Comcast reports quarterly earnings, including a $552 million loss for Peacock; Anthony Rizzo is reportedly joining NBC Sports for its MLB coverage while Joey Votto is said to be finalizing a deal with the company as well; and Mike Tirico is reportedly \u201cunlikely\u201d to call baseball on the network. Plus news on Willie Randolph, Geoffrey Mason, MLB Network and the NHL Stadium Series.<\/p>\n
Peacock registers $552 million quarterly loss as NBA rights hit Comcast balance sheet<\/p>\n
The NBCUniversal streaming service Peacock generated 44 million subscribers in Q4 2025, up from 41 million the three prior quarters, but nonetheless suffered an adjusted EBITDA loss of $552 million. The fourth-quarter loss<\/a>, which is up by $180 million year-over-year (48.4%) and its largest since Q1 2024, was attributed to higher programming costs on the service and \u201celevated sports rights expenses\u201d for its linear networks, notably the addition of NBA rights and exclusive NFL game. NBCUniversal had projected its NBA deal (first reflected in Q4 2025 results) would result in losses finishing \u201cbetween $500 million and $1.4 billion annually,\u201d according to Joe Flint of The Wall Street Journal<\/a>.<\/p>\n Comcast CFO Jason Armstrong acknowledged on Thursday\u2019s earnings call that the structure of the company\u2019s sports rights payments, particularly that of the NBA, contributed to the Q4 declines. Those declines are expected to grow in Q1 with Peacock carrying more games. Armstrong: \u201cOver time, we expect to offset this impact through advertising growth and subscriber acquisition and monetization across both Linear and Peacock.\u201d Media segment revenue for Comcast as a whole fell by 140.9% to $122 million.<\/p>\n Compared to the previous quarter, Peacock\u2019s adjusted EBITDA loss rose by $335 million, but it ended up improving overall by $711 million for the full year. NBCUniversal is preparing to embark on its \u201cLegendary February\u201d programming schedule that will include Super Bowl LX, the Milan Cortina 2026 Olympic Winter Games and the NBA All-Star Game within a 17-day span. NBCUniversal is also adding MLB games to its portfolio this spring under a three-year pact said to be worth $200 million\/year.<\/p>\n Comcast finished 2025 with revenue of $123.7 million, flat compared to the previous year, but improved its free cash flow by 53.4% to $19.2 billion. Armstrong also said that Comcast\u2019s debt ratio will \u201cincrease slightly\u201d as a result of the Versant tax-free spinoff. It should be noted that Versant, which became a publicly-traded company earlier this month, estimated last fall that it would launch with $2.25 billion of net debt at 1.0x leverage.<\/p>\n Rizzo reportedly inks NBC contract, Votto said to be finalizing deal<\/p>\n Former Chicago Cubs 1B and World Series champion Anthony Rizzo is joining NBC Sports as a lead MLB analyst for studio coverage, according to a report by Austin Karp of Sports Business Journal<\/a>. Rizzo officially retired from the league last September, approximately a year after playing in the World Series with the New York Yankees. While Rizzo has yet to be a regular on network broadcasts, he did appear in studio as a guest analyst for TBS in the postseason last year.<\/p>\n Michael McCarthy of Front Office Sports<\/a> reported later Thursday that former Cincinnati Reds 1B Joey Votto is in the process of finalizing a deal with NBC Sports to be part of its baseball coverage. Votto retired from the sport in August 2024 after a 17-year career in the major leagues, and McCarthy cited sources explaining that he \u201chas been eyed as the No. 1 TV prospect by MLB media partners NBC, Netflix and ESPN.\u201d<\/p>\n NBC will welcome Major League Baseball back to its sports portfolio this spring for the first time since 2000. The company has remained involved with MLB through its regional networks and two years of airing Sunday morning contests nationally on Peacock. Under its new three-year rights deal with MLB, the company will air<\/a> a doubleheader on Opening Day, \u201cSunday Night Baseball,\u201d the MLB Draft and the Wild Card Round across NBC and Peacock.<\/p>\n