PHILADELPHIA—Just a few months after spinning off its cable networks into Versant, Comcast has announced new plans to split into two independent publicly traded companies via a tax-free spinoff of NBCUniversal and Sky.

Comcast expects to spin off to be completed in about one year, by mid-2027.

Upon completion of the transaction, current Comcast stockholders will own shares in two separate companies: Comcast, comprising the U.S. cable and connectivity business, and NBCUniversal, holding its media and entertainment assets including NBC, Peacock, Universal Pictures, the Universal theme parks and European pay TV operator Sky.

The deal ends a decades-long attempt at horizontal integration between the broadband/cable businesses and programming and media businesses.

“The transaction we are announcing will unlock a more entrepreneurial management approach and open up a multitude of new opportunities for each business,” Comcast Chairman and CEO Brian Roberts said. “I very much look forward to helping guide our collective growth for this next chapter.”

Current Comcast co-CEO Mike Cavanagh will be CEO of the standalone NBCUniversal. Michael Angelakis, former Comcast chief financial officer, will become CEO of Comcast following completion of the split, rejoining the company in the interim as strategic adviser. Roberts said he will continue to be actively involved in both companies.

“Comcast will continue to build on its leadership in connectivity, while NBCUniversal, together with Sky, will have the scale, brands, content and financial resources to compete as a premier global media and entertainment company,“ Cavanagh said in a statement. “Each organization will continue to be led by a management team with deep industry experience that will benefit from focused strategic priorities and the ability to pursue opportunities most relevant to their businesses. I’m personally thrilled to continue leading NBCUniversal into the future. With our iconic brands and theme parks, leading franchises and incredible creative talent, we are well-positioned for long-term value creation.”

When completed, Comcast will serve residential and business customers through its broadband, wireless and entertainment platforms, reaching more than 65 million homes and businesses with its intelligent fiber network architecture and global technology platforms.

NBCUniversal will include its growing theme parks division, Universal film and television studios, NBC and Telemundo networks, Peacock, and Bravo. In addition, NBCUniversal’s global portfolio will include Sky, its European media business.

More to come as reaction becomes available.

NEW YORK—Fubo and NBCUniversal have struck a distribution agreement, ending a longstanding carriage dispute dating back to last November.

“We’re thrilled to announce the return of NBCUniversal networks to Fubo, given their robust portfolio of top-tier sports, entertainment and news,” said Todd Mathers, executive vice president, content strategy and acquisition, Fubo. “Our agreement with NBCUniversal underscores Fubo’s promise to bring consumers more programming, value and choice through multiple packaging options.”

Starting June 10, Fubo’s virtual MVPD customers can stream NBCU’s Spanish-language networks, Telemundo and Universo, as well as its English-language networks, including the new NBC Sports Network (NBCSN), regional sports networks (RSNs) and new FAST channels to launch in the coming weeks.

Customers will be able to access NBCUniversal programming through multiple Fubo plan options, including:

• NBC, through Fubo’s base English-language TV plan and the Fubo Sports content service;
• Telemundo, through Fubo’s base English-language TV plan and Latino plan;
• Bravo, through Fubo’s base English-language TV plan;
• Universo through Fubo’s Latino Plan, Spanish-language Latino Plus add-on package and English-language Extra package;
• NBC Sports RSNs (Bay Area, Boston, California, Philadelphia), through Fubo’s base English-language TV plan; and
• NBCSN, through Fubo’s base English-language TV plan and the Fubo Sports content service.

SAN FRANCISCO—Peacock will stream Telemundo’s live Spanish-language coverage of the 2026 FIFA World Cup in Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos with Dolby AC-4.

“As the leader in live sports streaming, Peacock is known for our unmatched reliability and quality,” said David Bohunek, senior vice president of global video engineering at NBCUniversal. “Fútbol fans will love watching Telemundo’s FIFA World Cup 2026 coverage on Peacock in Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos with Dolby AC-4—it’ll be a truly stunning viewing experience they can’t get anywhere else.”

A joint team of engineers from NBCUniversal and Dolby Laboratories worked together for more than a year to fine-tune how Peacock brings Dolby Vision to live sports, combining Dolby’s latest streaming tools with NBCUniversal’s expertise in native HDR production.

All 104 matches will be delivered in Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos with Dolby AC-4, a first for the event. Peacock’s presentation of Telemundo’s World Cup coverage is also believed to be the first commercial deployment of Dolby AC-4 by a video streamer.

Dolby AC-4 delivers clear sound with up to 50% greater efficiency than traditional codecs, enabling delivery of Dolby Atmos at the highest possible fidelity.

“There is no bigger stage in sports, and now Peacock viewers will experience every moment the way it was meant to be seen and heard," said John Couling, senior vice president of entertainment at Dolby Laboratories. "From the energy of the crowd to the emotion on the field, every goal scored, Dolby helps bring fans closer to the experience."

More information is available on the company’s website.

STAMFORD, Conn.—NBCUniversal reported that the Milan Cortina Olympics Opening Ceremony Friday night averaged 21.4 million viewers on NBC and Peacock—up 34% from the Opening Ceremony from the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics, according to preliminary data from Nielsen and digital data from Adobe Analytics.

With coverage live in the afternoon (“Milan Prime”) followed by a special primetime presentation, the Opening Ceremony audience of 21.4 million viewers on NBC and Peacock was nearly six million viewers larger than the Beijing Opening Ceremony (15.9 million), the network claimed.

“We are off to a strong start with Friday’s captivating Opening Ceremony highlighted by the historic cities, the scenic mountain areas, and the Parade of Athletes,” said Rick Cordella, President, NBC Sports. “The Opening Ceremony audience exceeded our expectations, and we can’t wait for the next two weeks of competition.”

NBC said the Opening Ceremony was “the most-streamed for any Winter Games,” averaging more than 3 million viewers. Led by Peacock, Milan Cortina Olympics streaming consumption across NBCUniversal platforms exceeded 700 million minutes through Friday—most ever for a Winter Games and 2.5 times greater than the 2022 Beijing Olympics through the comparable time frame.

NBC’s Peacock streaming service has grown significantly since the 2022 Winter Games in Beijing, when it had approximately 13 million paid subscribers compared to approximately 41-42 million currently.

The Milan Olympics Opening Ceremony also delivered the highest search engagement rate ever for advertisers in an Olympics Opening Ceremony (summer or winter), up +63% vs. Beijing 2022 and up +26% vs. Paris 2024, the network said. The event also outpaced other premium TV properties - viewers were +97% more likely to search for brands who advertised in the Opening Ceremony than those in major league sports and +84% more likely to search vs. primetime TV, according to EDO, Linear, Primetime.

Official Nielsen Big Data + Panel viewership will be available on Tuesday.

NBC Sports is celebrating what it calls “Legendary February,” hosting three marquee sporting events expected to attract record viewership. The action begins with the opening ceremony from Milan, Italy, when the XXV Winter Olympic Games commence on Feb. 6. Two days later, the network will air the Super Bowl and, a week later, the NBA All-Star Game.

Planning for such a confluence of events isn’t easy, but NBC Sports has plenty of experience in handling crowded programming schedules, particularly when it comes to the Olympics, which it has televised for nearly 30 consecutive years.

Record Number of Hours Expected
The 2026 Winter Olympics, officially “Milano Cortina 2026,” will take place in the cities of Milan and Cortina d’Ampezzo, Feb. 6-22, and feature about 2,900 athletes across 16 sports. NBC promises more than 3,000 hours of coverage across all of its platforms (including NBC, USA Network, CNBC, Peacock, NBCOlympics.com, and the NBC Sports app), with nearly 200 hours of coverage on NBC alone.

Darryl Jefferson, senior vice president of engineering and technology for NBC Olympics and Sports, will oversee broadcast operations to ensure the most comprehensive coverage of what the International Olympic Committee said is “the most geographically widespread Winter Olympics in history,” spanning an area of more than 22,000 square kilometers (over 8,500 square miles).

Although this is the first Winter Games with Jefferson at the helm—he succeeds Dave Mazza, who retired in 2023—Jefferson is a longtime veteran of NBC Olympics, joining in 2008 as director of postproduction.

And while the team had nearly two years between the Paris Games and the 2026 event, that was not the case for the last Winter Games in Beijing in 2022, when NBC Olympics had only about a six-month window between the pandemic-delayed 2020 Tokyo Summer Games, held in the fall of 2021, and Beijing.

Geographic Sprawl
The biggest challenge for Milan-Cortina 2026 is the aforementioned geographic sprawl, Jefferson said. For example, the distance from the Olympic hub in Milan to the competition venues is measured in multiple hours, with the skating venue approximately five and a half hours away and the men’s and women’s alpine skiing venues three hours apart.

With most of the country’s municipalities opting to use existing facilities instead of constructing new purpose-built operations for the 16-day event, locations are not always optimal.

“That’s one of the reasons why all of our venues are so geographically spread out,” he said. “They’re well-established and beautiful, but they are further apart than we’ve ever seen before, so we had to build a plan that looked at very geographically disparate venues.

“In so many Olympic cities of the past, you’d go into the Olympic hub and you’d have a number of venues that are clustered together,” he added. “Here, a lot of the venues are far apart, so we had to rethink deployment of people and gear. We’ve come up with a very good plan for doing all of those things, but we honestly had to throw out the old book.”

Nevertheless, it’s not like this is abnormal for a world-class event. “It is spread out, but that’s the Olympics for you,” Jefferson added.

With such a dispersed physical layout, particularly in rural areas, moving personnel and gear to venues is paramount, Jefferson said. The NBC team learned a lot while producing live coverage of sporting events during a pandemic, he said, with much of the coverage originating from the NBC facilities in Stamford, Conn.

“We learned a lot of valuable lessons with the ‘COVID Olympics’ in Tokyo and Beijing in that we still had a good deal of production on site in Tokyo—we had the primetime show and the control rooms in the IBC [International Broadcast Center] in Tokyo and Beijing; all of those things ended up coming home,” Jefferson said. “So a lot of those ‘lessons learned’ were about, ‘What can we do to maintain the high level of production value doing it from Stamford?’ And then, when COVID lifted, we tried to strike the balance of the teams that were on-site for Paris and the might of having a big broadcast facility in Stamford and pushing it to its limits.”

Staying Connected
NBCUniversal hadn’t finalized its format plans for the two weeks of the Games by presstime, however with Sunday Feb. 8 being part of “Legendary February,” the network is presenting the Super Bowl as well as the Games live all day in 4K HDR on NBC and Peacock­—17 hours of 4K HDR coverage in all. This marks the first time the Olympics and Super Bowl are being presented in 4K HDR on NBC and Peacock, according to the network.

Jefferson noted NBCUniversal’s commitment to capturing all the action in the highest available quality for any platform.

“Like in Games past, and particularly like in Paris, we will capture and produce everything everywhere in 1080p/HDR, and we’ll have deliverables for a number of platforms, both linear and Peacock [NBCU’s streaming service] in 4K HDR as well,” he said. “We’re fairly committed to HDR and 4K deliverables.”

These data-hungry formats require ever-more-increasing bandwidth between the Olympic host city and Stamford.

“In Paris, we had four 100-gig circuits and two 10-gig circuits for ancillary data and we will have the same for Milan-Cortina,” Jefferson said. “The difference between the Summer and Winter Games is that the Summer Games have so many more concurrent sports, but from a technology and connectivity perspective, we won’t take a step backwards. The connectivity we’ll use for Milan-Cortina will echo what we used in Paris, which is kind of almost unfathomable, because there’s so many fewer sports.”

And, as in years past, NBC Olympics will work as a mostly SMPTE-2110 IP-based operation, according to Jefferson. “We still have some bits and pieces that are SDI, but we’re getting our primary feed from Olympic Broadcasting Service at the International Broadcast Center in 2110,” he said. “The core technology in the Stamford facility is 2110—that’s our preferred method of exchange, but you still get outliers out there that are SDI in nature, and we appreciate them as well.”

Stamford is playing an ever-increasing role in coverage, Jefferson added.

“All but one venue is being largely produced in Stamford for this Winter Games, which is a sea change,” he said. “Figure skating production will be wholly produced on-site, with the production team facilities on-site. Every other venue is a split production.”

Using Data to Tell a Story
Since winter sports are not as popular in the United States as in other areas of the world, Jefferson said NBC Olympics will use more data to enlighten viewers on the intricacies of sports they usually see only once every four years.

“Using technology to describe through data use and visualization is really cool, because it gives people the awe-inspiring things that we see athletes do,” he said. “So we’re using data in a lot of ways to present things like rotational velocity or height, the types of things to get people to really understand, like, ‘Holy crap, that’s really remarkable!’

“One of our biggest partners is the OBS partner, Omega [the official Olympics timekeeper], but we have a bunch of other partnerships looking at computer vision analysis, relative speed, jump height, this type of thing, to explain better, and some of those things are internal to help our commentators explain,” he continued. “So we get to tell the story a bit better.”

The content-creator community will also play an important role in Olympics coverage, with increased mobile device use, Jefferson added. “In Paris, OBS used a fleet of mobile phones to cover the athlete experience on the boats coming into and up the Seine [during the opening ceremony],” he said. “I think it will be a similar offering this go, in addition to all the broadcast cameras. There’s a multiplier effect with all those mobile devices in and around the fields of play, behind the scenes and so on.”

Jefferson said he’s excited about NBC’s ability to give viewers a better understanding of the history of the host country, whether it’s in San Siro Stadium, where the opening ceremony will be staged, or at a remote sports venue.

