• by Wayne Friedman , April 25, 2024

Although NBCUniversal’s Peacock added another three million paid subscribers in the first quarter -- rising to 34 million -- revenue losses continued at the streaming platform, according to the company’s first-quarter financial release.

Peacock posted continued adjusted cash flow (EBITDA) losses -- earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization -- to $639 million versus $704 million in the year-earlier period.

The positive news came from Comcast Corp.'s owned streamer, which boosted its revenue by 54% to $1.1 billion. 

The year-over-year growth helped overall NBCUniversal revenue rise 3.6% to $6.4 billion -- primarily because of Peacock’s advertising and distribution revenue from subscription fees.

Total advertising revenue was flat at $2.03 billion, with TV network revenue lower but higher at Peacock.

Factoring in TV networks, adjusted EBITDA posted a positive $827 million -- down 6.1% from the previous year-ago period.

The NBCUniversal Studio business showed a 7.2% dip to $2.7 billion due to the theatrical timing of film releases versus a year ago.

Disney theme parks -- which will be getting some $60 billion in new investment over the next several years -- were up 1.5% to $1.98 billion.

Looking at other core Comcast businesses in broadband and video, there were expected losses -- with 65,000 broadband subscribers and a 487,000 drop in video pay TV  subscribers to 32.2 billion and 13.6 million, respectively.

Overall, analysts remain concerned about the continued slippage of subscribers for the company's broadband business. Early Thursday morning, Comcast's stock price was down 7% to $37.56. 

Still, broadband revenue rose 4% to $6.6 billion, with video revenue posting more declines -- down 8% to $6.9 billion. Local TV advertising from its cable and virtual pay TV systems was up 4% to $951 million.

Overall Comcast Corp. revenue was up slightly -- 1.2% to $30.1 billion, with net income virtually flat at $3.86 billion.