The number of Sky customers across Europe fell by nearly 200,000 in 2021 to just over 23 million, despite an increase of over 60,000 in the last quarter. No numbers were announced for Sky Glass. Parent company Comcast, which also owns NBCUniversal, reported that there were 24.5 million monthly active accounts for the Peacock online video service in the United States, with more than 9 million paid subscriptions, although the service lost $1.7 billion over the year. That is against total revenues for Comcast of $116 billion, with a net income of $15 billion.
Sky ended 2021 with 23.03 million customer relationships across Europe. That was up by 61,000 in the fourth quarter, gaining customers in the United Kingdom and Germany, having lost 480,000 across Europe over the middle of the year, ending it down by 198,000. Direct consumer revenue per relationship was $56.29 a month averaged over the year. Comcast does not break down those relationships by country or service. Overall, Sky produced revenue of $20.29 billion, with earnings of $2.36 billion, both up on the previous year.
No numbers were reported for Sky Glass, which launched in the fourth quarter. Dana Strong, the group chief executive of Sky, told analysts: “it opens up new customer segments as we move into an IP-based service.” She said: “We’re off to a strong start,” and described Sky Glass as “a really important growth opportunity” but did not give any figures.
Comcast ended the year with 31.73 million residential customer relationships in the United States, up by over a million in the year. Average revenue was just under $160 a month per relationship, although that includes business customers.
Comcast now has 17.50 million residential video customers, down by almost 1.5 million in a year, from 22.76 million at the start of 2010 and a high of over 25 million in 2007. In contrast, Comcast has 29.58 million residential broadband customers, up by 1.26 million in a year.
The NBCUniversal online video service Peacock reached 24.5 million monthly active accounts in the United States by the end of 2021. There are an additional 7 million users of Peacock on Comcast Xfinity and other platforms, who currently receive the service at no extra cost. Peacock has also launched in Sky territories, initially as part of its subscription package, beginning in the United Kingdom and Ireland, and now rolling out to Germany and Austria, and to Italy later in the year.
Media results for NBCUniversal include $778 million of revenue and a loss of $1.7 billion related to Peacock, compared to $118 million revenue and a loss of $663 million in 2020. The loss in 2022 is expected to be in the region of $2.5 billion. Spend on programming was $1.5 billion in 2021 and there are plans to double that in 2022, aiming to extend that further to $5 billion in the following years.
For the full year of 2021, Comcast reported total revenue of over $116 billion, up 12.4% on the previous year, with a net income of $15 billion, up by 24.8%.