If Peak TV has flown the coop, nobody told Peacock.
Every major streaming service released less content during April-June 2024 than they did during the same period in 2023 except for Peacock, according to a HarrisX study performed for the media analysts at MoffettNathanson. The NBCUniversal streaming service released eight new, original seasons of TV in Q2 of 2024 — the same as it did in the second quarter last year.
Over the past three months, Netflix released 92 original seasons, down from 97 in the same period last year. Amazon released 34 seasons, down from 37; Hulu put out 14 seasons, down from 16; Max and Paramount+ both released 19 original seasons, down from 23 and 22, respectively.
The big decline came from Disney+, which put out 16 original seasons in Q2 2024, down from 30. You’re sleeping, beauties.
Anyway, the Peacock consistency seems to be working. The streamer enjoyed the quarter’s best penetration of U.S. households, growing 220 basis points to 21 percent. Peacock in the quarter also caught up with Amazon Prime Video in terms of daily usage rates. That said, they’re the two at the bottom of the batch of major streamers as studied by HarrisX and MoffettNathanson, a group that also includes Netflix, Disney+, Paramount+, Hulu, Max, and Discovery+. Peacock: no longer (alone) in last place!
We kid.
Peacock is the lone member of the SVOD streamers who did not experience a year-to-year decline in second-quarter minutes streamed. Hulu was close to joining it with a decline of just 2 percent, but everyone else was down by double digits.
Some Q2 2024 highlights for Peacock included the release of kids’ movie “Migration” on April 19 and May’s premiere of “The Tattooist of Auschwitz.” All six seasons (but not yet the “and a movie”) of “Community” came to Peacock on April 1; its original series “We Are Lady Parts” debuted its second season on May 30. The Kentucky Derby ran in between those.
Cool lineup. The first quarter, led by the first-ever streaming-exclusive NFL playoff game, was arguably even cooler. The Kansas City Chiefs Wildcard Weekend win (on their way to another Super Bowl win) over the Miami Dolphins brought 3 million new subscribers to Peacock. Better yet, most of them stuck around. Bird of a feather, we suppose.
The third quarter is destined to be Peacock’s best yet — and no, not (just) because of “Smash.” Peacock is finally getting its first real, as-scheduled, non-pandemic, normal-as-can-be Summer Olympics. The 2024 games, which take place from July 26 to August 11 in Paris, will dominate summer TV — and there’s only one place to stream them. Peacock was originally set to launch with the 2020 Summer Olympics, but 2020 had… other plans in mind.
