How does one evaluate streaming companies? Revenue and profit of course matter, but the big factor, more than anything else, is paid subscribers. With that in mind, let’s look at the relative subscriber strength of four major companies:
- Netflix: 220 million
- Disney+: 152 million
- Paramount+: 43 million
- Peacock: 15 million
If the standard among the three owners of traditional networks is Disney’s 152 million subscribers, 43 million is bad. Fifteen million is a disaster.
It was in this atmosphere that NBCUniversal CEO Jeff Shell sat down last week with a reporter from his own CNBC network to talk about the future of his company, especially his hoped-for growth of Peacock. This was not a casual interview, but a planned message to Wall Street using a tame employee to ask questions about calculated areas of discussion.