Peacock head optimistic

[Bob Jersey]

They're expected to lose $3bil this year, but a BofA analyst says '24 is looking rosier, as the streamer improves through its next-day availability of NBC and Bravo shows, sports (it will delivery every event in next year's Olympics*), and Universal's theatrical content...

https://variety.com/2023/tv/news/peacock-viewers-growth-streaming-competition-1235599443/ (link)

*although I wish they'd not split hairs, and actually provide the same feeds seen on their other platforms, instead of the announcerless/alternate voices ones through OBS, thanks.

B

(update: Dan Patrick is still giving the "download the app and watch [his daily radio show] for free" shpiel despite that the promotion was ended)

[M-D November]

I read recently that if WWE (via it's new ownership, Endeavor) goes with ESPN or another media outlet and doesn't renew their deal with Peacock, that's pretty much the end of Peacock as a viable service.  Not sure how much of that was hyperbole...

[Mark Jeffries]

I don't know, but I would be so worried about ESPN getting the WWE, especially considering all of the chicanery the WWE's gone through lately.  It would seem very hard for "SportsCenter" to do any kind of investigative piece on them.  And if I were the producer of the 11 p.m. ET show and was told that I would have to lead with Wrestlemania, I would consider handing in my resignation and leaving Bristol pronto.

I know--I guess I believe that there are still people at ESPN who want to be journalists.

Mark Jeffries
spotl...@gmail.com

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[Tom Wolper]

The other side of that is professional wrestling fans tend to be fans of other sports and getting brand loyalty is important for keeping ESPN sustainable. Every wrestling fan knows what’s going on behind the scenes especially now in the age of the internet, so nobody is being deceived anymore. I follow two sports journalism sites occasionally, The Ringer and Sports Illustrated, and both have extensive coverage of the WWE and barely any of the NHL. That’s because readers click through to read the wrestling articles and not hockey articles. And if there’s a scandal it’s not like ESPN can quash it, not with all of the other outlets covering the WWE.

As for Peacock, in a business podcast I listened to last year, the analyst said that Peacock has only a fraction of the subscribers of the other services and most of them were getting it free for signing up with Comcast. I always expect to hear that they are being bought out. When I signed up for $1.99 a month last September I thought the reason for the deal was for Peacock to juice their subscriber numbers prior to a sale.

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[M-D November]

Mentioning ESPN was deliberate, but maybe not for the reasons you thought - Endeavor, through UFC (with with WWE is now technically merged) has a deal to run their PPV events via ESPN+. If WWE were to go down that same road, it would stand to reason that they'd take the remainder of the "WWE Network" catalog with them and set up shop on ESPN+, leaving the 'Cock without it's killer feature. 

Do I think this is going to happen?  Unclear - but WWE President Nick Khan has said he was exploring the option of returning to a PPV model (instead of giving the PPV shows away effectively for free via the 'Cock).  Whether he'd be able to get WWE fans to cough up $60 every month or so when they've become accustomed over the last decade to paying between $0-$10/mo is another story.

[Kevin M.]

How much of Peacock’s revenue comes from the subscriber fees compared to advertising, product placement and other sources? Are there stats anywhere on that?

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Kevin M. (RPCV)