Blog: Comcast

Read our latest daily deep dives, hot takes, and exciting updates about the entertainment world. Check out the latest insight from your favourite analyst, or search by coverage areas - music, entertainment and fandom, creator economy and social.

Smart TV operators are gamifying engagement – here is how they can dial it up a notch

Cover image for Smart TV operators are gamifying engagement – here is how they can dial it up a notch

Ben Woods

4 Jan 2024

Tracking Father Christmas’ journey on a smartphone app is a festive tradition of the modern era. Much like leaving a carrot out for Rudolf, many families are now logging on come Christmas Eve to keep tabs on his progress via different tracking apps.

min read

Why Netflix should become a channel distributor for its streaming rivals

Cover image for Why Netflix should become a channel distributor for its streaming rivals

Ben Woods

21 Sep 2023

Long-running legal drama Suits has become a bittersweet tale for NBCUniversal. The show that gave Meghan Markle her pre-royalty taste of stardom was already considered a commercial success after its final episode aired on September 25, 2019.

min read

Are streaming TV services poised to become pay TV channels in all but name?

Cover image for Are streaming TV services poised to become pay TV channels in all but name?

Ben Woods

16 May 2023

Amazon Prime Video

The streaming TV landscape is changing rapidly. Leading entertainment industry executives are questioning every aspect of the subscription video on-demand (SVOD) model in pursuit of sustainable profits.

min read

Peacock arrives to disrupt the European streaming market

Cover image for Peacock arrives to disrupt the European streaming market

Tim Mulligan

16 Nov 2021

Today, November 16th, Peacock finally arrives in Europe with its soft launch in the UK and Ireland via Comcast’s European subsidiary, Sky. At no additional cost, Peacock will be made available to Sky TV and NOW Entertainment members in the UK and Ireland.

min read

Line change for the NHL: COVID-enforced innovation arrives as ‘D-Day’ commences

Cover image for Line change for the NHL: COVID-enforced innovation arrives as ‘D-Day’ commences

Alistair Taylor

7 Jan 2021

Sporting rights

With 2021 commencing, the start of ‘ D-day’ or ‘ Year 0’ for sporting rights is upon us, as the major domestic sports rights start coming up for renewal. Nowhere is ‘D-day’ for sporting rights more important than for the NHL, with 2021 shaping up to be the most significant year in the league’s 103-year history.

min read

Discovery enters streaming race with discovery+ and Olympics offering

Cover image for Discovery enters streaming race with discovery+ and Olympics offering

Alistair Taylor

9 Dec 2020

Last week , Discovery announced it will launch discovery+, ‘the definitive non-fiction’ subscription-video-on-demand (SVOD), on January 4th, 2021. Consumers in the US can expect the largest-ever content library for a new streaming service from launch, with more than 55,000 episodes from Discovery’s iconic brands such as the BBC’s Natural History collection, A&E Networks, Group Nine and more.

min read

NBCUniversal hopes to draw level with Premier League move

Cover image for NBCUniversal hopes to draw level with Premier League move

Alistair Taylor

15 Jul 2020

With Comcast’s NBCUniversal-owned Peacock launching today (July 15th), sports fans will be excited ahead of NBCU’s repositioning of its English Premier League (EPL) rights, giving paying subscribers access to 175 fixtures for the 2020/2021 season on its over-the-top (OTT) streaming service.

min read

Does Virgin Media Plus O2 Equal A New UK Communications Major?

Cover image for Does Virgin Media Plus O2 Equal A New UK Communications Major?

Tim Mulligan

6 May 2020

Liberty Global which is the parent company of Virgin Media, is in talks with Telefonica subsidiary O2 about combining the two businesses together to create a new UK challenger to BT. Virgin Media is the second largest pay-TV operator in the UK with four million video subscribers and 5.

min read

Olympics Postponement: The Sports Media Landscape of COVID-19

Cover image for Olympics Postponement: The Sports Media Landscape of COVID-19

Alistair Taylor

26 Mar 2020

Advertising Revenue

The global COVID-19 pandemic is increasing pressure on the viability of emerging and legacy media business models, and is already having an unprecedented impact on the sports industry. An unprecedented swathe of cancelled sports events has left rights holders unable to monetise their existing broadcasting of rights within tightly-scheduled windows.

min read

Why Disney+’s Sky Distribution Deal Is Likely to Become Mainstream Among D2C Competitors

Cover image for Why Disney+’s Sky Distribution Deal Is Likely to Become Mainstream Among D2C Competitors

Tim Mulligan

3 Mar 2020

Today the UK’s dominant pay-TV operator, Sky, announced a partnership with media major Disney+ to grow its UK subscriber base prior to its official UK launch on March 24 th . Sky currently operates Now TV, its own subscription video on demand (SVOD) service, and is owned by Comcast – which is launching its own direct-to-consumer (D2C) service Peacock next month.

