NBCUniversal successfully called its shot with the nickname “Legendary February.”
The 17-day sports lineup, which included the Milan Cortina Winter Olympic Games, Super Bowl LX and the NBA All-Star Game, generated roughly $2.2 billion of advertising sales, Comcast Co-CEO Mike Cavanagh told investors on Thursday.
Also, during the first quarter of 2026, Peacock gained 2 million net new subscribers for a cumulative total of 46 million, representing 12% growth compared to this time last year.
More importantly, Peacock quarterly revenue grew an incredible 71%, crossing the $2 billion mark for the first time.
At this rate, Cavanagh added, Peacock will be on track to approach profitability for the first time next quarter.
We like sportz
Overall, the Olympics and the Super Bowl drove Comcast’s revenue to increase almost 11% YOY, from $28.4 billion in Q1 last year to $31.5 billion now.
Without that “Legendary February” bump, Comcast’s Q1 revenue would have been in the “low single digits,” said CFO Jason Armstrong.
But even without the Olympics and the Super Bowl, NBCUniversal had a remarkably good quarter, driven primarily by other sports programming, such as the NBA’s regular season – even if associated costs negatively impacted EBITDA, as the company’s quarterly earnings report showed.
Excluding those two special events, Comcast’s media revenue for the quarter grew 13% YOY. (With them, it was more like 61% growth, for a grand total of $7.3 billion.)
Meanwhile, distribution revenue grew 21% and advertising revenue grew 5% under those same parameters, although exact amounts were not disclosed for either metric.
The recent spin-off of Versant Media, which now houses many of the company’s former domestic cable networks (e.g., USA Network, E!, Syfy, CNBC, MS NOW), also contributed to Comcast’s success this quarter.
“This was our first quarter post-Versant, and we’re already seeing the benefits of a more focused portfolio,” said Cavanagh. “Our six major growth drivers now represent well over 60% of total company revenue, up from 50% when we introduced this framework three years ago.”
Don’t touch that (ad spend) dial
While there won’t be another opportunity for a “Legendary February” until 2030, Comcast is confident that NBCUniversal will continue to reap massive financial benefits from its sports offerings for the rest of the year, especially the FIFA World Cup this summer.
And the company isn’t too worried yet about the potential effects of impending economic instability on its theme parks and advertising business, although Armstrong noted that there’s already been some travel-related impact on the former.
The compelling nature of the Olympics and the Super Bowl “pulled forward our relationship with advertisers,” noted co-CEO Brian Roberts. If those advertisers start to sweat over rising costs and poor headwinds, NBCU will probably be able to alleviate some of those concerns more proactively – and, more importantly, keep the ad dollars flowing without interruption.
With the Summer Olympics in Los Angeles only two years away, “we have a good road map ahead of us,” Roberts added.