“There are two very different Italys being presented—you have a very metropolitan city with the vision of the Duomo [cathedral] in the city center and all that goes with the fashion and the architecture and all that stuff in Milan,” he said. “And then, on the other hand, you have the unbelievably gorgeous Dolomites backing these small, quaint ski towns.

“And that dichotomy will be presented not just at the opening ceremony, but throughout the whole Games,” he added. “So it will be amazing to present those two Italys to the United States.”

The Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics promises to be momentous both on screen and behind the scenes, in terms of new technologies and the consumer viewing experience. As Team USA heads to Milan with high hopes for its strongest performance in decades, NBC, Peacock and Comcast are readying a host of new technology and viewing experiences that they hope will strengthen, if not reverse, challenges to their business models that have been years in the making.

Addressing those challenges is particularly important for Comcast NBCUniversal, which spent some $7.75 billion for the U.S. rights to the Olympics between 2022 and 2032 and another $3 billion to extend those rights through 2036.

“The Olympics in Paris proved the Olympics are back and remain an unrivaled media property,” NBC Sports President Rick Cordella said at a press event, where he noted that NBCUniversal had already sold out its ad inventory for the Winter Games. “We expect Milan…to carry on that legacy…[by] mimicking and building on” NBC’s successful strategy for the Paris Olympics, he said.

Stemming the Decline
How well Comcast and NBCUniversal deliver on that promise will have a major impact on both its traditional and newer streaming and digital businesses.

For its part, NBC is hoping to kick-start the celebration of its 100th anniversary this year by reversing recent Winter Olympics viewing declines. Average total audience hit a record low in 2022 of 11.4 million for the Beijing Winter Olympics, down from the average audience of 19.8 million that viewed the Games in Pyeongchang, South Korea, in 2018 and only a quarter of the 45.6 million who watched the opening ceremony of the Salt Lake City Games in 2002.

The Games will also be crucial for Versant, owner of NBCU’s recently spun-off cable networks. Both USA Network, which will focus on Team USA with “Enhanced 4K” Dolby Vision and Atmos feeds, and CNBC will carry Olympics programming.

Similarly, Peacock, which will stream every event of the Games—around 3,000 hours of Olympics coverage—will look to solidify its stature as a major source of sports programming while the streamer’s owner, Comcast, will use the Games to lure back pay TV subscribers and fend off increased competition from 5G wireless carriers by highlighting the cross-platform capabilities of its video platform and its fast, low-latency broadband network.

“We know that the customers who still have a pay TV service are, by and large, huge sports fans,” Vito Forlenza, vice president of sports and entertainment at Comcast, said. “So, we are really focusing on sports to showcase the technology we have. When you can blend linear TV and streaming together into a seamless experience, you’re offering something that is really hard to replicate on a streaming box or a fixed wireless connection.”

Building on Paris
With NBC offering primetime coverage hosted by high-profile on-air talent, Peacock streaming all the events from 16 sports over 17 days, USA Network focusing on Team USA with 4K visuals and enhanced audio, and massive amounts of additional content available on CNBC, NBCSN and various digital offerings, one of the key issues facing the NBC Sports is finding ways to engage and not overwhelm viewers.

A major part of that consumer experience will be new production technologies. “Our mantra has been to make the best seat in the house even better,” Molly Solomon, executive producer and president, NBC Olympics Production, said. “This is going to be the most technologically advanced Olympics we’ve ever presented.”

That will include more extensive use of data analytics, live drones and mics on many athletes. “We will have mics on the U.S. men’s and women’s hockey players for the first time, and on freestyle, freestyle skiers and snowboarders,” Solomon said. “If you are a fan of snowboarding, you will hear Maddie Mastro give herself a pep talk at the top of the pipe.”

Less obvious will be improvements to the successful comprehensive cross-platform programming and tech strategy that was used during the Paris Olympics to provide viewers with many ways to interact and personalize their viewing experiences on TV, mobile and desktop.

“Customers have told us directly, ‘I love the Olympics, but there is so much of it I get overwhelmed,’” Forlenza explained. “There are customers who want to watch just about anything and some that want to watch specific events. All of them want us to make it as easy for me to get to an event I want to watch as quickly as possible…It doesn’t matter if you are streaming 3,000 hours on Peacock, if they can’t find the minute or two that they really want to watch right now.”

On a high level, that imperative is reflected in a cross-platform programming and tech strategy that worked so well in Paris. As with the Summer Games, all events will be streamed on Peacock and USA’s 4K feeds will focus on Team USA, while the high-profile primetime and late-night programming on NBC will dive into the day’s biggest stories and events.

Alternative Angles
Tying this wide array of programming together will be several new and returning digital tools that will help viewers find content, interact with stories of interest and personalize their experience.

One notable new experience will be “Rinkside Live on Peacock,” where users of the streaming service can access new camera angles for live coverage and behind-the-scenes shots of ice hockey and figure skating via a coach’s cam, a bench cam and other features, said Solomon.

Another notable digital tool is OLI, the AI-powered Olympic Guide that debuted in Paris and has been significantly upgraded for the Milan-Cortina Games. “This AI concierge will make following the games easier and more personalized than ever,” Jenny Storms, chief marketing officer, NBCUniversal Television and Streaming, said. “It’s like having a friendly Olympics expert on call across 19 NBCUniversal websites and apps.”

The clearest expression of this cross-platform strategy of melding programming and tech to greatly improve viewer engagement will be found on the Comcast Xfinity platform.

As part of that effort, Xfinity will bring back and improve popular interactive features from the Paris Games like AI-powered highlights, as well as newer tools like Fan View, which brings together stats, personalized playlists, live scores, athlete profiles, advanced DVR capabilities and betting odds, and Multiview, which lets viewers watch up to four different feeds at the same time.

“We are able to blur the lines between traditional TV and streaming to the point where it doesn’t matter if your favorite event is on broadcast or streaming on Peacock,” Forlenza said. “We’ll have a full and seamless integration of Peacock into our Olympic experience and wrap it all together with tons of interactivity.”

“The core of our business is coupling video, broadband and mobile,” he concluded. “We will be bringing all of that together to provide an unsurpassed experience that others can’t offer and fixed wireless can’t support.”

NEW YORK—With one month until the 2026 Milan Cortina Winter Olympics, NBCUniversal has announced that it has officially sold out of its Olympic inventory and that it set a new Winter Games ad-sales record with more advertisers investing in the upcoming Games (Feb. 6-22) than ever before.

Milan Cortina 2026 is part of what the company is calling its "Legendary February" programming that also includes the Super Bowl (Feb. 8) and the NBA All-Star Game.(Feb. 15). The trifecta has generated extraordinary demand from advertisers leading to sell out across all three tentpole moments, the company reported.

"With the resurgence of the Olympic movement, our strongest Sports Upfront in history, the early sellout of Super Bowl LX and the remarkable return of the NBA, NBCUniversal has solidified itself as a sports powerhouse and brands have taken notice,” said Mark Marshall, chairman, Global Advertising and Partnerships, NBCUniversal. “Our partners have not only seen the power of the NBC Sports portfolio, but also the incredible results our robust sports programming delivers, which is why our company now sits in its strongest position ever for a Winter Games and is kicking off 2026 officially sold out of all our Legendary February programming."

NBCU said that following the massive success of the 2024 Paris Olympics, brands were more eager than ever to commit to the Milan Cortina Games, with more than 100 new advertisers. As a result, the upcoming 2026 Winter Olympics produced the highest linear and digital revenue in Winter Games history.

Over 85% of brand partners are investing in Milan Cortina digitally and advertiser adoption of Peacock’s ad innovations has grown 31% from Paris 2024 to Milan Cortina. Additionally, nearly 60 advertisers have invested in unique marketing elements, up 174% from Beijing 2022. More than a dozen brands are investing in sponsorships to offer more live sports viewing to fans, NBCU said, up 75% from Paris 2024.

Peter Lazarus, executive vice president NBC Sports and Olympics, Advertising and Partnerships, added: “The upcoming Winter Games, surrounded by Super Bowl LX and NBA All-Star Weekend, will captivate a highly engaged and passionate audience at scale in a way that no other media company can for advertisers. For the first time in our company's history, we have seen such unprecedented demand that we are officially sold out of our inventory this far in advance of a Games. We are excited to once again deliver to fans a world-class viewing experience while providing brands with the powerful halo effect the Olympics has to offer.”

—

STAMFORD, Conn.—NBCUniversal is bringing back OLI, its AI-powered Olympics discoverability tool with enhanced features designed to help fans navigate thousands of hours of its coverage of the Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics (Feb. 6-22).

First introduced during the 2024 Paris Olympics, OLI is now powered by Google Cloud’s Gemini LLM. The guide is designed to combine the conversational power of generative AI with NBCU’s proprietary, real-time U.S. programming information to help fans discover when, where and how they can watch their favorite events. Coverage on NBC and Peacock, the primary platforms for the Games, begins with the opening ceremony on Feb. 6.

OLI will be available across 19 NBCU-owned digital properties, including NBCOlympics.com, NBCSports.com, NBC.com, Today.com, NBCNews.com, regional sports networks, and 11 local stations, with the upgraded experience launching on January 20.

The upgraded version will deliver a more natural and collaborative experience that gives fans deeper context and makes it easier than ever to connect with Olympic moments that matter most to them, NBCU said. The upgraded OLI tool was developed in partnership with design and technology company Huge.

A demo of how OLI will guide fans and simplify the viewer experience so viewers never miss a second of the action is available below:

“Our goal with OLI on NBCUniversal’s digital platforms is to help fans find up-to-the-minute answers to their Olympics questions, and to help them quickly get to the thousands of hours of coverage we have across NBC and Peacock,” said Jenny Storms, chief marketing officer, Entertainment and Sports, NBCUniversal. “With OLI’s new capabilities, we’re transforming it beyond a discovery tool into a true viewing guide. From real-time medal counts and athlete profiles to personalized highlights and calendar reminders, OLI ensures fans can easily connect with the Olympic moments that matter most.”

With personalized recommendations and tailored viewing options based on time of day, time zone and live schedule, OLI will have several new features including live medal count updates by country; athlete profiles with bios and event details; video highlights based on user preferences; calendar invites that can be added directly from OLI; and suggested follow-up queries to discover new sports, athletes and Olympic content. OLI also includes links to help users get right to watching on NBC or Peacock.

As NBC Sports presents “Legendary February,” a month of sports programming including the Milan-Cortina Games, the Super Bowl and the NBA All-Star Game, OLI will share programming details with fans about Super Bowl Sunday and NBA All-Star Weekend in addition to Olympics coverage.

NBCUniversal owns the U.S. media rights to the Olympic Games through 2036, which are scheduled for Milan and Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy (2026); Los Angeles (2028); the French Alps (2030); Brisbane, Australia (2032); Utah (2034); and the as-yet-unawarded 2036 Summer Games.

NEW YORK—Comcast has completed the spinoff of various cable networks with the Jan. 5 debut of Versant as a public company on the Nasdaq stock market.

Based on intraday trading, Yahoo reported that the company had a market cap of about $6.72 billion but the stock, which trades under the ticker symbol VSNT, dipped from its opening price of $45.17 and was down about 14% as of 2:30 p.m. ET on its first day of trading as a public company.

The company owns networks and digital assets for such brands as CNBC, MS NOW (the former MSNBC), USA Network, Golf Channel, Oxygen, E!, Syfy, Fandango, Rotten Tomatoes, GolfNow, GolfPass, and SportsEngine.

“Today marks a defining moment as Versant becomes an independent, publicly traded media company,” said Mark Lazarus, Versant’s CEO. “As a standalone company, we enter the market with the scale, strategy and leadership to grow and evolve our business model.”

The spin-off was completed through a pro rata distribution of 100% of the outstanding shares of Versant Class A and Class B common stock to holders of Comcast Class A and Class B common stock, respectively, at a ratio of one share of Versant common stock for every 25 shares of Comcast common stock held as of the Dec. 16, 2025 record date, with distribution completed after the close of trading on Jan. 2.

WASHINGTON—Run3TV today said NBCUniversal is joining as an investor in the ATSC 3.0 Framework Authority, which develops the Run3TV NextGen TV application platform for broadcasters. Details of the investment were not disclosed.

“Joining Run3TV allows us to help our local stations enhance how viewers experience weather, local news and programming with NextGen TV,” said Shawn Makhijani. senior vice president of business development at NBCUniversal Local.

“We’ve been very pleased with the reaction to our own NextGen TV interactive experience, which we believe is a considerable milestone for broadcast television and demonstrates the immense potential and possibilities NextGen TV has for viewers, programmers, stations and advertisers,” Makhijani said.

NBCUniversal last year launched a customized NextGen TV interactive features capability using the Run3TV application for its NBC and Telemundo-owned stations. The interactive experience allows viewers to restart live programs already in progress.

It also allows viewers to receive customized, hyperlocal information like local news, weather forecasts and severe weather alerts, along with on-demand clips and full episodes of NBC and Telemundo programming, all of which are delivered via the internet and do not require a separate app to view.

The Run3TV platform’s framework enables these types of innovations to operate seamlessly across a range of devices and operating systems, deepening the connection between stations and their audiences.

NBCUniversal joins founding broadcast investors Gray Television, Sinclair, Hearst Television, Graham Media Group, Tegna and E.W. Scripps as the Run3TV application framework builds scale across receivers, manufacturers and TV markets nationwide.

“We’re thrilled to welcome NBCUniversal as we prepare the platform for broad consumer activation,” said Winston Caldwell, acting CEO of Run3TV. “This investment underscores a shared commitment to advancing the NextGen TV experience, connecting audiences to the trusted local content they depend on in ways that feel modern, personalized and interactive.”

