Peacock's CTO Patrick Miceli Talks Exclusive NFL Wildcard Game, Olympics and The Future of Streaming

Patrick Miceli is Chief Technology Officer, Direct-to-Consumer and Global Streaming at NBCUniversal and Sky. In his role, Miceli has led the build and development of a global technology platform that powers streaming products across three continents and over 70 countries. These include Peacock, the fastest-growing streaming service in the U.S. for two consecutive years, SkyShowtime in Europe, and Showmax in Africa. Miceli talks the exclusive NFL Wildcard Game, the Olympic Games and the future of streaming. 

Peacock has had a series of high-profile events this year, kicking off with the NFL AFC Wild Card streaming-exclusive game in January. What technical challenges came into play with that game that weren’t apparent to fans watching at home? 

Peacock was built with live sports at its core from the start, and we try to make live streaming look easy, but it’s not. It’s a very complicated, complex ecosystem in which we manage several challenges end-to-end, all with the goal of providing our customers with a seamless, high-quality viewing experience.  

The exclusive NFL playoff game presented us with a few dimensions to plan for, which most notably was the huge volume of audience coming to the platform at the same time. It was critical for us to anticipate every possible outcome and have contingencies in place to keep the platform stable and reliable. We spent several months preparing to ensure Peacock could handle the scale and the load for what ended up being the biggest live-streamed event in U.S. history.   

Our next exclusive NFL game is the opening Friday night match-up between the Green Bay Packers and Philadelphia Eagles on September 6^th, which is the first NFL game on a Friday since 1970 and the first one ever taking place in Brazil.  

How did you take learnings from the NFL exclusive games to make the Olympics the streaming success that it was? 

The Olympics and Paralympics come with a different dimension, which is the large number of live events we have to manage on a daily basis. For the Olympics, for example, Peacock managed up to 60 concurrent single live event streams and up to 300 live events a day, for a total of 3,200 live events over the course of the Games.  

These major moments really show what’s possible when it comes to streaming live sports, and they all are a testament to the strength and power of Peacock’s platform. From Day 1, we’ve invested in building a platform and technical infrastructure that supports the highest levels of performance, security and reliability to deliver a seamless and incomparable experience for our customers.  

The Peacock Olympics presentation introduced new features like Multiview and Gold Zone – should consumers expect more innovation around the platform? 

The response to Peacock features introduced during the Olympics has been incredible, and they are perfect examples of how our Tech and Product teams work together to really deliver for the consumer. Multiview and Gold Zone are both part of our Paralympics coverage, and Multiview will also roll out for Premier League matches during this season. We will continue to expand these features to other live events on Peacock in the coming weeks and months. And we will continue to push the limits with what’s possible in streaming and look for other ways to deliver an innovative and engaging experience for our customers. 

Love Island USA has been a huge hit for Peacock as the #1 reality series in the U.S. across all streaming platforms and one of the summer’s biggest pop culture phenomena. That show films almost in real-time and turns around episodes to debut on platform on a daily basis – a production process unlike nearly any other TV show. What goes into the technical aspect of that process to ensure it is delivered flawlessly? 

We coordinate closely with internal teams on delivery timing, and then the episode goes through an expedited QA process to ensure the quality of the content is where it needs to be. The episode then goes up on Peacock so it’s ready for that huge, passionate fan base that just keeps growing. Huge kudos to the Love Island team that manages that intricate production under intense time pressure and delivers such captivating entertainment.  

Four years after the launch of Peacock, what are you most excited about? 

Peacock has been the fastest-growing streaming service in the U.S. for two consecutive years. And the positive response we’ve received across the board from fans, partners and press for our content, user experience and innovation has been incredibly rewarding, because it’s a true testament to our tech teams. I’m proud of how Peacock has maintained our dual focus on both delivering an excellent customer experience with innovative product functionalities and building a platform of the highest reliability and stability. If the tech isn’t working, nothing else really matters.  

Our technological ambition and leadership, driven by engineering excellence, really do set us apart. I’m looking forward to continuing our leadership in live streaming, introducing more features that surprise and delight, and bringing our customers even more incredible content in the highest-quality experience possible.