Comcast Shifts Focus to Sports After Bidding Loss
After its recent defeat in the Warner Bros. bidding war, Comcast is redirecting its attention to its ambitious sports strategy. This year, NBCUniversal is set to air a range of major events, including the Winter Olympics, Super Bowl, NBA games, Major League Baseball, and the World Cup.
The Philadelphia-based company shared its fourth-quarter earnings on Thursday, highlighting the dual impact of its sports-centric strategy, showing both advantageous outcomes and significant costs. NBCUniversal’s recent NBA agreement has effectively increased subscribers for its Peacock streaming service, which now boasts 44 million users and a 23% rise in streaming revenue to $1.6 billion. However, losses for Peacock surged to $552 million during the fourth quarter due to expenses tied to the NBA TV rights agreement and an exclusive NFL game broadcast.
During a recent earnings call, Comcast executives indicated that Peacock managed to lower its annual losses by $700 million compared to 2024, where it faced losses of $1.1 billion. Nevertheless, reaching profitability is still a distant goal for the service.
Comcast Chairman Brian Roberts remarked on the ongoing transformation within the entertainment industry, stating that NBCUniversal is preparing for significant changes. The company is moving away from its 1990s golden age, characterized by iconic shows like “Must See TV” and successful cable channels like USA and CNBC, with the cable channels recently spun off into a new entity named Versant.
Comcast had hoped to merge NBCUniversal with Warner Bros. during last fall’s competitive auction to create a major player in Hollywood. However, Netflix thwarted these plans with an $82.7 billion cash offer, while Paramount Skydance made an all-cash bid as well. Paramount is now seeking to assert its claim through a hostile takeover of Warner Bros., fighting against the board’s resistance.
Despite these setbacks, Roberts believes that merging NBCUniversal with Warner Bros. would have been beneficial. However, as competitors leaned towards cash offers, Comcast “was just not interested in these values, stretching our balance sheet to do something like that.”
As for the broader strategy, Comcast is intensifying its commitment to live sports. February will be particularly eventful with the Winter Olympics in Italy, the Super Bowl in San Francisco, and the NBA All-Star game in Inglewood. In March, NBC and Peacock will air MLB games, starting with the Dodgers and Diamondbacks. NBCUniversal’s Spanish-language channel, Telemundo, will also feature the World Cup this summer. Roberts conveyed confidence in being positioned within the industry, anticipating that the Olympic Games will bridge divides during this polarized time.