Built by the ATSC 3.0 Framework Authority (A3FA), Run3TV unites broadcasters and receiver makers to deliver interactive services and enhance convergence between broadcast and broadband television. Today, more than 15 million NextGen TV sets are capable of supporting Run3TV-enabled applications, with availability expanding across all major NextGen TV operating systems.

NEW YORK and CUPERTINO, Calif.—Apple and NBCUniversal said they will sell Apple TV and Peacock streaming bundles to U.S. subscribers starting Oct. 20.

U.S. customers can save more than 30% by subscribing to the Apple TV and Peacock Premium (ad-supported) bundle for $14.99 per month, or Apple TV and Peacock Premium Plus (mostly ad-free) for $19.99 per month, the companies said.

Apple One subscribers on the Family and Premier plans can also subscribe to Peacock Premium Plus and receive a special 35% discount—the first benefit of its kind for Apple’s all-in-one subscription bundle.

“There is no more perfect combination of entertainment than the Apple TV and Peacock Bundle, with our complementary content portfolios featuring the best shows, movies, sports and live events,” NBCUniversal Media Group Chairman Matt Strauss said. “With this first-of-its-kind initiative with Apple, we’re redefining what the customer journey should be for a streaming bundle with rich sampling and a smooth sign-up process, and we’re broadening the reach of Peacock to even more audiences.”

“We’re thrilled to introduce this all-inclusive bundle of incredible programming and to bring Apple TV’s beloved shows and movies to more viewers in more places,” said Oliver Schusser, Apple’s vice president of Apple TV, Apple Music, Sports and Beats. “From acclaimed originals to can’t-miss live sports, the Apple TV and Peacock Bundle unites the best of entertainment in a simple and seamless experience.”

To help promote the advantages of the bundle the two companies are letting Apple TV app users and Peacock subscribers sample an extensive and curated selection of the partner service’s shows in each respective app.

At launch, Peacock subscribers can enjoy up to three free episodes of Apple TV’s "Stick,” “Slow Horses,” “Silo,” “The Buccaneers,” “Foundation,” “Palm Royale” and “Prehistoric Planet,” while Apple TV app users will be able to watch up to three free episodes of Peacock shows “Law & Order,” “Bel-Air,” “Twisted Metal,” ‘Love Island Games,” “Happy’s Place,” “The Hunting Party” and “Real Housewives of Miami.”

NEW YORK—After announcing a short-term deal earlier this week that kept NBC stations on YouTube TV, last night the two sides announced a new long-term distribution agreement that includes the revival of NBC Sports Network.

NBC Sports Network was a pay-TV television channel that originally started as the Outdoor Live Network in 1995 and was rebranded in 2012 after Comcast acquired NBC. It shut down at the end of 2021 after NBC announced that it would be moving much of its sports programming to the USA Network and its (then fledgling) Peacock streaming service.

NBCUniversal had hinted that it was considering launching a new sports network last July, according to a report in the Wall St. Journal.

The new network will be available on YouTube TV as part of NBCUniversal’s agreement with Google and will feature a “broad range” of NBCUniversal’s sports programming. NBCSN will complement the prominent sports properties presented year-round on the NBC broadcast network, NBCUniversal said. The agreement did not indicate which sports would be covered or where else the sports network would be carried.

“Our new agreement with Google is a clear win for both our business and our viewers – underscoring the enduring value of our must-see shows, films, sports, and live events while expanding our reach to even more audiences,” said Matt Schnaars, President of Platform Distribution & Partnerships at NBCUniversal. “We’ve secured long-term access to our full portfolio of broadcast and cable networks on YouTube TV, and we’re advancing our Peacock strategy with an upcoming launch on YouTube Primetime Channels and ongoing presence on Google TV. This agreement positions us for continued growth and reflects our commitment to delivering exceptional entertainment to fans across platforms.”

“This deal builds on our long-standing partnership with NBCU while addressing the evolving media landscape and recognizing the importance of making content available where and how viewers want to watch it,” said Justin Connolly, Vice President, Global Head of Media & Sports at YouTube. “We are pleased to have reached this agreement and look forward to continuing our partnership to serve billions of viewers around the world.”

Neither NBCUniversal or Google revealed how long the agreement was for. Other elements of this agreement include:

• A multi-year, long-term commitment for carriage of NBCUniversal’s full portfolio of networks on YouTube TV, including NBC, Telemundo, Bravo, CNBC, Golf Channel, E!, Oxygen True Crime, MSNBC, USA, Syfy and Universo;
• Peacock will be available in the coming months as a subscription through YouTube Primetime Channels;
• A long-term agreement for short-form clips, highlights and shows from NBCUniversal’s premium programming on YouTube;
• Films and TV shows from Universal Pictures Home Entertainment will continue to be available to buy or rent on Google TV, YouTube TV and YouTube, as well as iconic library films from NBCUniversal Global TV Distribution being available to stream via SVOD on YouTube Premium and AVOD through YouTube Free Primetime Content; and
• A multi-year extension of Peacock’s availability across Google's Android platforms, including Google Play and Google TV.

YouTube TV has found itself in multiple carriage disputes over the past week from NBC and Univision. Last night, Google, which owns YouTube TV, announced a short-term agreement with NBCUniversal to remain on the streaming service (also known as a virtual MVPD”) while both sides negotiate a new long term agreement.

Univision, however, was not so lucky, with YouTube TV dropping the nation’s largest Spanish language broadcast network at midnight Wednesday.

“We have been working with TelevisaUnivision to reach an agreement that reflects the value of their content,” YouTube TV told its subscribers in an email. “Unfortunately their current demands aren’t supported by their performance on YouTube TV over the last four years, and despite our best efforts, we’ve been unable to reach a deal.”

Last week, Univision launched a “Do the Right Thing Google” public campaign designed to keep the network on YouTube TV, which reportedly had just under 10 million U.S. subscribers as of April 2025.

After YouTube TV announced it was dropping the network, Univision accused the streamer of “stripping millions of Hispanic viewers of the Spanish-language news, sports, and entertainment they rely on every day."

“Google’s actions are especially tone-deaf and egregious on the eve of a potential government shutdown, disregarding the appeals of government officials and Hispanic organizations who urged them to keep Univision on the main bundle,” the network added. “To add insult to injury, YouTube TV chose to take this step during Hispanic Heritage Month—an act that is deeply insensitive and offensive.”

Univision said Google’s decision is “easily reversible.”

“We are always open to finding constructive ways for Hispanics to regain access to their trusted and critical content,” the network said. “We remain steadfast in advocating for our audience and ensuring that YouTube TV subscribers know they have many options to continue watching Univision’s programming through other providers.”

YouTube’s continuing conflicts with broadcast networks drew the ire of NAB, which has consistently criticized the impact that “Big Tech” has on local broadcasters.

“The unchecked dominance of Big Tech companies like Google and its ability to dictate what millions of households can and cannot watch through its YouTube TV platform is a problem for competition and consumers,” said Alex Siciliano, spokesman for NAB. “These behemoths have the upper hand to not only lock out independent, news-leading local stations from their lineup, but also to push around companies like NBCUniversal and TelevisaUnivision. In this case, Google’s actions will have the added impact of depriving millions of Spanish-speaking viewers access to the most trusted broadcast news, sports and entertainment.”

WASHINGTON—After months of attacking broadcast networks for “bias” in their news coverage and the way they handle relationships with affiliates, Federal Communications Commission Chair Brendan Carr has sent a letter to Comcast CEO Brian Roberts saying, “I have asked the FCC’s Media Bureau to examine Comcast’s relationships with its local broadcast TV affiliates—both owned and operated and independent stations—to ensure compliance with FCC regulations as well as the public interest standard.”

As part of that effort, Carr said he had asked the Media Bureau to obtain the company's contracts with NBC and Telemundo affiliates. NBC and Telemundo are owned by Comcast’s NBCUniversal media subsidiary.

Carr framed the letter as part of his ongoing attacks on national programmers for violating “public interest” rules that have allowed networks “to exercise more and more control over the operations of licensed local broadcast stations. This has created a clear tension between the many local broadcast stations across the country that want to serve their local communities and the interest of national programmers.”

This dynamic, Carr contended, has eroded public trust in “national news outlets,” a problem that the FCC has been trying to rectify with controversial investigations into “news bias” at stations owned by CBS, ABC and NBC. This is drawn fire from Democratic FCC commissioner Anna Gomez and other critics as an attempt by the administration of President Donald Trump to regulate news content and crack down on free speech.

“The public’s lack of trust has a direct impact on the public interest, as those national broadcast networks supply many of the shows and content that local broadcast TV stations air,” Carr wrote in the letter to Roberts. “Moreover, NBC and the other national programmers are also focused on distributing national content over direct-to-consumer subscription streaming services, like NBCUniversal’s own Peacock. This has the potential to create increased market power and incentives that do not align with broadcasters’ public interest obligations.”

Added Carr: “I have heard numerous reports that the approach that NBC and other similarly situated networks are taking in recent negotiations is an attempt to extract onerous financial and operational concessions from local broadcast TV stations. Under this approach, networks threaten termination of long-held affiliations, which could result in blackouts and other harms to local consumers of broadcast news and content. These practices suggest that the relationships between programming networks and their affiliates are not operating in the manner envisioned by FCC regulations. Indeed, the Commission has long been concerned about the balance of power between networks and affiliates.”

In the letter, Carr also raised the issue of retransmission-consent negotiations with virtual multichannel video programming distributors (vMVPDs) such as YouTube TV, which networks currently handle. Broadcast stations have repeatedly urged the FCC to change those rules so the stations negotiate those deals.

"While the issues raised in this letter may not be unique to Comcast, I have asked the Media Bureau to begin this review with Comcast given your company’s varied media holdings—broadcast networks (NBC & Telemundo), broadcast TV stations, cable networks, cable systems, and direct-to-consumer subscription streaming services," Carr wrote. “I want to ensure that Comcast’s ability to exert influence over its local broadcast affiliates does not operate to undermine broadcasters’ ability to comply with their public interest obligations.

“To assist my inquiry into these matters, I have directed the Media Bureau to obtain copies of the affiliation agreements that Comcast or NBC/Telemundo have entered into with local broadcast TV stations,” he concluded. “I have asked the Media Bureau to then ensure that these broadcast network/affiliate relationships comply with federal regulations as they relate to the FCC’s rules regarding station operations and control, ownership, affiliation and network program practices.”

LOS ANGELES—The Walt Disney Co. has agreed to pay Comcast an additional $437.8 billion for Comcast’s 33% stake in Hulu, ending years of maneuvering and negotiation over who would take full control of the streaming service.

Disney had paid $8.6 billion in 2023 for the minority stake, but Comcast had asked for $5 billion more, which sent the issue to arbitration over the appraised value.

Disney has had operating control of Hulu, which was founded in 2007, since it acquired Rupert Murdoch’s 21st Century Fox.

Concluding the deal for Comcast’s stake, which is expected to close in July, will, however, give Disney more flexibility in how it packages its various streaming services, which include Hulu, Disney+ and the upcoming ESPN direct-to-consumer streaming service.

“We are pleased this is finally resolved. We have had a productive partnership with NBCUniversal, and we wish them the best of luck,” Disney CEO Bob Iger said in a statement. “Completing the Hulu acquisition paves the way for a deeper and more seamless integration of Hulu’s general entertainment content with Disney+ and, soon, with ESPN’s direct-to-consumer product, providing an unrivaled value proposition for consumers.”

WASHINGTON—Clarence Hau, NBCUniversal senior vice president of standards, policy and advanced engineering, has been named the 2025 recipient of the Advanced Television Standards Committee’s Mark Richer Industry Leadership Medal.

“Clarence’s passion, determination, and deep technical insight have made a lasting impact,” ATSC President Madeleine Noland said. “His efforts are not only helping to shape the future of television but are also directly enhancing the viewing experience for audiences everywhere, including me. With this honor, we’re recognizing Clarence’s bold, forward-looking leadership and also NBCUniversal’s key role in the NextGen TV rollout.”

The award honors individuals or teams who demonstrate exemplary leadership in advancing ATSC’s mission and embody the vision, tenacity and commitment that defined the legacy of former longtime ATSC president Mark Richer.

The ATSC Board of Directors is recognizing Hau for his outstanding contributions to the progress and implementation of NextGen TV. His leadership within NBCUniversal and across the industry has played a pivotal role in advancing ATSC 3.0, the committee said.

“I’m very appreciative of our longstanding partnership with ATSC, and proud of NBCUniversal’s role in bringing enhanced and innovative experiences to local audiences through NextGen TV,” said Hau.

“This is a tremendous honor, and one that was made possible due to the ingenuity and collaboration of my NBCU colleagues, and our partners, who’ve dedicated themselves to delivering on the great potential of the new broadcast standard.”

The 2025 Mark Richer Medal will be presented to Hau during the 2025 ATSC NextGen Broadcast Conference, June 12-13 in Washington. It is named for the longtime ATSC president who led the organization through two decades of transformative innovation, from the original ATSC 1.0 standard to the launch of ATSC 3.0 next-generation standards, ATSC said.

Registration for the event, available online, is open until June 3.

LOS ANGELES—Comcast NBCUniversal said it will donate $10 million in cash to support Los Angeles-area wildfire disaster relief and recovery efforts.

As part of the effort, Comcast said it will provide $2.5 million in funding as an inaugural corporate partner to the Habitat for Humanity of Greater Los Angeles’ ReBUILD L.A. initiative.

In addition, contributions will be made to organizations working on the ground to provide short and long-term assistance including the American Red Cross, Entertainment Industry Foundation SoCal Fire Fund, Los Angeles Fire Department Foundation, Los Angeles Regional Food Bank and the YMCA of Metropolitan Los Angeles, among others.

