Comcast

The company is dropping its legal battle in favor of an 11-year settlement for domestic and global rights to “a significant amount of NBA content,” reports The Wall Street Journal.

WBD’s TNT will still lose NBA games to Disney, Amazon, and NBCUniversal next year, but got one consolation:

In addition, these people said, ESPN will sublicense Big 12 conference college football and basketball games to Warner Bros. Discovery that it can air on TNT, as well as on its Max streaming service.

During an earnings call on Thursday, Comcast president Mike Cavanagh said the company is weighing the possibility of spinning off its cable business:

We are now exploring whether creating a new well-capitalized company owned by our shareholders and comprised of our strong portfolio of cable networks would position them to take advantage of opportunities in the changing media landscape and create value for our shareholders

Cavanagh also said the company “would consider partnerships in streaming” to help grow Peacock.

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

Comcast’s earnings report today revealed that Peacock lost 500,000 subscribers in the months leading up to the Olympics — and Peacock’s planned price hike. Despite this, Peacock is pushing toward profitability with $1 billion in revenue and losses narrowing to $348 million.

NBCUniversal owner Comcast announced tweaks it’s adding for the Paris Olympics on X1, like a customizable home screen and an “enhanced” 4K feed for the USA Network’s 24/7 broadcast sent over cable to X1 boxes.

...enhanced 4K brings together 4K video delivered over Comcast’s network at its highest bitrate, Dolby Vision® for life-like picture quality, Dolby Atmos immersive audio, and ultra-low latency

A support page explains, “Enhanced 4K will be available on XG1v4 (low latency feed) and Hi-Fi on Xi6 (30 Mbps and low latency).”

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

According to the WSJ, Amazon, YouTube, and Peacock are all in the mix alongside incumbents Warner and Disney, with the possibility of snagging global streaming rights for some games.

When these deals kick in after 2024-2025, they’ll exist alongside the three-headed effort from Disney, Fox, and WBD, standalone ESPN, Netflix and the WWE, the NBA’s FAST channel and who knows what else.

The Comcast-owned streaming service says it added 3 million paid subscribers over the past few months, bringing it to 34 million total members. In addition to airing the “most-streamed event ever in the US” in January, Peacock also added Oppenheimer and other Christopher Nolan flicks to its lineup.

Amazon isn’t part of the incoming ESPN / Fox Sports / Warner Bros. streaming juggernaut, but it has the NFL.

The Wall Street Journal and Deadline report Prime Video will be home to the next streaming exclusive postseason football game, beating out NBCU’s attempt at a Peacock repeat thanks to a right of first refusal clause in its Thursday Night Football deal.

Peacock’s stream peaked at more than 24 million viewers for a game last month between Kansas City and Miami.

The streaming service gained 3 million subscribers over the past few months, bringing its total number to 31 million, according to Comcast’s latest earnings report.

Peacock subscribers have grown steadily over the past year as the service continues to experiment with live sports. Its most recent AFC Wild Card game became the “most-streamed event ever in the US.”

Initial numbers from Nielsen and NBCUniversal are out, showing the audience Peacock pulled for the first streaming-exclusive NFL playoff game that reportedly cost around $110 million. They note a total of 27.6 million viewers, with a peak average of 24.6 million during the second quarter -- much higher than last month's "holiday exclusive" game.

The Peacock Exclusive AFC Wild Card ranks as the most-streamed event ever in the U.S. with an average audience (AMA) of approximately 23.0 million viewers across Peacock, NBC stations in Miami and Kansas City, and on mobile with NFL+, according to Nielsen custom fast national data.

The streams we were watching mostly held up, if you saw the game, how was the experience for you?

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

According to Deadline, the company notched the deal without losing any of its channels on Comcast’s Xfinity service. The article says the agreement came in just under the wire to prevent a Paramount cable blackout.

Paramount was in a strong position. Deadline noted that its CBS network has broadcast rights for the Super Bowl in February, while Variety points out Comcast could be one of the rumored companies eyeing Paramount for acquisition.

Over the holiday weekend, Peacock aired its first exclusive NFL game between the Buffalo Bills and Los Angeles Chargers, where it averaged about 9.9 million viewers.

That’s still a far cry from Sunday Night Football viewership, though. In October, a Sunday Night Football game between the Cowboys and 49ers averaged 26.1 million viewers when aired on both Peacock and NBC.

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

No one from the company would comment on the record, but a statement to Bloomberg blames rising prices for Xfinity — reportedly about 3 percent on average and $3 per month for internet-only service — on how “Rising programming costs continue to drive the highest increase in customers’ bills.”

You’d think that maybe a massive check on the way from Disney or owning its own studio (as noted below) would help with that instead, but just like the streamers as well as its fellow service providers AT&T and Verizon earlier this year, prices keep going up.

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

Comcast CEO Mike Cavanagh revealed the number during the UBS Global Media and Communications on Monday, where he also said the company rakes in about $10 per user every month. Peacock axed its free plan for new subscribers earlier this year and recently raised prices across its two remaining tiers.

That’s an 80 percent increase over the same time last year, bringing Peacock’s total subscriber base to 28 million in the US. Comcast started making Xfinity subscribers pay for Peacock in June, which likely has something to do with the increase in paid members.

Peacock revenue jumped $830 million as well, reflecting the service’s subscriber growth and its recent price hike that brought the ad-supported plan to $5.99 and the ad-free plan to $11.99.

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

Comcast Smart Solutions, the company’s commercial connected infrastructure division, will offer connected EV chargers made by NovaCharge, at commercial and residential complexes where it has its large-scale Comcast Business and Xfinity Communities set up.

So if a landlord / building owner with Comcast service wants EV chargers on the property, they could have one less vendor to deal with. And if Comcast does well with support, perhaps it won’t need to offer charger decommissioning options.

Two out of the big three Hollywood labor unions are on strike, citing streaming and AI as major issues, and actors are starting to picket offices for companies like Warner Bros., Netflix, and Amazon. This screengrab from CNBC captures the initial reaction of Wall Street.