Add another major streaming service to the mix.
NBCUniversal has announced the first details for its ad-supported service, which it says will be called Peacock. Debuting in April, Peacock will carry more than 15,000 hours of programming and some familiar names.
Parks and Recreation and The Office will stream there exclusively (once The Office wraps up its run on Netflix in 2020). And, like CBS, NBC hopes to woo subscribers with several big name shows, including a science fiction standard.
A revamped Battlestar Galactica (from Mr. Robot‘s Sam Esmail) will be a Peacock exclusive, as will reboots of Saved By the Bell and Punky Brewster. Also in the works are a movie spinoff of Psyched as well as Dr. Death (starring Alec Baldwin, Jamie Dornan and Christian Slater), Brave New World with Demi Moore and Rutherford Falls, co-created by Michael Schur, who brought The Good Place to NBC. The company hasn’t yet decided whether to roll shows out on a weekly basis or all at once for binge watching.
The network will also have a Saturday Night Live docu-series called Who Wrote That. And, naturally, shows and films owned by the company (ranging from 30 Rock, SNL, Downton Abbe y and Married…With Children to Bridesmaids, Back to the Future, Shrek and The Breakfast Club) will also air on Peacock.
It will have a big role in the 2020 Summer Olympics, as well.
NBC will unveil the exact launch date and pricing information at a later date. The service will launch in the U.S., but eventually go global.
Peacock will face stiff competition as the streaming service front gets more crowded. Disney+ will have launched several months prior, as will Apple’s streaming service. And Netflix and Amazon will continue to fight to hold onto their existing member base.
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