mike Cavanagh, president of Comcast Corp, speaking at a Wall Street conference on Monday.

“The infrastructure that we have as we bring it to life in the form of Peacock is a great way to think about the game we're trying to play,” Cavanagh said, speaking with John Hodulik, media analyst of UBS.

That means programming development, promotion and advertising, many TV executives and media analysts say.

In this regard, he says the company will continue to count on NBCU's still-strong wide-reaching consumer media platforms.

“The business is the totality of the sort of the television platforms that we have," he said, adding that "what's important about NBCUniversal in that sense is we've been a leader in kind of reach.” 

He says this ‘reach’ comes from a user base of “100 million a month”. In addition, he cites its “actual usage, hours on our various platforms, top three [broadcast network]- sort of quality. It's high-end content.”

Still, for many broadcast or cable-based TV network groups, the linear TV infrastructure goes beyond what it can do in terms of program development, promotion and advertising packaging for new premium streaming platforms. 

For NBCU, there is a global revenue potential.

“We can take the content that doesn't go into Peacock and monetize it outside the United States,” Cavanagh said. Still, he added, launching a global streaming service is not being totally ruled out at NBCU. “That can change over time.”

With regard to Peacock itself, he said its losses will peak this year at $2.8 billion. Company executives anticipate a narrowing of losses in the periods to come.

Cavanagh said to be at “30 million paying subscribers for Peacock now...  at roughly $10 monthly ARPU [average revenue per user] and having done that in only three years” is good.