“Our hearts go out to all who have been impacted by these devastating fires, including many in our Comcast NBCUniversal family,” Comcast chairman and CEO Brian Roberts said. “We extend our deep appreciation to the first responders for their tireless and courageous efforts and to our news teams, including NBC4 and KVEA, who are providing vital coverage during this time. We stand ready to support our employees and the broader Los Angeles community as we recover and rebuild from these tragic events.”

The company also said it is providing emergency financial funds, in addition to health and welfare benefits. Those include access to temporary housing and hotels at discounted rates to employees who have been affected by the destruction of the wildfires.

Through the Comcast NBCUniversal Employee Disaster Assistance Fund, the company is providing grants to team members in need as well as making a special company double match for employee donations made to the fund through the Comcast NBCUniversal Matching Gift Program.

As Comcast prepares to spin off many of its cable networks, NBCUniversal has launched CNBC+, a streaming service priced at $14.99 a month or $99.99 a year.

The new service includes a live feed of the CNBC cable financial news channel, as well as on-demand programming. Unlike other recently launched subscription streaming services, though, it won’t debut with any original programming.

CNBC+ is also available as part of a $599.99 annual All Access tier that includes Jim Cramer’s online investment club and a $299.99 Pro Tier that adds investment tools.

NBCU’s cable-network spinoff is expected to lead to their potential sale, mergers with other companies or increased investments in their streaming operations.

CNBC+ is currently available at CNBC.com and on iOS and Android apps.

More information is available here.

PHILADELPHIA—Comcast said today that it is spinning off its cable network business into a new publicly traded company that will house NBCUniversal’s cable television networks, including USA Network, CNBC, MSNBC, Oxygen, E!, Syfy and Golf Channel, along with complementary digital assets including Fandango and Rotten Tomatoes, GolfNow and Sports Engine.

Comcast says the “tax-free spinoff,” to be named “SpinCo” and expected to be completed within a year, “will have significant scale as a pure-play set of assets anchored by leading news, sports and entertainment content.”

Although The Wall Street Journal broke the news Tuesday night, the move was hinted at just last month when the company said it was looking at such an arrangement. On its Oct. 31 third-quarter earnings call, Comcast President Mike Cavanagh said the company was looking for “the best path forward” for its cable assets. He also admitted the company was still investigating the potential spinoff and the timing of today’s announcement seems to indicate the company wanted to get out ahead of speculation.

“There are a lot of questions to which we don't have answers so we want to do the work, and we want to do the work with transparency around it so that as rumors fly and the like, we expect that,” Cavanagh told analysts.

The networks that will comprise SpinCo generated about $7 billion in revenue for the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30, Comcast said, adding that the spinoff will have the same dual-class share structure as Comcast.

Comcast’s NBCUniversal division will hang onto Bravo, the NBC broadcast network, Telemundo, the Peacock streaming service and all of its other assets, including NBC Sports and the Universal theme parks.

The move is perhaps one of the most explicit examples of how cord-cutting has decimated the traditional cable business model over the past decade, with more subscribers dropping video services in favor of broadband-only households, some of which supplement their TV viewing with free over-the-air broadcasts.

Since 2013, both satellite and cable providers have lost a collective 30 million TV subscribers; Comcast’s video subscriber base has declined about 9 million over the same time period.

Comcast’s decision to hang onto NBCUniversal reflects the notion that there’s still value to its broadcast properties, especially when it comes to live sports. But even that business model is being slowly eaten away by competition from the likes of Amazon’s Prime Video and Netflix, which are now (or will be) broadcasting live NFL games this season, as well as the traditional media companies themselves, which are scheduling exclusive NFL games for their streaming services.

Comcast says SpinCo’s stable of news, sports and entertainment cable brands will reach about 70 million U.S. households.

“When you look at our assets, talented management team and balance sheet strength, we are able to set these businesses up for future growth,” Brian Roberts, chairman and CEO of Comcast, said. “With significant financial resources from day one, SpinCo will be ideally positioned for success and highly attractive to investors, content creators, distributors and potential partners.”

The planned spinoff will also strategically position NBCUniversal with its leading broadcast and streaming media properties, including NBC entertainment, sports, news and Bravo—all of which power Peacock—along with Telemundo, the theme parks business and film and television studios.

“This transaction positions both SpinCo and NBCUniversal to play offense in a changing media landscape,” Cavanagh said. “Taken together, the entirety of NBCUniversal will be on a new growth trajectory, fueled by our world-class content, technology, IP, properties and talent—all working in concert with each other as an integrated media company.”

Comcast reported healthy third-quarter revenues driven by an increase in ad sales during the Paris Summer Olympics, strong box-office receipts for its films and fewer broadband internet cancellations.

Philadelphia-based Comcast reported overall revenues of $32.07 billion, beating Wall Street’s estimates of $31.66 billion. The Paris Games boosted Comcast’s NBCUniversal media business by $1.9 billion, a record for the Olympics, the company said. Studio revenues increased to $2.83 billion, a 12.3% increase compared to the same quarter a year ago, mostly on the strong performances of summer hits “Despicable Me 4” and “Twisters.”

The revenues from the media and studio divisions helped offset a 5.3% decline in revenues at Comcast’s theme parks. The company hopes that the opening of its new Universal Epic Universe in Florida in the spring of 2025 will help boost its bottom line in that market sector.

Also Read: Comcast Explores Spinoff of Cable Networks

Streaming service Peacock added 3 million new paid subscriptions; the service now counts 36 million subscribers. Peacock revenue increased 82% to $1.5 billion.

Broadband and video subscription declines were not as steep as expected, with Comcast’s cable unit losing 87,000 subscribers during the quarter. That was much lower than the anticipated 143,200 losses forecasted due to the end of the Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP), which subsidized internet access for low-income U.S. households. If not for the termination of that program, Comcast said, it would have added 9,000 broadband subscribers in the quarter.

Comcast video subscriptions declined by 365,000, lower than the expected 420,300.

NEW YORK and STAMFORD, Conn.—Charter Communications will begin offering the ad-supported version of NBCUniversal’s Peacock streaming service free to its Spectrum TV Select video customers as part of a multiyear renewal of its carriage agreement with the programmer. 

Through its programming deals reached over the past year, Charter said it will soon provide Spectrum TV Select video customers up to $65 per month of direct-to-consumer streaming value, including Peacock, Disney+, ESPN+, Paramount+, AMC+, BET+, ViX, Max and Discovery+. Charter also will allow video customers to upgrade to Peacock Premium+, which is ad-free, and will make both Peacock products available for purchase to its millions of broadband-only customers in 2025. At $95 per month, Spectrum TV Select is the top-tier subscription package for Charter customers. 

“This extension of our strategic relationship with Charter ensures Spectrum video customers will continue to have access to the leading media portfolio, whether they choose to watch on traditional TV or stream it on Peacock,” NBCUniversal Chairman, Content Distribution Matt Bond said. “We also achieved our primary goal, which was to strike a deal that recognizes the value of our linear programming and the investments we’ve made in developing premium content, expanding the distribution of Peacock to more consumers. We are pleased to partner with Charter to reach these objectives to the benefit of our viewers.”

In addition to the inclusion of Peacock Premium for Spectrum video customers at no extra charge, the distribution agreement ensures Charter’s continued carriage of NBCUniversal’s NBC- and Telemundo-owned stations, Bravo, CNBC, CNBC World, E!, MSNBC, Universo, Oxygen, Syfy, Telemundo Network, Universal Kids, USA Network, Golf Channel, NBC Sports Regional Networks and New England Cable News. The following channels will be included in the Spectrum TV Stream service: Bravo, CNBC, CNBC World, E!, MSNBC, Oxygen, Syfy and Universal Kids.

“With the renewal of our longstanding partnership with NBCUniversal, we now have completed deals with every major programmer to create better flexibility and greater value to our customers by including DTC streaming apps with their Spectrum TV service at no extra cost,” said Tom Montemagno, executive vice president, programming acquisition for Charter, which operates the Spectrum brand. “As we look ahead to 2025, we plan to extend this customer-first philosophy and deliver even greater value and choice to better align with customers’ current viewing preferences, including through hybrid linear DTC relationships, DTC streaming to Internet-only subscribers, and smaller video packages with DTC add-ons. We appreciate NBCUniversal’s willingness to join forces with us for the benefit of our video and broadband customers.”

Financial terms were not disclosed; Charter expects to begin offering Peacock to its customers in the coming months. 

NBCUniversal said on Tuesday it has sold $1.2 billion in ads for the Olympic Games in Paris this summer and is on track to reach  the all-time ad sales record for the Olympics. 

The revenue total includes about $350 million from new advertisers and about $100 million from International Olympic Committee (IOC) sponsors including Procter & Gamble, Visa and Toyota, which is up 18% from the Covid-restricted Summer Games in Tokyo in 2021, NBCU told Reuters. 

NBCU officials attributed the growth to this being the first Games since the onset of the pandemic in 2020 to allow full participation as well as its European local being a more favorable time zone for live coverage.

Last month, for the first time in Summer Olympics history, NBCU announced that all of its Olympics coverage will also be available on its Peacock streaming platform. NBCU said its digital ad revenue has already hit a record and that all ad inventory is sold out for the opening and closing ceremonies. 

NEW YORK—In advance of the Consumer Electronic Show (CES), NBCUniversal has unveiled new details on how it is working to redefine cross-platform, audience-based advertising for the media industry with the full-scale launch of its One Platform Total Audience. 

As part of the full launch, NBCU reported that One Platform Total Audience is now using AI-driven planning and activation technology as well as new investments in automation and data to provide brands unduplicated reach through a single media buy across platforms for  linear and streaming.

“From day one, NBCUniversal has evolved its business to connect with consumers where they are, while giving advertisers a seat at the table,” said Mark Marshall, chairman, NBCUniversal Global Advertising & Partnerships. “2024 will be a watershed year for change. Seismic shifts in measurement will throw everyone’s media mix models up in the air, presenting a singular opportunity to transact on strategic audiences and measure real KPIs for marketers. With One Platform Total Audience, we are empowering our clients to supercharge their media schedules in a whole new way and maximize the effectiveness of their ad dollars to achieve their business goals.” 

NBCU said that One Platform Total Audience was developed for marketers to create new opportunities to find scale, drive incremental reach, and keep brand safety top of mind in their cross-platform campaigns.

More specifically, the technology uses machine learning and predictive analytics to produce a single media plan across linear and streaming that targets a brand’s specific audience segment and strengthens their effectiveness. 

In addition, One Platform Total Audience has access to NBCUniversal’s entire content portfolio. The technology leverages the company's first party data, along with advertisers’ data sets, to better reach the consumers who matter most to brands at scale, NBCU reported. 

The company also noted that nearly 60% of NBCUniversal’s advertising clients use audience-based buying to drive incremental value, and there has been a continued shift to strategic audiences, with +25% growth compared to a year ago. 

NBCUniversal announced it will transact 50% of its business on strategic audiences instead of traditional demographics in 2024, meeting industry demand and enabling brands to effectively engage viewers wherever they consume content. 

The company also noted that the platform is seeing broad industry adoption. For Q1 2024, One Platform Total Audience has sold out across all major categories including tech, auto, and retail. As a result of this broad industry adoption across brands and agencies, the company will expand access to One Platform Total Audience in Q2 2024. 

New features and tech advances that are now available with the full launch of One Platform Total Audience include: 

• NEW AUTOMATION: One Platform Total Audience will utilize machine learning to automate budget allocation across linear and streaming, identifying an optimized media mix to engage marketers’ precise audience segments. NBCUniversal will also add programmatic guaranteed for media buys with One Platform Total Audience, leading to more automated and turnkey streaming activation. And to make transacting against strategic audiences simple, the company will add new buy-side automated order and workflow management.   
• ENHANCED DATA INTEROPERABILITY: With interoperability integrations across the media ecosystem, advertisers and agencies have more flexible and efficient paths to onboard their data than ever before, all built with privacy top of mind. As NBCUniversal’s streaming footprint has grown, marketers now have better match rates and more scale to reach their target audiences. 

NEW YORK—In a major push to expand its free ad-supported streaming offerings, NBCUniversal has launched a slew of new FAST linear content offerings from the company’s brands, including NBC,  Bravo, E!, NBC Sports, CNBC, Telemundo, Universal Studio Group and more.

Amazon Freevee and Xumo Play were named launch partners for content that is scheduled to go live this summer. 

NBCU reported that Xumo Enterprise will power the distribution of NBCUniversal’s new FAST channels on third party services starting with Amazon Freevee. 

The massive launch of new FAST services add to NBCUniversal existing portfolio of channels that include Dateline 24/7, NBC News NOW, and Local NBC and Telemundo news stations.  

“NBCUniversal is in the enviable position of owning a vast array of iconic shows that are not part of our broadcast and cable networks to curate a valuable portfolio of FAST channels,” said Matt Schnaars, president, NBCUniversal Content Distribution. “These channels, with content from some of the most recognizable brands in television, will find an immediate audience in the growing FAST ecosystem, and create value for NBCUniversal, our distribution partners, and our advertisers.” 

“Freevee has grown into a destination for a vast selection of FAST Channels, offering customers a wide selection of programming to stream from nearly any device including the Freevee app, Fire TV, and Prime Video,” added Ryan Pirozzi, head of Amazon Freevee. “We’re honored to be a launch partner for the full slate of FAST Channels coming from the NBCUniversal portfolio and can’t wait for Freevee customers to enjoy nearly 50 new channels, offering endless hours of lean back content to enjoy.”

