July 23 (Reuters) - Comcast's Peacock streaming service reported its first quarterly profit ever on Thursday, as the soccer World Cup and the hit reality show "Love Island USA" attracted more subscribers.
Shares of the company were up 3% in premarket trading.
The $189 million pre-tax profit marks a major win for the streaming service, which was a late entrant in 2020 and had to spend billions of dollars on content to establish a foothold in a market dominated by Netflix, Disney+ and Amazon Prime Video.
The service added 2 million paid subscribers in the April-June quarter, nearly four times the figure expected by analysts who were polled by Visible Alpha. The additions took its total to 48 million. Its sales rose 54% to $1.90 billion, also ahead of estimates.
While its subscriber count is much lower than that of Netflix and Disney, the growth suggests Peacock's strategy of focusing on live sports is paying off. The service streamed Telemundo's Spanish-language coverage of FIFA World Cup matches, whose viewership benefited prime-time kickoffs in the U.S.
A strong summer movie lineup, including unexpected box-office hit "Obsession" and animated film "The Super Mario Galaxy Movie," helped the company's studio revenue grow 25% to $3 billion.
The result is also a boost for Comcast's planned spinoff of NBCUniversal and Sky, which will leave the company with a connectivity business facing tough competition from fixed-wireless offerings and rivals aggressively expanding their fiber networks.
Its broadband customers decreased by 167,000 in the second quarter, more than the 165,300 losses estimated by FactSet.
Adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization for the theme parks unit fell 5.1%, with the unit's revenue of $2.41 billion slightly below estimates.
Comcast continues to see pressure at its theme parks in Asia as geopolitical tensions have curbed Chinese travel to Japan, while a weak Chinese economy has weighed on attendance at its Beijing theme park.
Total revenue of $29.94 billion and adjusted profit of $1.04 per share beat estimates, according to data compiled by LSEG.
(Reporting by Harshita Mary Varghese in Bengaluru; Editing by Leroy Leo)
