Peacock Reaches Over 15 Million Sign-Ups, Comcast CEO Says

Kanye West isn’t just beefing with Kim Kardashian, or Pete Davidson, or even Corey Gamble.

An investigation has been launched by the Football Association (FA) after Manchester United prospect Anthony Elanga was struck by an object thrown from the Elland Road stands.

Rangers fans have criticised Amad's performance during their draw against Rangers on Sunday.

Lucy Mecklenburgh and Ryan Thomas have revealed the gender of their baby after announcing they were expecting.

Rachel Brosnahan is revealing how all of that fast talking dialogue in “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” isn’t as easy as she makes it seem. 

The Prime Minister is expected to revoke all coronavirus regulations that restrict public freedoms in England when he lays out his vision for the future on Monday.

Matthew Perry is expected to release an autobiography later this year.

Pale Waves have cancelled a further tour date due to “ongoing illness”.Writing on Twitter, the band said: “We’re devastated to announce that due to ongoing illness, we will unfortunately have to rearrange tomorrow night’s show in Glasgow.”They added: “We are working hard on rescheduling dates and will hopefully be able to announce new dates tomorrow.”pic.twitter.com/fjFm2cMqhS— PALE WAVES (@palewaves) February 20, 2022Yesterday (February 19), Pale Waves were forced to cancel a pair of shows in Ireland because frontwoman Heather Baron-Gracie lost her voice.The Manchester pop-rock band were due to perform in Belfast and Dublin on February 19 and 20 as part of their UK and Ireland tour.Posting on Twitter, the band wrote: “Belfast and Dublin, we’re so sorry to have to do this but after not touring for [two] years, Heather’s voice has completely gone after the first run of shows.“We’re left with no option but to cancel tonight and tomorrow’s show’s under doctors orders.

Jamal Edwards has passed away, aged 31.The news was confirmed by representatives of Edwards’ media company to the BBC earlier this evening (February 20) following reports on social media that the entrepreneur, author, director, DJ and founder of the influential online urban music platform, SB.TV., died unexpectedly today.Edwards attended the BRIT Awards earlier this month and reports say he performed as a DJ at a gig in north London on Saturday night (February 19).No details have yet been released about the cause of death. NME has reached out to representatives of Edwards for comment.Tributes have poured in for Edwards on social media, including ones from Dave, George The Poet and AJ Tracey.Tracey wrote: “RIP Jamal Edwards, West London legend status”, while Dave added: “Thank you for everything”.While the  organisers of Mobo Awards said they were “deeply saddened” by news of Edwards’ death.They added: “As the founder of @SBTVonline, his groundbreaking work & legacy in British music and culture will live on.

Volatile Michigan men’s basketball coach Juwan Howard potentially faces a suspension or firing for punching a Wisconsin assistant coach today during the postgame handshake line.

Hundreds of homes were at risk of flooding and 'danger to life' warnings were issued for parts of south Manchester as Storm Franklin battered the region throughout Sunday.

Sevilla boss Julen Lopetegui has delivered his initial verdict after Manchester United loanee Anthony Martial was forced off inside half an hour on Sunday.

Dade Hayes Finance EditorAfter a day of public distribution drama last Friday, NBCUniversal’s Peacock has officially launched on Roku in the U.S..The streaming service now has access to Roku’s 43 million active accounts. Comcast CEO Brian Roberts has estimated Peacock has been downloaded 15 million times but it should now get quite a few more viewers to give it a spin.

threatened to pull its NBC Everywhere channels — which includes content from NBC, Bravo, E! and USA, among other channels — from Roku, along with 46 NBC apps.Also Read: Roku Adds 43 Million New Accounts in Second QuarterAfter initially debuting for Cox and Comcast customers on April 15, Peacock made its full launch mid-July, but was missing from the two biggest streaming platforms, Roku and Amazon Fire TV. At the heart of the disagreement over Peacock was the cut Roku takes — 20% for signup fees and 30% of ad inventory.Earlier this month, Comcast CEO Brian Roberts said Peacock had topped 15 million signups.

Discovery is bullish on advertising after the market bottomed during the coronavirus pandemic lockdowns, withthird-quarter U.S. ad revenue looking to be down 10 percent "or possibly less" after a 14 percent drop in the second quarter, president and CEO David Zaslav said on Thursday.

Dade Hayes Finance EditorImax CEO Rich Gelfond rejects the popular notion that premium video on demand is the future for blockbuster movie releases.“PVOD is a failed experiment,” Gelfond said during an online appearance Wednesday at the Goldman Sachs Communacopia conference. “The numbers haven’t worked in a pandemic, so how would they work in a non-pandemic?”Results from PVOD releases — viewership, revenue, etc.