NBCU describes the new channels as:

• Bravo Vault: From “Shahs of Sunset” to “Flipping Out,” Bravo Vault immerses you in all the high-sheen content and drama you love with our rotating content library.  
• E! Keeping Up: Keep up with each breakup and breakdown from the first family of reality TV, the Kardashian/Jenners. The E! Keeping Up Vault has the episodes and spin offs that created an empire. Relive it all now.  
• Million Dollar Listing Vault: Dig deep into the many seasons of “Million Dollar Listing” from LA to NY, SF to Miami! Bravo’s “Million Dollar Listing” vault introduces you to the best of real estate and all the deals and drama.   
• Oxygen True Crime Archives: Oxygen True Crime Archives is your home for deep dives into infamous cases and binge-watching original series. True crime, all day, every day.  
• Real Housewives Vault: Revisit the Real Housewives that launched the iconic franchise, showcasing the glitz, glamour, and drama of the reality show’s wealthy female stars.   
• SNL Vault: See your favorite characters, sketches, and hosts in an array of “Saturday Night Live” clips.
• Top Chef Vault: Bravo’s “Top Chef” Vault has a rotating library to catch up on and learn the latest in sous-vide, gastronomy and more from the ultimate food competition show.   
• American Crimes: Explore the dark side of the American dream and life behind bars, featuring award-winning series “American Greed” and “Lockup.”
• GolfPass: GolfPass brings together thousands of lessons from the game’s biggest instructors, exclusive series, GOLF Channel news and features, and much more.   
• NBC Sports: Stay updated on the latest sports news with entertaining talk programs, including Premier League Stories and “The Dan Patrick Show”.  
• Historias de Amor: Delightful romantic comedies and emotionally charged dramatic sagas of love and revenge. Based on authentic storytelling, offering familiar content for the bilingual U.S. Latino population.   
• Lo Mejor de Telemundo: Discover recent fan favorites and revisit hits from Telemundo, including dramas, reality, and novelas, featuring popular series such as “El Caso Cerrado,” “El Domo del Dinero,” and more.   
• Noticias Telemundo Ahora: 24/7 Spanish-language news channel from the US Hispanic community’s most trusted news source, featuring breaking news, interviews with leading newsmakers, live reports from major cities across the country and lifestyle content.
• Telemundo al Día: Offering the latest in entertainment and sports news. Content includes shows like “Al Rojo Vivo,” “La Mesa Caliente,” Telemundo Deportes and more.   
• Entertainment Discovery & Fandom Channels: 
• Rotten Tomatoes: The Rotten Tomatoes channel is the one-stop source for movie & TV fans, with fresh takes on favorite scenes, previews of blockbusters, and weekly content highlights.   
• Alfred Hitchcock Presents: The Emmy®-winning anthology series created by Alfred Hitchcock features suspenseful and delightfully twisting mysteries.    
• Bad Girls Club: Watch as seven outrageously bold, brazenly misbehaved women attempt to transform their reckless ways. Can they change – or will chaos rule?  
• Lassie: Join Lassie, the Martin family’s beloved canine, and her human animal companions as they embark on adventures. Learn why dogs truly are a man’s best friend in this Emmy®-winning series.  
• Little House on the Prairie: Set in the late 1800’s, the Ingalls family pack up their belongings and venture out west in search for new life in the new land. Starring Michael Landon and Melissa Gilbert, watch this family of five adjust to their new home in Plum Creek, on the plains of Minnesota. 
• Made in Chelsea: Follow the sensational lives, loves, and careers of eight high society friends who live in London’s most affluent neighborhoods.   
• Murder, She Wrote: Join mystery writer Jessica Fletcher (played by legend Angela Lansbury), as she solves crimes in this Emmy®-winning drama.   
• Saved by the Bell: Share the inventive schemes and mischievous dreams of these tight-knit friend groups. Watch them grow from Bayside High in “Saved by the Bell” to after graduation in “The College Years,” and later with the next generation in “The New Class.”
• TNBC: Rediscover these laugh-out-loud fan-favorite sitcoms from Teen NBC. These timeless stories about the highs and lows of growing up are relatable for any audience, young or old. Series include: “Punky Brewster,” “City Guys,” “Hang Time,” “Major Dad” and more.   
• The Lone Ranger: The masked cowboy known as the Lone Ranger, and his trusty accomplice Tonto, fight for justice in the wild west. 
• Universal Action: Buckle up and hold on tight! Helicopters, fast cars, and fight scenes are packed into this channel. Here you’ll find riveting shows that are sure to get your heart pumping and adrenaline flowing, such as “Magnum P.I.,” “Knight Rider,” “The A-Team” and many others.  
• Universal Crime: Mystery, suspense, and action culminate in these notable drama series. From the scene of the crime to the courtroom, follow along with some of your favorite stars as they fight for justice to be served. Series include: “Columbo,” “Kojak,” “The Rockford Files” and more. 
• Universal Westerns: Cowboys, gunslingers, and outlaws roam the wild west in these series. Get swept away by these classic tales of heroism and family adventure set against scenic frontier backdrops, such as “The Virginian” and “Tales of Wells Fargo” among many others.   
• Universal Monsters: Blood-sucking vampires, stitched-together monsters, and howling werewolves! From iconic monster movies to modern classics, these films are guaranteed to give you goosebumps, which include titles such as “Frankenstein,” “Dracula,” “The Wolf Man” and more.

These channels join NBCUniversal’s lineup of previously announced FAST channels including NBC News NOW, TODAY All Day, Dateline 24/7, LX, NBC and Telemundo Local Stations, and Sky News International.  

Peacock, NBCUniversal’s streaming service, also has a robust FAST channels offering featuring content from across the company’s portfolio.

WASHINGTON—Doug Lung, vice president of Broadcast Technology for NBCUniversal Local and long-time TV Tech columnist, has been named recipient of the 2023 NAB Television Engineering Achievement Award. 

Doug leads NBC and Telemundo-owned stations’ RF and transmission affairs, including microwave, radars, satellite uplinks, and FCC technical filings.

Beginning his career in 1976 at KSCI in Los Angeles, Doug has nearly 50 years of experience in broadcast television engineering. Beginning in 1985, he led the engineering department for what was to become the Telemundo network and station group, assisting in the design, construction and installation of the company’s broadcast and cable facilities. 

Other projects include work on the launch of Hawaii’s first UHF TV station, the rollout and testing of the ATSC mobile-handheld standard, and software development related to the incentive auction TV spectrum repack.

Doug is also the longest-serving columnist for TV Tech, having launched his RF Technology column nearly 35 years ago. Doug is also a regular contributor to IEEE Broadcast Technology. He received a Tech Leadership Award from digital media publisher Future in 2021 and is a member of the IEEE Broadcast Technology Society and the Society of Broadcast Engineers.

Michael Cooney, CTO at Beasley Media Group will receive the Radio Engineering Achievement Award. Cooney is a recipient of the 2016 Radio World Excellence in Engineering Award. 

They will be honored at the We Are Broadcasters Awards, held on the Main Stage of the 2023 NAB Show on April 18 at 10 a.m.

Established in 1959, the Radio and Television Engineering Achievement Awards are given to individuals who are nominated by their peers for significant contributions to advancing broadcast engineering.

NEW YORK—Some of the world’s largest media companies have formed a consortium to design a new method of measuring media consumption in an attempt to streamline the process of measuring premium video content as well as provide an alternative to Nielsen.

Fox, NBCUniversal, Paramount, TelevisaUnivision, and Warner Bros. Discovery and the VAB are working with advanced advertising company OpenAP to form a new Joint Industry Committee on Premium Video Currency (JIC) “to enable multiple currencies with the primary focus of creating a measurement certification process to establish the suitability of emerging cross-platform measurement solutions in advance of the 2024 upfront.”

The JIC said the process to develop measurement certification standards is currently underway and will be formalized and officially announced March 1st. It will reveal its preliminary findings April 25. It said it is also reaching out to other qualified premium video programmers to join the committee and elicit active participation from advertising agencies and qualified trade bodies to advance the multi-currency proposal.

AMong the JIC’s tasks are:

• Establish and maintain a measurement certification process in partnership with the VAB that will be housed inside of the JIC for third-party measurement vendors conducting cross-platform premium video currency services that will be operational by the start of the 2024 season, starting in the Fall of 2023.
• Create a programmer data set to enable third-party measurement vendors by harmonizing streaming viewership data brought together by OpenAP infrastructure.
• Engage a third-party audit firm to verify the accuracy of the streaming viewership dataset in order to maintain measurement independence and neutrality.
• Collaborate with the VAB and ANA to accelerate progress made to measurement calibration by both parties, as well as with other key Industry Trade Bodies including the 4A's, IAB, ARF and more.

"The sustainability of the premium video advertising model depends on an ecosystem for measurement that is transparent, independent, inclusive, and accurately reflects the way all people consume premium video content today – across multiple screens, connections, and devices. By coming together to establish this JIC, we can collaborate and accelerate the efforts to implement a new multi-currency future that fosters more competition, inclusivity and innovation and will ultimately better serve advertisers, agencies and consumers," said Jeff Shell, CEO of NBCUniversal; Bob Bakish, CEO of Paramount; Wade Davis, CEO of TelevisaUnivision; and David Zaslav, President and CEO, Warner Bros. Discovery in a joint statement.

Nielsen, in a statement to NextTV, said: "We appreciate working with all the industry bodies vested in the best way to measure the changing audience and providing fidelity and trust between advertisers, agencies, publishers and platforms. We continue to believe it is critical to have measurement that is transparent, consistent, auditable and independent."

Ashwin Navin, Co-Founder and CEO of TV measurement company Samba TV also commented on the news: “It has long been clear that the U.S. model of a single measurement monopoly would not be able to keep pace with the rapid state of change in viewing behavior we are experiencing today and that it would ultimately fail to provide the kind of diversity and accuracy in measurement that media buyers are demanding.

"This news is a critical step towards a multi-currency world where the industry is empowered to adopt the data and technology it needs to develop advanced and transparent methodologies for measurement versus the legacy black box tools we have been confined to for decades. This is a great moment for publishers who will have full transparency into the value of their programming, for advertisers who will be empowered to go beyond legacy models from two generations ago that no longer make sense in today’s diverse audience and programming world, and for consumers who will now have far more advanced tools measuring their attention providing better insights to guide content investments.  

"One of the biggest challenges of the legacy approach to measurement today is the one-size-fits-all approach, which may have made sense a half century ago but frankly makes no sense in today's incredibly diverse and fragmented media landscape. A program that attracts a highly-diverse or hard to reach audience for example, but ultimately captures a smaller overall share of attention of a mainstream program, could be cancelled under the existing legacy model. By embracing new and innovative methods that go well beyond the simple age and gender metrics that have guided the industry for decades, and empower advertisers and programmers to truly understand who their audiences are and their real value, we will enable creators to continue to think outside the box in the development of incredibly diverse and entertaining content.” 

WASHINGTON—The National Association of Broadcasters announced several appointments to its board of directors.

Catherine Badalamente, president and CEO of Graham Media Group, and Phil Tahtakran, senior vice president, head of Federal Government Affairs for NBCUniversal, were appointed to the NAB Television Board of Directors.

Badalamente currently oversees broadcast TV stations in seven local media hubs for Graham Media Group, as well as Graham Digital, a digital media and technology development group, and Social News Desk, which provides social media management tools to connect newsrooms with users.

According to NAB’s announcement, Badalamente holds positions on several other boards including the Local Media Association, the Local Media Foundation and the Alliance for Women in Media. In 2017, she received the Digital Leadership Award from NAB. She holds a B.A. in communications from John Carroll University.

Tahtakran , as part of the senior leadership team at NBCUniversal, represents the company before Congress and the Administration on legislative priorities and other policy issues. He serves as NBCUniversal’s representative in various trade associations and coalitions focused on entertainment, broadcasting and telecom policy issues.

Before joining NBCUniversal in 2010, Tahtakran spent several years as a senior aide in congressional offices in the Senate and House of Representatives. He holds a J.D. degree from The George Washington University Law School and a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of California, Los Angeles.

 Kevin Godwin, senior vice president for Townsquare Media, was appointed to the NAB Radio Board of Directors.

NEW YORK—NBCUniversal announced today that dentsu international, a global marketing and advertising agency network, will be the first agency partner of NBCUnified, its first-party data and identity platform.

The partnership will allow NBCUnified to use both person-level and household-level IDs from dentsu’s M1 platform and consumer data products, as well as those of its advertisers, to directly integrate into NBCUnified’s identity platform. NBCUnified says that the partnership will enable dentsu to match its client campaigns with NBCU’s database of NBCU IDs, which in its initial release will comprise 150 million person-level IDs tied to 80 million households.

dentsu and its media agency brands will now be able to use its M1 platform on behalf of clients to match audiences using NBCUnified Consumer Match, and leverage NBCUniversal’s first-party knowledge of its consumers—through NBCUnified Audiences—to develop greater insights and more in-depth, higher-performing custom audiences for targeting across NBCU TV, video and display inventory.  Additionally, dentsu clients will receive advanced analytics and measurement capabilities enabled by NBCU and dentsu clean room environments.

In January, NBC launched NBCUnified, a first-party identity platform to help marketers target consumers across its entire network which comprises more than 230 million adults each month.

.Cara Lewis, Chief Investment Officer at dentsu Media US, commented: “At dentsu, we pride ourselves on being leaders in driving relevancy and knowing people better than anyone. This first of its kind partnership with NBCU delivers an innovative addressability solution in the traditional marketplace that can be activated on right away. Bringing together IDs and data from dentsu’s M1 platform, our clients, and NBCU will enable us to uncover more resonant audiences for our clients, fueling more effective media purchases that are fully transactable.”

