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Peacock hits nearly 22 million users, but it’s not clear how many are paying

Peacock hits nearly 22 million users, but it’s not clear how many are paying

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Comcast’s Q3 earnings report shows big internet gains

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Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

NBCUniversal’s Peacock streaming service has hit almost 22 million users just over three months after its launch, Comcast announced today as part of its Q3 2020 earnings release. The company didn’t say how many of those signups were for its free, ad-supported plan versus its more premium paid tiers, however.

Comcast also boasted that Peacock is “exceeding our expectations on all engagement metrics,” although it neglected to give more details on that front. Unsurprisingly, the company also saw big success in its broadband internet business over the last quarter, adding 633,000 new internet customers — a record for the company.

Disclosure: Comcast, which owns NBCUniversal, is also an investor in Vox Media, The Verge’s parent company.

It’s easy to look at the state of the world and see why Comcast is succeeding in these areas. The shift to working from home and limitations on social activities naturally lends itself to a boom in faster home internet and bingeable streaming content.

Conversely, the conglomerate took big hits on its film and theme park businesses, which were down 25 percent and 80.9 percent, respectively. That’s also largely due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which has shuttered movie theaters, delayed film productions and releases, and almost entirely closed down theme parks (including the Universal Studios resorts).

NBCUniversal is looking to help offset some of that theatrical loss in the future, thanks to a new deal with AMC that could see its films hit streaming services just 17 days after they’ve been released in theaters, although it has yet to actually take advantage of that new deal, due to the lack of any major theatrical releases right now.