The media landscape underwent a big shakeup this week, when it was announced that NBCUniversal CEO Jeff Shell was being dismissed from the company. Shell admitted to having an extramarital affair with an employee and reportedly sent sexually inappropriate and harassing messages to a CNBC reporter. These revelations led to his firing on Sunday.

While there are more important questions to be answered following this revelation, from a media and entertainment perspective, what this means for the future of Peacock is a pretty important one. The service finally seemed to be getting its legs under it, after more than doubling its paid subscriber total from 9 million to 20 million in 2022. “Poker Face” was just the service’s second title ever to crack the Nielsen weekly streaming top 10, and Peacock’s live sports portfolio is continuing to grow with the addition of the Tour de France.

Despite those gains, however, the service’s financial situation is still problematic. Parent company Comcast expects Peacock to hit its peak loss point this year, bottoming out at a projected $3 billion deficit. That is undoubtedly one of the big reasons that the service discontinued offering a free streaming tier in January, and it could portend even more drastic moves now that Shell is out.

According to Variety, one potential replacement for Shell is current Comcast president Mike Cavanaugh. Cavanaugh is who Shell’s team will report to while the company searches for a permanent head of NBCU, and there’s a decent chance that he’ll get the job himself. If he does, a round of deep, HBO Max-under-Zaslav-style cuts could be on the way. Cavanaugh once served as Comcast’s CFO, and was also co-CEO of JPMorgan Chase’s Corporate & Investment Bank. If Peacock doesn’t improve its financial outlook soon, it may find Cavanaugh standing at its door, scythe in hand and black cloak billowing about him.

The dismissal of Shell could also have implications for Comcast’s situation with Hulu. The company still owns a 33% share of Hulu, while the rest is owned by Disney. The House of Mouse can buy the remaining third of Hulu from Comcast beginning in 2024 if it so chooses, but recent indications have pointed to the idea that Disney might rather sell its majority stake in the streamer instead.

Alex Sherman of CNBC says Shell was “a big fan of Hulu,” leaving the door open for Comcast to potentially pursue it if Disney decided to make its portion for sale. But if a more fiscally conservative figure takes over NBCU, that door could slam shut in a hurry.

There’s also the possibility that Comcast may not name a successor to Shell at all, which would also be revealing. If it chooses to go this route, it could potentially mean a merger with Warner Bros. Discovery is still in the works. Rumors about such a merger first began to circulate in 2021, and resurfaced in fall of 2022. Company executives on both sides have dismissed the rumors, but that could be because such a deal couldn’t take place until 2024, after the regulatory period from WarnerMedia’s merger with Discovery last spring expires.

There would be little point in naming a CEO for NBC if it’s about to be sold to WBD, so if no successor to Shell is named it could mean something is up in that regard. For now, those monitoring the situation for NBC and Peacock must await Thursday’s quarterly earnings report, where more about the future of the streaming service will be revealed.

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Peacock

Peacock is a subscription video streaming service from NBCUniversal that includes original shows, blockbuster movies, and classic television series. Peacock is home to “Yellowstone,” and “The Office,” as well as original hits like “Poker Face” and “Bel-Air.” You can also watch live sports including NFL, MLB, WWE, Olympics, Premier League, NASCAR, French Open, College Football and Basketball, and PGA Tour. Premium Plus subscribers can stream their local NBC feed in all 210 markets.

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Peacock includes news, entertainment, sports, late-night, and reality from various NBCU properties including NBC, Bravo, and E!.

Peacock also includes the entire library of Bravo shows and has exclusives like “Below Deck: Down Under.” They also include live and on-demand access to Hallmark channels.

The company has acquired the rights to many classic shows like “Parks and Recreation,” and the entire Dick Wolf library including “Law & Order” and “Chicago Fire.”

The service also features blockbusters and critically-acclaimed films from Universal Pictures, Focus Features, DreamWorks Animation, Illumination and content acquired from Hollywood’s biggest studios.

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