Brian Roberts Latest Celebrity News & Gossip

After witnessing the carnage on Wall Street after Netflix reported stalling subscriber levels, raising stark questions about the business of streaming, Comcast kept talk of NBCUniversal’s Peacock somewhat limited during its first-quarter earnings call.

Paid subscriptions were up for Peacock in Q1, Comcast CEO Brian Roberts announced on Thursday on the company’s earnings call.Peacock added 4 Million paid subscribers in Q1, for a total of 13 million. Roberts also noted the service had reached 28 million active accounts in total.Last quarter, Peacock had 9 million paid subscribers and a total of 24.5 million active users.The increase comes on the heels of Peacock airing a variety of big sporting events including the Winter Olympics and the Super Bowl.

Jennifer Maas TV Business WriterPeacock ended the first quarter of the year with 28 million monthly active accounts (MAAs) and 13 million paid subscribers, Comcast revealed along with its Q1 earnings results Thursday.That total is up from the 24.5 million Comcast reported for the streamer’s end of 2021 figure. During Q1, Peacock streamed Super Bowl LVI and the Beijing Winter Olympics, along with debuting splashy titles like “Bel-Air,” its dramatic take on the ’90s classic “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air,” Jennifer Lopez’s theatrical-and-streaming release “Marry Me,” and “Tiger King” scripted series “Joe vs.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV EditorComcast said first-quarter profit rose due to NBCUniversal’s telecasts of both Super Bowl LVI and the Winter Olympics, as well as a surge in broadband customers at its cable operations.The Philadelphia cable and media giant saw overall revenue increase 14% to slightly more than $31 billion, compared with $27.2 billion in the year-earlier period, with a whopping 46.6% increase in revenue at its NBCU operations due in part to $1.5 billion in cash generated by the two big sports events. But even without those two landmark broadcasts, Comcast said, NBCU revenue would have increased.Overall, Comcast reported net income of $3.55 billion in the first quarter, or 78 cents a share, compared with $3.32 billion, or 71 cents a share, in the year-earlier period.

donated 100% of their respective salaries to COVID-19 relief charities from April to September 2020. So over the course of six months, $1.25 million of Shell’s 2020 salary was donated and $1.7 million of Roberts’.“We hope in some small way we can make this time easier on our employees, our local communities and our customers,” Roberts said in an email sent to staff that April when the announcement was made, which came shortly after Shell had tested positive for COVID-19.At that time, Comcast also committed $500 million to continue paying and providing benefits for its employees where operations had been impacted by COVID-19 shutdowns.A month after the Comcast and NBCU revealed their salary donation plans last year, Shell’s NBCUniversal joined the ranks of media companies that instituted pay cuts for its highest-salaried employees amid the pandemic, implementing a 20% pay cut for top management.

Total compensation last year for Comcast chief executive Brian Roberts was $33.9 million, up 3.8% from $32.7 million the year before.

Todd Spangler NY Digital EditorJeff Shell, CEO of Comcast-owned NBCUniversal, saw his total compensation climb to $21.6 million last year, up 30% over the year prior — the biggest pay bump among Comcast’s top execs in 2021.Comcast chairman and CEO Brian Roberts’ pay package rose 3.7% in 2021, to $34 million. The disclosures came in the cable and entertainment giant’s proxy statement filing with the SEC Friday.Shell, who oversees NBCU’s studios, networks, theme parks, and the Peacock streaming service, in 2021 earned $2.5 million in base salary, plus $5.5 million in stock, $3.4 million in stock options, a $9.98 million bonus and $165,000 in other compensation.“Mr.

Confronted with a question increasingly on investors’ minds — namely, is streaming a real business? — Comcast CEO Brian Roberts made the case that for his company it is.

Jennifer Maas TV Business WriterJennifer Lopez’s “Marry Me” is the most-streamed day-and-date movie on Peacock and Will Smith’s gritty “Fresh Prince of Bel-Air” reboot “Bel-Air,” which debuted after the Super Bowl last month, is the platform’s top series, Comcast CEO and chairman Brian Roberts said during a Morgan Stanley conference Monday.More to come…

Universal already had May 13 this year reserved for a Blumhouse movie, and it turns out that’s Firestarter. The movie will go day-and-date on Peacock too as the streamer needs to up its paid subscriber count. Firestarter is the only wide theatrical release on May 13, and follows the weekend after Disney/Marvel’s Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. 