Cable operator Charter Communications, in which John Malone's Liberty Broadband owns a big stake, sees its pay TV future in the role of a "video store," chairman and CEO Tom Rutledge said during a virtual investor conference Wednesday. Speaking during a session at theGoldman Sachs Communacopia Conference, which was webcast, he noted that Charter posted a video subscriber gain in the second quarter, a rarity for the sector.

Music streaming giant Spotifyfeels "really good" about how the business has performed since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, with consumption now above pre-pandemic levels, CFO Paul Vogel said during a virtual investor conference session on Wednesday. Vogel highlighted "better than expected" user and subscriber growth in the first half.

ViacomCBS CEO Bob Bakish says better-than-expected customer growth for CBS All Access and his studio's other streaming platforms has been helped by consumers cocooning in front of video screens during the novel coronavirus pandemic. "COVID has been a tailwind for streaming," Bakish told the Goldman Sachs Communacopia Conference during a virtual appearance on Tuesday.

Cable giant Altice USA remains "committed" to the pursuit of Cogeco's Atlantic Broadband, CEO Dexter Goei told the virtual Goldman Sachs Communacopia Conference on Tuesday. "We remain committed to the process," and look forward to hearing back from the board, he said during a session at the investor conference, adding that Altice USA had received "supportive" feedback from shareholders of the takeover target.

AT&T CEO John Stankey says the telecom and media conglomerate is using HBO Max and its fast-growing streaming strategy to weather the novel coronavirus pandemic. "Had we not done that and been in this situation, I feel we'd be real flat-footed," Stankey told the Goldman Sachs Communacopia Conference during a virtual appearance on Tuesday as he discussed the recent HBO Max launch.

Audio entertainment giant SiriusXM is disciplined in its content spending, but willing to pay for attractive programming, CEO Jim Meyer said during a virtual investor conference on Tuesday. Appearing at the virtual Goldman Sachs Communacopia Conference, he was asked about the firm's roughly $460 million content spend in 2019, or 6 percent of revenue, in addition to $1.7 billion in music royalties.

Verizon's decision to expand its deal to offer the Disney+ streaming service free to certain subscribers by offering Disney's bundle of streaming services came due to the strong Disney brand, CEO Hans Vestberg signaled on Tuesday. "Our strategy in this area" of teaming with content brands has worked well in the case of Apple Music and Disney+, which had a "great start" when it launched late last year, he saidduring an appearance at the virtual Goldman Sachs Communacopia Conference.

Satellite radio giant SiriusXM said Tuesday that CEO James Meyer will step down as CEO on Dec. 31 and become vice chairman.

Dade Hayes Finance EditorAT&T CEO John Stankey says he “couldn’t be more pleased” with the progress of HBO Max since it launched in May.Appearing online Tuesday at the annual Goldman Sachs Communacopia conference, Stankey acknowledged the initial numbers are not sky-high. Earlier this summer, the company reported getting 4.1 million sign-ups in the first month, about one million of which were direct additions as opposed to existing HBO customers activating their HBO Max subscription at no charge.“I know it sometimes gets lost within the context of, there’s a company called Netflix that’s done a remarkable job of building a franchise over many years,” he said.

Cynthia Littleton Business EditorComcast is poised to deliver a record quarter of broadband subscriber gains as the media giant slowly pulls out of the economic trench caused by the pandemic.Brian Roberts, chairman-CEO of Comcast, said the cable giant is preparing to report net broadband adds for the third quarter of more than 500,000, a record for the company.During a Q&A held Tuesday morning as part of Goldman Sachs’ annual Communacopia media and telecom conference, Roberts said that the fledgling Peacock streaming platform has reached 15 million signups, up from the 10 million disclosed at the end of July for the service that launched in beta form in April. Comcast reports its third quarter earnings at the end of October.

Jill Goldsmith Co-Business EditorComcast CEO Brian said Peacock signups have surged 50% in six weeks and the app is the second most popular on its OTT product Xfinity Flex behind Netflix, and number three on Xfinity X1 behind Netflix and YouTube.In a wide-ranging conversation at a media conference put on virtually by Goldman Sachs, the chief executive of NBC Universal parent said film and TV production is ramping up allowing the NBC to unveil a fall schedule in November and a strong slate of films 2021, a number of which have been pushed from this year. The ad market has picked up and the company is looking at two Olympic Games over the next 18 months.