min read

Peacock Goes for Gold

Cover image for Peacock Goes for Gold

Alistair Taylor

23 Jan 2020

On the 16 th of January , Comcast (owner of NBCUniversal) unveiled further details of its direct to consumer (D2C) proposition, Peacock. Peacock is set to debut on the 15 th of April exclusively for Comcast’s Xfinity X1 and Flex customers, before being rolled out nationally across the US on July 15 th .

min read

Peacock Gets Ready to Ruffle Some D2C Feathers

Cover image for Peacock Gets Ready to Ruffle Some D2C Feathers

Tim Mulligan

22 Jan 2020

On January 16 th , US communications behemoth Comcast (owner of NBCUniversal) held an investors day to provide much-needed clarity around its forthcoming direct-to-consumer (D2C) service Peacock. Of the big four D2C services due to launch in a 12-month period between H2 2019 and H2 2020, Peacock is the late entrant – but potentially the one with the biggest disruptive impact.

min read

Is Comcast’s D2C Move Primarily Digital Peacocking?

Cover image for Is Comcast’s D2C Move Primarily Digital Peacocking?

Tim Mulligan

9 Dec 2019

Digital Peacocking

On January 16 th 2020, Comcast will be holding an investor day meeting to provide further clarity around Peacock – its forthcoming ad-supported direct to consumer (D2C) video streaming service. The focus of the meeting will be to address “the overarching strategy for the platform”.

min read

Disney+ Recovers From Initial Blunder to Surpass 10 Million Sign Ups on Debut!

Cover image for Disney+ Recovers From Initial Blunder to Surpass 10 Million Sign Ups on Debut!

Alistair Taylor

14 Nov 2019

21st Century Fox

all-encompassing offering

AppleTV+. Market saturation

Disney claims unexpected traffic on its newly-launched service was at fault for the buffering and technical issues of Disney+’s launch Tuesday . The issues highlight just how difficult it is transitioning from a media company to a tech player, with technical glitches an enormous issue for digital-native subscribers.

min read

Disney’s Latest Earnings Are Buoyed by Growth in Their Theme Park and Direct-to-Consumer Revenues

Alistair Taylor

10 May 2019

21st Century Fox

additive service

On Wednesday night the Walt Disney Company reported quarterly earnings for its second fiscal quarter ending March 31st 2019, beating analyst estimates with a 3% increase in year-on-year (YoY) quarterly revenue.

min read

The Video Subscription Challenge In 2019

Tim Mulligan

1 Feb 2019

Amid all the excitement in the media world around the 2019 launches of direct-to-consumer services from such illustrious content producers as Disney and Warner Media, one clear question remains unanswered - will the public pay for these additional subscription video on demand (SVOD) services? The general assumption is that the seemingly relentless rise of Netflix and Amazon Prime Video make continued subscription growth across the SVOD sector an inevitability.

min read

Why 2021 Could Kill TV, Save Apple and Mark the End of Ads in Broadcast Sports

Georgia Meyer

9 Jan 2019

21st Century Fox

2021–22 are the years when the world’s most expensive premium domestic sports rights come up for renewal. In the US the NFL, MLB and NHL broadcast rights will all be up for tender, whilst in the UK the Premier League (EPL) rights will be up for renewal.

min read

Comcast Has won The First Round Of The New World Media War

Tim Mulligan

24 Sep 2018

On Saturday Comcast won the auction battle between itself and rival 21 st Century Fox For the 61% of the company which Fox does not own. In a dramatic end to the three stage bidding process, Comcast offered £4 billion ($6 billion) more than Fox’s bid which was backed by Disney, which will inherit the 39% of Sky still owned by Fox when it completes its $71.

min read

Ego and Digital Disruption Drive S4 Capital and 21st Century Fox To Shore Up for the Future

Tim Mulligan

11 Jul 2018

21st Century Fox

Today’s increased bid by 21 st Century Fox for the 60.5% of Sky which it does not currently own comes the day after media company S4 Capital successfully won the bidding war for Dutch creative agency MediaMonks.

min read

Corporate Mergers and the Battle for Fandom

Zach Fuller

22 Jun 2018

corporate mergers

Back in 1999, the Cluetrain Manifesto appeared across the nascent web as a predictive gospel of what this new technology meant for commerce. Still revered among software entrepreneurs, the ebook outlined the paradigm shift of business in the digital era from a transactional model of one-off payments, to a continuous relationship, pre-empting the subscriptions and software-as-a-service (Saas) craze by over two decades.

min read

1
2
›

Showing 1 to 20 of 29 results.