Jeff Shell, CEO at NBC Universal, talks about Peacock in the 10 O’Clock Hour

During a lengthy appearance on CNBC’s “Squawk on the Street,” NBC Universal CEO Jeff Shell, discussed Peacock subscribers, the potential axing of the 10 o’clock hour of NBC and rumors of NBCUniversal potentially buying Warner Bros. (You can watch the clip above.)

“There’s no question the television landscape is changing,” Shell said, after being informed of some criticism of Comcast’s approach to both linear and direct-to-consumer programming. “There’s definitely a shift from linear to non-linear. It all goes back to content.” (It should be noted, of course, that CNBC is part of Comcast’s vast media portfolio.)

When the subject turned to Peacock’s performance, which had stalled at about 13 million paid subscribers in Q2 (the same number the streamer had in Q1), Shell said: “We are doing really, really well. As of this quarter we have 30 million active accounts and we’re up over 15 million now paid. Over 2 million more than the end of last quarter. We’ve grown paid subs 70%.” He said the growth is driven by content, which Shell breaks down into four categories – sports (“we have the best sports offerings of any streaming service”), studio (“our film business is cranking”), linear business (“all of our content on NBC, Bravo and other channels, for the first time in coming months, is coming to Peacock”Originals (“we have a prudent strategy”). Shell said that Peacock also had an ARPU of $10 (average revenue for each user). “which I think is very healthy.”He said that Peacock revenue had surpassed $2B in the two-year period since the service was launched.

Shell reacted to the suggestion that NBCUniversal might buy Warner Bros. to be competitive in the market. “The scale question I find completely baffling,”Shell claimed. “There has not been one single time when there was an investment that we wanted to make that we couldn’t make because we didn’t have enough capital. We have all the scale to do what we need to do. We’re making twice as many movies as our competitor. And we’re buying all that content and moving it to Peacock.”Shell did point out, however, that “we’re a company that has always made acquisitions,”The acquisition of DreamWorks Animation by Shell is a clear indication. Shell has not completely backed down. “For the people that say we need to do something, we don’t need to do anything,”Shell claimed.

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There is also the matter of linear programming. “Linear is still important,”Shell claimed. “It’s not over.”An idea was floated earlier this year that NBC would return the 10 p.m. hour of programming to local affiliates. This would effectively end their day an hour earlier. “We’re evaluating a lot of things,”Shell claimed. “When you look at the investment in Peacock, if we’re being prudent operators, if you’re allocating a bunch of resources to one part of the business, you have to look at the allocation of resources to another. We’re looking to reallocate resources.” When pressed on when they would make a decision about the 10 o’clock hour, Shell said: “Whenever the numbers work. Right now we have a lot of great shows at 10 o’clock, we make a lot of money at 10 o’clock, we still have a lot of viewers at 10 o’clock. As linear declines, we’re going to make some trade-offs.”

Shell stated that the number of theme parks is growing and is on the rise. “a great business.”

“We’re making more movies, because we believe in the business and we’re attracting the best filmmakers,”Shell stated. When it comes to why more movies aren’t day and date, Shell said that the theatrical experience is what sets movies apart from “really long TV episodes,”And that the model can work in some cases. “Occasionally there’s a movie like ‘Halloween’ that you can be strategic about and put it on Peacock at the same time.”

Shell stated that Comcast may sell its 33% interest in Hulu, which it also owns to Disney “for a lot of money,” when the time comes, although if the entire streamer were to go up for auction, they’d love to participate.

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