“Identity is increasingly becoming the new currency for the advanced television and digital video industry,” added John Lee, Chief Data Officer, NBCUniversal. “With this partnership, NBCUniversal and dentsu are taking a leadership position in accelerating our joint ability to allow clients to transact on identity and first-party data across our premium offerings at a level of scale and transparency never before possible. This presents our joint clients with a path forward to move away from black-box, panel-based systems to one where our joint identity pool of over 100 million households becomes the currency.”

NEW YORK—NBCU’s streaming service Peacock has dramatically expanded its local news coverage with the launch of new 24/7 local news channels from NBC owned television stations in several major markets. 

With the launch on January 20, Peacock users have free access to the coverage from NBC 5 Chicago (WMAQ), NBC 10 Philadelphia (WCAU), NBC10 Boston (WBTS) and New England Cable Network (NECN), and NBC 6 Miami (WTVJ). 

The company said that news channels from NBC 4 New York (WNBC) and NBC 4 Los Angeles (KNBC) will be available to stream for free in the months ahead. 

The new channels titled NBC Chicago News, NBC Philadelphia News, NBC Boston News and NBC South Florida News feature simulcast and encore news programming, along with breaking news and original content produced by its NBC station’s local news operations. The lineups deliver news, weather, sports, investigative reporting, lifestyle content and storytelling, the company said. 

“We’re thrilled to add the incredible reporting of our NBC owned television stations to Peacock’s unique programming slate that both informs and entertains,” said Jen Brown, senior vice president of program planning for Peacock. “We know the importance of local news to our subscribers and this further distinguishes the Peacock experience where you can stream everything from award-winning news content to original scripted shows, premium movies, live sports and more all on our platform.”

The streaming service said that the addition of local news channels builds upon Peacock’s growing news offering, which currently features live and on demand channels including NBC News NOW, Sky News, TODAY All Day, NBC LX, Telemundo Al Día, and Dateline 24/7; exclusive channels like The Choice from MSNBC, featuring original programming from hosts Zerlina Maxwell and Mehdi Hasan; curated playlists from national programming such as TODAY, NBC Nightly News, Meet the Press, Noticias Telemundo, MSNBC, CNBC, NBC Sports, E! News and Access Hollywood as well as 11 local NBC stations including New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Miami, Philadelphia, Boston, Dallas, San Francisco, Washington, D.C., San Diego and Connecticut.  

PHILADELPHIA—Comcast is hoping that the adage of needing to spend money to make money proves true, as its Peacock streaming service lost a reported $914 million in 2020 while bringing in $118 million in revenue.

The numbers come from a Comcast SEC filing. Per the report, Peacock lost $662 million in adjusted EBITDA, as well as $252 million in intra company payments.

Peacock launched nationwide in July 2020, offering both ad-supported and premium subscriber plans. Per its most recent report in January, Comcast shared that Peacock has surpassed 33 million sign ups.

New content is set to come to Peacock, including more sports programming as NBCSN is set to shut down at some point in 2021, and the addition of WWE content, which will officially launch on the streaming service on March 18.

Despite the losses, Comcast reported a total revenue of nearly $103.6 billion in 2020, and $30.8 billion in adjusted EBITDA. NBCU, meanwhile, had a total revenue of $27.2 billion and an adjusted EBITDA of $5.4 billion.

According to TV Tech’s sister publication, B+C, Comcast will be changing its accounting for Peacock. Initially, as a startup, Peacock financials were included in the corporate category. Now, Peacock will be part of NBCUniversal’s accounting. 

NEW YORK—NBCUniversal said it made an advanced advertising agreement with Charter Communications that will expand NBC’s U.S. addressable advertising footprint.

Campaigns sold by NBCU will now be able to reach as many as 45 million households, 40% more than before the agreement with Charter was reached.

NBCU parent Comcast and Charter are among the founders of On Addressability, a consortium that aims to standardize addressable advertising to make it easier to buy and execute campaigns.

"Viewing habits have been evolving for some time now, and continue to accelerate towards on-demand and streaming platforms. Advertisers need to meet viewers in the moment, and that's why NBCUniversal has been laser-focused on expanding our addressable capabilities," said Krishan Bhatia, president & chief business officer, global advertising and partnerships, NBCUniversal.

"Through our partnership with Charter Communications, we are taking an important step forward by delivering targeted advertising to millions of Spectrum viewers who are watching video on demand. This will enable us to continue to connect our viewers to the brands they know and love, at any time of the day."

The integration of systems, allowing advertisers and agencies to leverage dynamically inserted ads into content watched on demand is expected to be operational in 2021.

“We look forward to working with NBCUniversal to help them expand their addressable offerings, and send more relevant advertisements at scale, to Spectrum customers,” said David Kline, executive vice president at Charter Communications and president of Spectrum Reach. “This partnership will provide NBCU an opportunity to make their networks more impactful to advertisers, while also furthering our goal to bring scale and accessibility to addressable TV.”

PHILADELPHIA—Peacock is cementing itself in the streaming landscape, as Comcast has announced that as of the end of 2020 the NBCUniversal streaming service has 33 million signups in the U.S.

Comcast shared the results in its fourth quarter and end-of-year 2020 financial report. Despite the growth of Peacock, Comcast reported an overall loss for both the fourth quarter and year in its business segment that includes Peacock (as well as other corporate operations). NBCUniversal, including cable networks and broadcast TV, also reported losses.

Peacock, which offers both free, ad-supported and premium, ad-free subscriptions, launched in July 2020. No specific data was provided by Comcast as to how much Peacock is bringing in in terms of revenue, but it is becoming an increasingly important component of Comcast/NBCU’s plans, as evidenced by recent news that will bring exclusive streaming rights for the WWE Network to Peacock, as well as the plan to put more sports content on the service following the shuttering of NBCSN by the end of 2021.

Among new streaming services, Peacock falls in between subscriptions for Disney+ (86.8 million, per last report) and HBO Max (17.2 million)

As for NBCUniversal, its overall revenue—which on top of cable and broadcast includes theme parks and filmed entertainment—for the Q4 2020 dropped from $9.15 billion in 2019 to $7.5 billion. For the full year NBCU’s revenue dipped from $33.96 billion in 2019 to $28.08 billion in 2020. In terms of adjusted earnings, NBCU took a 20.7% year-over-year hit in Q4, dropping to $1.6 billion, and a 28.5% drop for the full year, falling to $6.2 billion.

Taking a closer look at NBCU’s cable networks, revenue decreased $2.7 billion (6.4% year-over-year) in the fourth quarter and $10.8 billion (5.8%) for the full year.

In broadcast television, revenue saw a drop of $2.8 billion (12%) in Q4. However, revenue for the full year, $10.2 billion, was actually consistent with 2019. Comcast says it was able to counter lower advertising revenue with higher content licensing revenue, which included transactions with Peacock, distribution and other revenue.

For the full Comcast Q4 and full-year 2020 financial report, visit the company’s website. 

NEW YORK—NBCSN, the cable sports network owned by NBCUniversal, will be shut down by the end of 2021, with its live sport programming, which includes NHL games and NASCAR races, transitioning to USA Network and Peacock.

The Hollywood Reporter obtained an internal memo from NBC Sports Chairman Pete Bevacqua that details the decision.

NHL games, which will include Stanley Cup playoff games, and NASCAR races will start to air on USA Network later this year. Other key elements of NBCSN’s programming will move to USA Network, though in some cases programming will head to Peacock, NBCUniversal’s streaming service.

In addition to the NHL and NASCAR, NBCSN hosted Premier League soccer matches, live Olympics coverage, as well as smaller sports like professional lacrosse. Olympics coverage will likely move to NBC Sports’ The Olympic Channel, though it is not clear if other sports programming will play on USA Network or be exclusive to Peacock.

“This will make USA Network an extraordinarily powerful platform in the media marketplace, and gives our sports programming a significant audience boost,” said Bevacqua in the staff memo. “We believe that the power of this offering is the best long-term strategy for our Sports Group, our partners and our company.

“This transition, combined with our robust portfolio of assets, including Golf Channel, The Olympic Channel: Home of Team USA, RSNs, SportsEngine, GolfNow, digital, audio, sports betting and gaming, puts us in an even stronger position as leaders in the sports media space and to continue to grow our business.”

TV Tech’s sister publication B+C called the decision “further evidence that media companies are shifting from their profitable cable networks to the hot streaming category.”

UNIVERSAL CITY, Calif.—Susan Rovner has assumed a new role as chairman of entertainment content for NBCUniversal Television and Streaming.

 She joins NBCU following two decades at Warner Bros., most recently as president of WBTV and Warner Horizon Scripted Television, where she produced dozens of shows for a variety of platforms. Rovner will work closely with Frances Berwick, chairman of entertainment networks, and will report to Television and Streaming Chairman Mark Lazarus.

 Rovner will lead creative strategy for original entertainment content across NBCU's broadcast, cable and streaming platforms NBC, Bravo, E!, Oxygen, Syfy, Universal Kids, USA and Peacock. She will oversee development and current programming for scripted, unscripted, late night and specials, and will manage relationships with studio partners, showrunners, producers and creative talent.

 "Susan is the bold creative force we need as we rethink the future of our business," Lazarus said. "Throughout this process I have been consistently impressed by her strong perspective, track record of success and passion for content."

 During her more than 20 years with WBTV, Rovner spearheaded the company's creative expansion to develop series for on-demand/streaming services and increasing its output for premium and basic cable. She helped produce such shows as "The Flash," "Riverdale," "Blindspot," "Gotham," "Westworld," "Watchmen," "You," "Shrill" for Hulu, "Queen Sugar" and "Ted Lasso."

 "I have such enormous respect for Jeff Shell and Mark Lazarus, and their vision for the future of content at NBCU made this an extraordinary opportunity," Rovner said. "I have long admired Frances Berwick and look forward to what I know will be a successful partnership."

NEW YORK—Peacock is now available to Roku customers as the streaming device and Comcast-NBC Universal have come to terms on a distribution deal for the SVOD. The deal was finalized on the evening of Friday, Sept. 18, avoiding warnings from both sides that no deal could lead to a blackout of apps and content for the other.

As well as adding Peacock to Roku, the deal keeps NBCU’s apps—including NBC News, NBC Sports, E!, Bravo and others—on the platform.

The two sides had been at an impasse since Peacock launched nationwide in July. Last week, Roku accused NBCU of having “unreasonable” demands for distributing Peacock, while NBCU took a similar stance, saying Roku’s actions were hurting their own consumers.

Both sides sang a different tune upon reaching a deal.

“More than 15 million people signed up for Peacock since its national launch in July and we are thrilled millions more will now be able to access and enjoy Peacock along with other NBCUniversal apps on their favorite Roku devices,” said NBCU in a statement. “Roku’s incredible reach will not only help us ensure Peacock is available to our fans wherever they consume video but continue to expand NBCUniversal’s unrivaled digital presence across platforms.”

Roku added: “We are pleased to have reached an agreement with Comcast that will bring Peacock to Roku customers and maintain access to NBCU’s TV Everywhere apps. We look forward to offering these new options to consumers under an expanded, mutually beneficial relationship between our companies that includes adding NBC content to The Roku Channel and a meaningful partnership around advertising.”

Roku currently has 43 million active users.

The NBCUniversal Owned Television Stations division promoted Anzio Williams to senior vice president of diversity, equity and inclusion for the division. He leaves his current role as vice president of news for NBC10/WCAU and Telemundo62/WWSI.

Reporting to Valari Staab, president of NBCUniversal Owned Television Stations, Williams will be responsible for developing and implementing a comprehensive strategy to make diversity and inclusion issues a top priority across NBCUniversal’s owned stations group.

“Anzio is committed, passionate and thoughtful about fostering workplaces that embrace diversity and represent the communities we serve. He is also a thought leader in editorial issues of equity and fairness in media. He will help us drive meaningful change across our entire division,” said Staab. “He has always been one of my most trusted advisors on issues of diversity and equity. His new role will allow him to expand on the work that he has already done throughout his career.”

Before joining NBCU, Williams spent 12 years with Hearst Television. He launched his career in broadcast as a sports and news producer for WFMY in Greensboro, N.C. He is a recipient of nine Emmy Awards for Outstanding Achievement, Best Newscast, Breaking News and Continuing Coverage.

LOS ANGELES—Comcast/NBCUniversal’s Universal Pictures division has reached a landmark agreement with the biggest theater chain in the U.S., AMC Theatres, allowing the film distributor to release its titles straight to consumer's living rooms via premium VOD rental just 17 days after their theatrical release date. 

The deal culminates over a decade of rising tension between movie distributors and exhibitors, with the former increasingly anxious to establish flexibility for marginal titles. That tension has boiled over amid the COVID-19 pandemic, with theaters shut down and studios looking for other ways to monetize their titles.

The Universal-AMC deal allows the theater chain to participate in the premium VOD window. 

"AMC enthusiastically embraces this new industry model both because we are participating in the entirety of the economics of the new structure, and because premium video-on-demand creates the added potential for increased movie studio profitability, which should in turn lead to the green-lighting of more theatrical movies," AMC's chief executive, Adam Aron, said in a statement.

It’s unclear as to how much revenue participation AMC will have. 

Universal enraged its theatrical distribution partners at the outset of the social distancing era in March, when it announced that "Trolls World Tour," "The Hunt," "Emma" and "The Invisible Man" would be available for $19.99 rental on transactional streaming services like Vudu the same day they were to be released in theaters.

Universal was emboldened when a self-reported 5 million consumers rented "Trolls World Tour," generating $100 million. 

