A new study suggests that the 50th season of “Saturday Night Live” is proving to be a major financial success for NBCUniversal’s Peacock, generating an estimated $50 million in subscriber revenue in 2024 for the streaming service.
The data, which comes from Parrot Analytics’ Streaming Economics model, underscores the enduring power of live event programming in the streaming era and highlights the crucial role of “SNL” in attracting and retaining Peacock subscribers, the researchers reported.
The Streaming Economics data also indicated that Q4 2024 marked a streaming milestone: “SNL” generated $18.4 million in subscriber revenue for Peacock—matching the peak revenue the show earned across Hulu and Peacock when it was available on both (Q2 2022).
Parrot Analytics also noted that by the end of 2024, the cumulative revenue SNL had generated for Peacock since first-quarter 2020 surpassed its total revenue for Hulu over the same period. Its Streaming Economics model calculates that SNL delivered $50M in Peacock subscriber revenue for all of 2024.
“While that’s below the peak 12-month value earned across both Hulu and Peacock ($67M from Q3 2021-Q2 2022), the latest season is clearly delivering this current value, given the show’s topical nature,” the researchers reported. “Of course, this doesn’t account for ad revenue and other monetization channels, but it shows that Peacock’s subscriber revenue alone covers roughly half the reported cost of producing a season—a compelling indicator of the show's streaming strength.”