Cynthia Littleton Business EditorJohn Stankey and Brian Roberts are wrestling with different sides of the same problems.For Big Media, the fourth-quarter earnings revelations so far have reinforced predictions that 2022 is the year the honeymoon ends for the promise of new streaming ventures. Now it’s entrenching time.

NBCUniversal theme parks posted their most profitable fourth quarter ever today, led by Universal Studio Orlando, where Epic Universe is rising.

Comcast CEO Brian Roberts reaffirmed the company’s approach to streaming on NBCUniversal’s Peacock, revealing new metrics and signaling a plan to boost spending on programming.

Jennifer Maas TV Business WriterNBCUniversal revealed that its streaming service Peacock has 9 million paid subscribers during parent company Comcast’s fourth-quarter earnings call Thursday.Ahead of the call, Comcast reported in its letter to shareholders that Peacock hit 24.5 million monthly active accounts (MAAs) in Q4.“Within these 24.5 MAAs are over 9 million paid subscribers approaching $10 in paid ARPU, which includes the advertising,” Brian Roberts, Comcast chairman-CEO, said during the investor call. “And that is without much focus on paid subscriber growth.

Elaine Paul, who had been chief financial officer and VP of Finance for Amazon Studios since 2019, has been hired by rideshare firm Lyft as its CFO.

Todd Spangler NY Digital EditorComcast struck a deal with Apple that will bring the Apple TV app, which includes access to the Apple TV Plus subscription service, to the cable giant’s Xfinity X1, Flex, XClass TV and Sky Glass platforms, CEO Brian Roberts announced on the company’s Q3 earnings call.In turn, under the pact, Comcast’s Stream app will be launching on Apple TV set-top boxes, Roberts said.

Comcast CEO Brian Roberts was in confident form during the Goldman Sachs Communacopia Conference today.

Comcast CEO Brian Roberts and NBC Universal chief Jeff Shell attempted once again to throw cold water on deal rumors and speculation that the entertainment business doesn’t have the scale to compete.

Cynthia Littleton Business EditorNBCUniversal’s Peacock streamer will begin its international rollout this year as a free addition on Sky’s satellite TV platform in Europe, giving it a base of 20 million households.Peacock has reached 54 million total signups since its debut in April 2020. It has generated more than 20 million monthly active users for the quarter.

Peacock, NBCUniversal’s year-old streaming service, has reached 54 million sign-ups and 20 million monthly active accounts as of this week, according to an update from Comcast.

President Joe Biden nominated longtime Comcast executive David L. Cohen as his next ambassador to Canada.

Comcast and ViacomCBS are exploring partnerships in international streaming — a more targeted agreement than a full-out merger, speculation of which has dogged both companies for months.

ViacomCBS chair Shari Redstone in a pink cardigan and black backpack, NBCUniversal CEO Jeff Shell in short sleeves, Discovery chief executive David Zaslav in dark shades and a signature vest and Comcast CEO Brian Roberts pulling up in a car – these are of some of the first shots of media moguls arriving in Sun Valley, Idaho for the Allen & Company conference.

One by one titans of media are delicately weighing on deals last month that will reshape the landscape with Comcast CEO Brian Roberts saying AT&T’s move to unload WarnerMedia “speaks for itself.”

NBCUniversal’s streaming service Peacock had 42 million signups in the first quarter — up from the 33 million it reported three months ago — benefiting from the recent addition of exclusive domestic streaming rights to WWE Network and The Office.

NBCUniversal CEO Jeff Shell's 2020 compensation reached $16.5 million. NBCU owner and cable giant Comcast disclosed his and other top executives' pay for the most recent year in a regulatory filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Friday.

Brent Lang Executive Editor of Film and MediaNBCUniversal CEO Jeff Shell took in $16.5 million in total compensation, while his boss, Comcast Chairman and CEO Brian Roberts raked in a staggering $32.7 million.The generous pay packages come despite the fact that much of NBCUniversal’s business of making and distributing movies and turning those properties into theme park rides was disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic. It also resulted in thousands of layoffs.

Comcast CEO Brian Roberts’ total pay package came in at $32.7 million last year, down from $36.4 in 2019.

After NBCUniversal streaming service Peacock surpassed 33 million signups, Comcast CEO and chairman Brian Roberts touted post-launch growth prospects during an appearance at an investors conference on Wednesday. "Peacock had a fantastic launch.