Universal’s upcoming film slate includes "Minions: The Rise of Gru," "Halloween Kills" (returning Jamie Lee Curtis to the 42-year-old horror franchise) and spy thriller "355" with Jessica Chastain, Penélope Cruz and Lupita Nyong’o. It also has "Jurassic World" and "Fast and Furious" installments slated for next year. 

It’s viewed as unlikely that Universal will apply the premium VOD strategy to bigger titles like those last two franchises—it’s more for low- to mid-budget genre films. 

“The theatrical experience continues to be the cornerstone of our business,” said Donna Langley, chairman of Universal Filmed Entertainment Group. “The partnership we’ve forged with AMC is driven by our collective desire to ensure a thriving future for the film distribution ecosystem and to meet consumer demand with flexibility and optionality.”

It's expected that Universal's studio rivals will push to establish similar arrangements with AMC. And it's expected that other exhibition chains will strike similar deals. 

The arrangement doesn't necessarily foretell peace in our time for media companies and exhibitors. 

Last week, for example, AT&T CEO John Stankey dismissed speculation that the company's Warner Bros. Pictures division might debut the highly anticipated Christopher Nolan film "Tenet" on the new HBO Max SVOD service. 

Stankey, however, did say that SVOD premiere might be appropriate for marginal theatrical releases.

NEW YORK—Following its three-month preview for Xfinity X1 and Flex customers, NBCUniversal is now bringing its new Peacock streaming service to all viewers, and officially entering the ever growing streaming market with its launch on July 15.

Peacock is the latest example of a major media company launching its own streaming platform for both new original content and classic fan favorites, a strategy that has been deployed to varying degrees of success for new services like HBO Max, Apple TV+ and, most notably, Disney+. However, there is one new wrinkle that NBCU hopes will be an advantage over its competitors—a free service that features more than 13,000 hours of content with advertisements.

Additional subscription options are available for consumers, including a premium tier with 20,000 hours of content with plans of $4.99-per-month with commercials and a $9.99-per-month plan without any ads at all.

Among the content that Peacock will be offering viewers at launch are 10 original productions, including “Brave New World,” a reboot of SyFy series “Psych” and “The Capture.” Some planned original series had to be put on hold because of production limitations as a result of COVID-19, including a “Friends” reunion special.

Sports will also be a part of the platform, another unique feature to the service compared to most of its competitors. Peacock will be the exclusive U.S. streaming home to the 2020-2021 Premier League season, with the premier tier having access to 175 games. It will also serve as the streaming hub for Olympics content, starting next year with the delayed Summer Games in Tokyo. Other sports that will be available on the platform include an NFL Wild Card Game, the Tour de France and the Ryder Cup.

In addition, current NBC shows will debut new episodes on Peacock one week after airing for the free tier, and one-day after for paid tiers. Full libraries of classic shows will also be available, from “The Carol Burnett Show” and “Saturday Night Live” to “Fright Night Lights” and “Battlestar Galactica,” and many more.

One of NBCU’s flagship programs, “Today,” is also launching something brand new on Peacock—“Today All Day,” 24 hours of lifestyle programming, including original video and digital series, and “Today” segments. The new offering will be available for free on Peacock, as well as Today.com.

“This is a historic moment for our company as we proudly introduce Peacock to consumers nationwide—a groundbreaking vision that was brought to life by an incredible team of people from across Comcast, NBCUniversal and Sky,” said Matt Strauss, chairman of Peacock. “From current, classic and original movies and shows, to live news, sports, curated channels and trending content from around the world, Peacock is the only free, premium ad-supported streaming service that brings together everything consumers love about television and streaming—all in one place.”

NBCU says that at launch Peacock will be available on Google gadgets—Android mobile devices; Android TV-powered smart TVs, set-tops, dongles and streaming sticks; Chromecast dongles and streaming sticks; and Chromebook computers. Support will also be available on Apple iPhones, iPads and Apple TVs, Microsoft Xbox One gaming consoles, and Vizio and LG smart TVs. PlayStation 4 gaming consoles will support the service as of July 20.

However, there is no current deal in place that will allow Peacock to play on Roku or and Amazon TV devices.

For more information, visit www.peacocktv.com.  

NEW YORK—With retailers shut down nationwide during the COVID-19 pandemic, NBCUniversal announced the launch of a new eCommerce platform that brings interactive shopping via TV closer to reality. 

“NBCUniversal Checkout” will give retailers of any size the opportunity to offer their products and services through a “storefront,” allowing viewers to purchase via several methods, be it through clicking a remote or scanning a QR code from their smart device. Part of the network’s “Shoppable TV” initiative, NBCU’s “Creative Partnerships team” will serve as a production resource to help retailers build and distribute new marketing assets. From now until the end of the year, NBCU will waive technology and cart fees on “Shoppable TV” and digital branded experiences. 

NBCUniversal Checkout transforms any piece of content on the NBCUniversal platform into an interactive shoppable experience, according to the company. Whenever fans see a product they want as a part of the content they watch—whether it’s on digital, linear or social—they will be able to instantly click and buy it. They will also be able to scan the NBCU code on their television screens to add all their products to a universal cart, powered by NBCUniversal Checkout.

The service will be available across all NBCU/Telemundo channels and will also provide social media marketing strategies as well. NBCU will set up the electronic storefronts and pass the information along to the retailer to fill the orders. While NBCU will get information about the customer, the relationship is owned by the retailer, according to TVT’s sister publication Broadcasting & Cable. 

“With NBCUniversal Checkout, both audiences and advertisers will benefit. Our viewers will get better viewing and easier shopping across our platform—and research shows when we improve the content experience for people, marketers see more impact, too,” the network said. “By bringing together creativity, innovation and intention, NBCUniversal Checkout can help our retail partners adapt to these challenging circumstances, stay connected to customers and remain open for business.”

PHILADELPHIA & NEW YORK—NBCUniversal is giving an early glimpse of its new Peacock ad-supported streaming service to Xfinity X1 and Flex customers starting today, April 15. This preview comes ahead of the national launch for the service that is expected on July 15.

“Now more than ever there is a need for a free quality streaming service that can provide viewers with both the information they need to stay informed and entertainment they seek to escape the moment,” said Matt Strauss, chairman of Peacock and NBCUniversal Digital Enterprises.

Peacock is the next streaming service in a lineup of new offerings that have included Disney+, Apple TV+, Quibi and the soon-to-be-released HBO Max.

One area where Peacock will differ from its competitors, however, is that at launch it will offer a free tier for consumers that will feature more than 7,500 hours of content, but will also feature advertisements—five minutes or less of commercials per hour, said NBCUniversal. It will also have Peacock Premium, with additional content and services, for $4.99 a month and an ad-free tier for $9.99 a month.

The preview for Xfinity X1 and Flex customers will be of Peacock Premium.

For Xfinity customers to access their preview of Peacock, then can simply start by saying “Peacock” into their Xfinity Voice Remote. In addition, Flex customers can find Peacock content in the “New This Week” and “Free to Me” rows, as well as a special “Trending Now on Peacock” row. Peacock programming will also be available in the X1 guide.

Content available right away on Peacock Premium will include NBC classic shows like “Law & Order: SVU,” “30 Rock,” “Friday Night Lights,” “Saturday Night Live” and more, as well as current NBC shows. It will also have daily news, sports and pop culture programming, and a movie library with titles like “Jurassic Park,” “American Psycho,” “E.T.,” “Meet the Parents” and more. Additional programming like “The Office,” “This Is Us” and more will be released later.

Peacock will also have a number of original programs available on the service, but according to Strauss, a majority of the original productions have been halted because of the coronavirus and as a result will not be available until likely 2021.

Also, with the postponement of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics until 2021 because of the pandemic, Peacock will not have one of its marquee events early on in its rollout as initially intended. However, when sports do return, Peacock will be a streaming home for the Premier League, the Ryder Cup, an NFL Wild Card playoff game and eventually the Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics.

Despite these delays, Tal Chalozin, co-founder and CTO of Innovid and expert of TV and streaming video, believes that Peacock is poised for success in the streaming wars.

“The current climate is very favorable for streaming platforms given that we’re seeing an increase in linear and traditional bundle drops,” Chalozin said. “During the stay-home mandate, one of the strongest data trends that Innovid has seen is the growth of ‘broadcast and cable’ content vs. other video content such as social video or long tail video. As of last week, broadcast publishers had the highest volume growth in CTV ad impressions, representing a 6% increase. Peacock is positioned well to capitalize on this trend.”

UPDATE: NBCUniversal is reportedly considering an accelerated launch for Peacock ahead of its current July 15 launch date, according to TVT's sister publication Next|TV.

For more information, visit www.peacocktv.com.  

NEW YORK—All NBCUniversal subscribers, regardless of package, will be given access to the broadcaster's full range of national news coverage to help provide critical information during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

Working with its distribution partners, all NBCU video customers can now view CNBC and MSNBC either through their video provider or on the CNBC and MSNBC online platforms, on an authenticated basis. In addition, the 24/7 online streaming service NBC News Now will be free to viewers and feature content from NBC News, CNBC and MSNBC.

Another effort that NBCU is undertaking for both NBC and Telemundo owned stations is the streaming of local newscasts and coronavirus-related press conferences for free and unauthenticated on desktop and mobile web apps.

“NBCUniversal is committed to providing a public service during the coronavirus pandemic, generating awareness and ensuring all U.S. households receive the latest news and information on the evolving global situation,” NBCU said in its announcement.

Fox announced last week that it was also planning to broaden its news offerings for viewers. 

ONTARIO—This year could be the break-out year for “shoppable TV,” which allows viewers to immediately purchase products seen on their favorite TV programs, right in the comfort of their living rooms.

The proof: Shoppable advertising platform TheTake announced a deal with LG Electronics at CES 2020 to integrate TheTake’s AI-enabled shoppable video software directly into LG’s 2020 smart TVs. Meanwhile, NBCUniversal is ramping up “Shoppable TV,” its own shoppable ad platform, which the company has been trialing on various programs since May 2019.

The old joke about being able to point and click to purchase Jennifer Aniston’s sweater on “Friends” illustrates just how long the concept has been in play. But technology has come a long way since then.

“Advertisers have been looking for ways to make their ad placements interactive for quite some time.” said Mark Hudson, TVSquared's head of Business Intelligence. (TVSquared helps advertisers assess the performance of their linear and digital TV buys.) “Today, the timing might be right, as the evolution and fragmentation of TV has been driven by the viewers themselves wanting to have more control over when, where and how they watch content.”

The hunger to buy products seen on TV seems to be growing. According to Parks Associates, 26% of U.S. broadband households see purchasing products seen on TV ads to be “appealing or very appealing.”

BROADCASTER-AGNOSTIC

The shoppable ad platform announced by TheTake and LG last month is broadcaster-agnostic. In fact, beyond selling TheTake the rights to correlate products shown on TV with manufacturers wanting to sell them online, broadcasters have little else to do with this shoppable ad platform. TheTake does the heavy lifting.

“Our retail database contains over 200 million products, supported by thousands of retailers,” said Ty Cooper, TheTake’s co-founder and CEO. “We tag products as they appear in TV programs and present buying windows to viewers when these products turn up onscreen. Using their LG remote, the viewer just clicks on the buying option and the order is directed to the retailer’s website where the order is completed. Meanwhile, we charge the retailers per click and/or take a percentage of the sale in compensation for our work.”

LG smart TV users will be able to buy TheTake-enabled shoppable products with the click of their remote. So will customers of one yet unnamed U.S. MVPD who is integrating TheTake’s shoppable ad platform into their set-top boxes in 2020.

Meanwhile, TheTake has been busy striking broadcaster-specific shoppable TV deals with WarnerMedia, A+E Networks, Crown Media Family Networks and NBCUniversal.

“Our work with TheTake is really the first time we will be able to make shoppable experiences on our linear networks seamless, with the first rollout on LG televisions this year,” said

Larry Allen, WarnerMedia Ad Sales’ vice president of ad product strategy. “Their AI technology, which helps identify what’s on-screen and ties it to an ecommerce opportunity, is unique and, more importantly, scalable. We’re excited to see how consumers embrace this format this year.”

NBCUNIVERSAL PUSHES AHEAD

In contrast to TheTake’s shoppable ad platform, NBCUniversal’s ShoppableTV is broadcaster-centric. In fact, the system won’t work without the broadcaster’s active participation.

“During NBCUniversal programming, viewers are alerted to an upcoming, on-air shoppable moment,” said Josh Feldman, executive vice president/head of marketing and advertising creative for NBCUniversal. “An NBCU code appears on the lower third of the screen, and viewers simply point their smartphone at the television, scan the code and are taken directly to the brand's site to complete their purchase.”

NBCUniversal makes its money by taking a percentage of the sale; the percentage varying from client to client depending on whatever deal has been struck.

NBCUniversal started rolling out ShoppableTV in test trials in May 2019; extending the technology to “our full portfolio in October of 2019, adding lifestyle brands for the first time,” said Feldman. “Since our launch in May, we have executed several ShoppableTV experiences across a variety of networks and formats. For example, during the French Open, we partnered with Lacoste to drive viewers to shop immediately on the brand's website. Since then, we've also activated with Walmart in partnership with ‘The Today Show;’ Roli during NBC's ‘Songland;’ Zwift for the Tour de France and most recently with dpHUE during E!'s ‘Very Cavallari’ holiday special.”

HOW WILL IT IMPACT CONVENTIONAL ADS?

The ability of shoppable ads to generate revenues from programming, rather than commercial spots, is good news for broadcasters in a PVR-driven ad-skipping age. But given that advertising dollars are limited, the question has to be asked: Will shoppable ads cannibalize conventional TV advertising sales?

Josh Feldman doesn’t think so. “There is no conflict with the rest of our advertising business,” he said. “What is nice about ShoppableTV is that it opens the door to many brands that are not traditional national TV advertisers to sell their products directly to our valuable audiences across all of NBCU.” He added that “commercial innovation ads” like ShoppableTV test well with TV viewers, with 92% preferring them to standard ads.”

WarnerMedia’s Larry Allen shares Feldman’s confidence. “I think the media industry overall is trying to move away from just measuring the value of advertising through the lens of exposure and layering in insights about how advertising actually drove consumers to take action,” said Allen. “Shoppable ads are another part of that shift and is another tool for our ad sales organization to engage with clients in thinking about how their investments work harder within our premium content, not only in a traditional 30-second commercial.”

Meanwhile, TVSquared’s Mark Hudson says the real threat to conventional TV ads is not shoppable ads, but the imprecise targeting of 30-second TV spots to people who want to buy these products.

“The key to making the ads themselves successful is using data to determine who will be most likely to respond to that sort of ad,” he said. “That’s a question of skilled targeting and data understanding, rather than the ‘wow’ factor of an ad.”

NEW YORK & LONDON—NBCUniversal and Sky have announced plans to launch its world news service this summer.

Aimed at English-speaking audiences around the globe, NBC Sky World News will recruit new talent as well as 100 employees to produce programming.

The Comcast-owned companies intend to open 10 new international bureaus “in places we feel news is under-reported,” according to NBC News International President Deborah Turness.

“We see an opportunity to begin an approach that isn’t filtered through a U.S. perspective or a British perspective or any national perspective,” she said. “We can bring our journalism to the wide world, but also invest heavily in global journalism so we can add to the story and really create an approach and product that can deliver the global perspective we believe the world wants right now.”

Comcast believes it can reach 130 million households in non-U.S. markets, Turness added. The company expects to distribute NBC Sky World News via cable, satellite and digital video in Europe, alongside NBCUniversal’s streaming service Peacock in the U.S.

Turness also confirmed that Euronews, in which NBC News holds a 25% stake, will remain a separate entity “very much about Europe and for Europeans, whereas we are in a different part of the market.”

This story originally appeared on TVT's sister publication TVBEurope.

NEW YORK—Peacock, NBCUniversal’s upcoming streaming platform, will strut its feathers starting in April for Comcast customers before it becomes available to everyone later in the year, officially joining the ongoing streaming wars between many major studios and networks.

NBCU unveiled the plan for Peacock at a Comcast investor presentation on Jan. 16, offering a myriad of details for the free, ad-supported streaming service that will feature subscription tiers and content that includes more than 600 movies and 400 TV shows, as well as live and on-demand news, sports, late night and reality content.

Comcast Xfinity X1 and Flex customers will have access to Peacock as of April 15, three months before it will be available nationally on July 15.

Unlike its already released competitors Disney+ and Apple TV+, Peacock is offering tiered subscription plans for the service, including a free, ad-supported option. Peacock Free, as it is known, offers next-day access to current seasons of freshman broadcast series, complete classic series, movies, curated daily news and sports programming—which will include the Olympics—Spanish-language content, select episodes of Peacock originals and tent-pole series, and access to Peacock streaming genre channels like “SNL Vault,” “Family Movie Night” and “Olympic Profiles.”

Then there will be Peacock Premium, which will have an ad-supported version that can be bundled at no additional cost to Comcast and Cox subscribers, and available for $4.99 per month for non-bundled customers; NBCU says it expects to expand its bundling partners in the coming months. In addition to all of the Peacock Free offerings, Premium will provide the full seasons of Peacock originals and tent-pole series, next day access to current seasons of returning series, early access to late night talk shows and additional sports programming, including the Premier League.

If customers want to go for an ad-free service it will cost an additional $5 per month for Premium customers, or $9.99 per month for anyone.

As far as what content will be available for Peacock customers, the service announced it will be the streaming home for Dick Wolf’s “Law & Order” and “Chicago” brands; Paramount Network’s “Yellowstone”; as well as “Two and a Half Men” and “The George Lopez Show.” These shows join previously announced content that included “30 Rock,” “Battlestar Galactica,” “Brooklyn Nine-Nine,” “Cheers,” “Downton Abbey,” “Everybody Loves Raymond,” “Frasier,” “Friday Night Lights,” “Married … With Children,” “The Office,” “Parks and Recreation,” “Saturday Night Live” and “Will & Grace.”

Peacock will also host a number of original series. Kevin Hart’s Laugh Out Loud network signed a multi-year deal that in addition to the network’s archived content will include a stand-up special from Hart, an original interview series and a series of short-form content. There will also be the Tina Fey-produced “Girls5Eva,” international series from NBCUniversal International Studios and a number of classic series reboots like “Saved by the Bell,” “Punky Brewster” and more.

Peacock will also take advantage of the Olympics in its first few months of existence, with the streaming platform providing live coverage of the Opening and Closing Ceremonies before they air on NBC in primetime and three daily Olympic shows, including “Tokyo Live,” “Tokyo Daily Digest” and “Tokyo Tonight.” The service will also have more than 1,000 hours of the Paralympics and will have access to the Olympic Channel, following the Tokyo games.

Other sport offerings will include the Premier League starting in August and the 2020 Ryder Cup in September.

Peacock will also feature live breaking news coverage through its NBC News Now streaming network, which will feature “NBC Nightly News With Lester Holt,” “Today,” “Meet the Press With Chuck Todd” and other NBC News content.

More information on Peacock is available at www.peacocktv.com.

ATLANTA—The competitive sports market has a new resource aimed specifically at sports technology startups, as Comcast NBCUniversal has announced the launch of its SportsTech global accelerator program open to startups from around the world.

SportsTech will partner with NBCU’s NBC Sports, Golf Channel and Sky Sports brands, as well as with NASCAR and the U.S. Ski and Snowboard and USA Swimming organizations to provide resources and relationships for the startups. All partners will also serve on an advisory committee tasked with influencing the innovation priorities of SportsTech.

The startups that participate in SportsTech will have access to an international consortium of advisors, a custom sports tech curriculum shaped by industry experts and investment capital. The partners, meanwhile, will get early exposure to emerging sports tech trends and technologies and insight into how they can benefit their businesses.

There will be specific areas of focus for SportsTech as it gets underway, including sports media & entertainment; fan & player engagement; venue & event innovation; fantasy sports & betting; eSports; business of sports; and technologies designed for players and coaches.

“SportsTech will provide the curriculum and platform for founders to develop their ideas while obtaining mentorship from leaders in multiple sports, enabling them to further deploy their technologies to dramatically improve sports experiences for athletes and audiences alike,” said Jenna Kurath, vice president of Startup Partner Development, Comcast Cable.

Interested startups can apply for SportsTech between now and May 15, with the initial three-month program beginning in August in Atlanta. Ten companies will be selected and the program will be directed by Boomtown Accelerators.

For more information on the SportsTech program, visit www.comcastsportstech.com. 

NEW YORK—TVSquared has reached an agreement with NBCUniversal Owned Television Stations—which includes 42 NBC and Telemundo owned stations and nine NBC Sports Regional Sports Networks—to provide TVSquared’s TV attribution system for use by local advertisers.

The TVSquared offering is an analytics platform that provides advertisers with same-day views into how linear and digital TV campaigns are directly impacting business outcomes, things like website traffic, app engagement, search, SMS/phone activity and actual sales.

Specifically, the NBC-owned stations and RSN local advertisers will be able to evaluate the performance of both linear and OTT advertising; measure how ad campaigns directly impact multiple business-specific KPIs; optimize buys to reach audience segments that both respond and convert to improve ROI; maximize local TV’s reach by scaling across 30 markets; and understand TV performance at granular levels.

The TVSquared service is now available in every market covered by the NBC-owned stations and RSNs.

NEW YORK—NBCUniversal and ListenFirst have announced a new partnership that will have ListenFirst handle social analytics for NBCU’s global brand portfolio, including its TV networks, TV stations, TV operations, films and theme parks.

NBCUniversal has more than 1,500 social handles and had a social fan footprint of more than 270 million people and nearly a billion social engagements in 2018. ListenFirst will streamline all of those social handles into one unified analytics platform, and will provide insights that will help set NBCU’s social media audience engagement strategy.

ListenFirst will also provide NBCU’s ad sales team with measurement of partnerships, as well as syndicated rankings of social media performance of TV shows, TV networks, media properties and influencers across media and entertainment industries.

“We are thrilled that NBCUniversal has selected ListenFirst to help manage its social reporting, enabling a consistent global strategy for all teams and agency partners who touch social,” said Jason Klein, co-founder and co-CEO of ListenFirst.

LAS VEGAS—Telemundo Las Vegas (KBLR) pulled back the curtain on its new media center and studio space earlier this week, which has the distinction of being the first NBCUniversal-owned station to have its news and production infrastructure hosted on a private cloud system.

The 22,000-plus square-foot media center’s cloud system is located at an off-site data technology center in Dallas at KBLR’s sister stations, KXAS/KXTK. In addition to the cloud infrastructure, the new media center features a modern studio design with a 12x7-foot LED array, a new anchor desk, a dedicated weather center, robotic cameras and new production control rooms.

A new piece of equipment brought into KBLR is the Ross Inception Newsroom System, a newsroom tool that improves news gathering and content publishing across multiple platforms, including social media.

Off camera, the redesigned space features an open-space newsroom area with dedicated desk pods for the station’s news team, Wi-Fi access throughout, flex work spaces, phone rooms and more. The stations was also designed to be energy efficient.

KBLR delivers more than 10 hours of live and locally-produced news programming to Southern Nevada’s Hispanic audiences every week.

NEW YORK—NBCUniversal Owned Television Stations is expanding on its local-style news services that it offers from its 42-owned local TV stations with a new digital news brand, LX. LX, which stands for “Local X,” looks to serve millennial and Gen Z viewers with what it describes as stirring and straightforward storytelling that acknowledges the country’s diverse culture with in-depth and visually rich content that focuses on communities.

NBCUniversal has officially launched LX on YouTube, as well as on its own website, LX.com, and social media platforms. Over-the-air and streaming networks that will feature live programming are expected to debut in April 2020.

“Our younger audiences want stories that are relatable. They want to feel a connection with the people delivering the news to them. They want more context about what’s happening in their neighborhoods. LX will deliver this and more,” said Valari Staab, president of NBCUniversal Owned Television Stations. “Our team has been working hard to create a place that younger audiences can go to watch stories that are about them, and get the background and complex issues happening in their own backyard but still walk away feeling inspired about the power we all have to affect positive changes for our communities.”

LX has embedded a team of its “visual storytellers” in Los Angeles, Boston, Dallas, Miami and New York to create and deliver the stories that will make up its platform. The platform launches with stories on urban farming in the Dallas area; a Venice, Calif.-based surfing program called “Black Girls Surf;” and a profile of the owner behind Boston’s Mei Mei restaurant.

Find out more at LX.com, and watch the launch video below.

NEW YORK—NBC is known as the peacock network thanks to its classic logo, and it is keeping that identity with its upcoming streaming service, which will simply be known as Peacock. NBCUniversal also announced that it will launch the service in April 2020.

The Peacock streaming service will offer both original series, reboots and serve as the exclusive streaming home for many NBC classic series, while also offering film content, news, sports, late-night and reality programming. As part of its announcement it unveiled its initial content lineup.

As previously announced, the service will be the exclusive streaming home for series like “The Office” and “Parks and Recreation.” In addition, Peacock will host popular series including “30 Rock,” “Bates Motel,” the original “Battlestar Galactica,” “Brooklyn Nine-Nine,” “Cheers,” “Chrisley Knows Best,” “Covert Affairs,” “Downton Abbey,” “Everyone Loves Raymond,” “Fraiser,” “Friday Night Lights,” “House,” “Keeping Up With the Kardashians,” “King of Queens,” “Married … With Children,” “Monk,” “Parenthood,” “Psych,” “Royal Pains,” “Saturday Night Live,” “Superstore,” “The Real Housewives,” “Top Chef” and “Will & Grace.”

New dramas set to premiere on the streaming service include “Dr. Death” with Alec Baldwin based on the popular podcast; “Brave New World” starring Demi Moore; original Spanish-language dramedy “Armas de Mujer”; a reboot of “Battlestar Galactica”; “Angelyne” with Emmy Rossum; and “One of Us Is Lying” based on the best-selling young-adult mystery thriller.

On the comedy side, new programs will include “Rutherford Falls” starring Ed Helms; “Straight Talk” from Rashida Jones and Jada Pinkett Smith; a new season of “A.P. Bio”; a second movie spin-off of “Psych”; and a pair of reboots of “Punky Brewster” with original star Soleil Moon Frye and “Saved by the Bell” with Elizabeth Berkley and Mario Lopez.

There will also be a handful of new unscripted programs. Lorne Michael’s has created an “SNL” docuseries called “Who Wrote That”; Jimmy Fallon will launch a new original talk show series; there will be a weekly late night show from Seth Myers starring Amber Ruffin; and a spinoff of “The Real Housewives” series.

Launching in 2020, Peacock is also set to be part of NBC’s coverage of the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo.

In addition, Peacock’s slate of film content will feature popular titles from Universal Pictures and Focus Features. Universal Pictures is also developing original films and animated series for the streaming service, while DreamWorks Animation is working on original animated content for kids.

When it launches in April, NBC says that Peacock will feature more than 15,000 hours of content.

The streaming service will be supported both by advertising and subscription services. Pricing and distribution details are expected to be announced closer to launch.