Blog: NBCUniversal

Read our latest daily deep dives, hot takes, and exciting updates about the entertainment world. Check out the latest insight from your favourite analyst, or search by coverage areas - music, entertainment and fandom, creator economy and social.

Why Netflix should become a channel distributor for its streaming rivals

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Ben Woods

21 Sep 2023

Long-running legal drama Suits has become a bittersweet tale for NBCUniversal. The show that gave Meghan Markle her pre-royalty taste of stardom was already considered a commercial success after its final episode aired on September 25, 2019.

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The great monetisation reset

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Tim Mulligan

6 Apr 2023

Kerv Interactive

2023 is shaping up to be an inflection point for video. The initial wave of streaming disruption is maturing and recalibrating to reflect a new period of adjustment to the new normal of slowing subscriber growth and increasingly constrained consumer spending.

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Hayu’s arrival in India means a reality check for the reality genre

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Tim Mulligan

7 Dec 2021

Keeping Up With the Kardashians

Hayu , the reality TV niche SVOD service, launches in India on Thursday. Its parent company, NBCUniversal, has decided to make the 1.3 billion strong market the 28thterritory in which Hayu is now available.

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What YouTube TV’s stand-off with NBCU reveals about phase 2 of D2C disruption

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Tim Mulligan

29 Sep 2021

YouTube TV’s stand-off with NBCU is approaching decision-making time, as tomorrow, September 30th, is the cut-off point for the streaming platform to meet the distribution terms of NBCU. If no agreement is reached, then YouTube TV subscribers will lose access to a wide range of NBCU channels, from regional sports networks to NBC, SyFy, USA, and Bravo, among others.

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Discovery enters streaming race with discovery+ and Olympics offering

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Alistair Taylor

9 Dec 2020

Last week , Discovery announced it will launch discovery+, ‘the definitive non-fiction’ subscription-video-on-demand (SVOD), on January 4th, 2021. Consumers in the US can expect the largest-ever content library for a new streaming service from launch, with more than 55,000 episodes from Discovery’s iconic brands such as the BBC’s Natural History collection, A&E Networks, Group Nine and more.

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NBCUniversal hopes to draw level with Premier League move

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Alistair Taylor

15 Jul 2020

With Comcast’s NBCUniversal-owned Peacock launching today (July 15th), sports fans will be excited ahead of NBCU’s repositioning of its English Premier League (EPL) rights, giving paying subscribers access to 175 fixtures for the 2020/2021 season on its over-the-top (OTT) streaming service.

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Olympics Postponement: The Sports Media Landscape of COVID-19

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Alistair Taylor

26 Mar 2020

Advertising Revenue

The global COVID-19 pandemic is increasing pressure on the viability of emerging and legacy media business models, and is already having an unprecedented impact on the sports industry. An unprecedented swathe of cancelled sports events has left rights holders unable to monetise their existing broadcasting of rights within tightly-scheduled windows.

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Peacock Goes for Gold

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Alistair Taylor

23 Jan 2020

On the 16 th of January , Comcast (owner of NBCUniversal) unveiled further details of its direct to consumer (D2C) proposition, Peacock. Peacock is set to debut on the 15 th of April exclusively for Comcast’s Xfinity X1 and Flex customers, before being rolled out nationally across the US on July 15 th .

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Peacock Gets Ready to Ruffle Some D2C Feathers

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Tim Mulligan

22 Jan 2020

On January 16 th , US communications behemoth Comcast (owner of NBCUniversal) held an investors day to provide much-needed clarity around its forthcoming direct-to-consumer (D2C) service Peacock. Of the big four D2C services due to launch in a 12-month period between H2 2019 and H2 2020, Peacock is the late entrant – but potentially the one with the biggest disruptive impact.

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Disney+ Recovers From Initial Blunder to Surpass 10 Million Sign Ups on Debut!

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Alistair Taylor

14 Nov 2019

21st Century Fox

all-encompassing offering

AppleTV+. Market saturation

Disney claims unexpected traffic on its newly-launched service was at fault for the buffering and technical issues of Disney+’s launch Tuesday . The issues highlight just how difficult it is transitioning from a media company to a tech player, with technical glitches an enormous issue for digital-native subscribers.

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Could a Recession Change the Tide for Sports Rights Allocation?

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Alistair Taylor

24 Sep 2019

additive services

all-encompassing offering

Revenue remains rights holder’s priority qualifier for allocating rights. However, with an impending recession, we are likely nearing an inflection point whereby rights holders may start to look towards prioritising reach over revenue.

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Telcos, Media, and the Battle for Monopsony

Tim Mulligan

14 Jun 2018

This week has seen the culmination of unprecedented moves in the realignment of the Telco and media ecosystems. In October 2016 AT&T, the largest US Telco, put in a bid to acquire content conglomerate Time Warner.

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Revenues Up But Audiences Down- The TV Sports Conundrum

Tim Mulligan

1 Sep 2016

The 2016 Rio Olympics were bitter sweet for NBCUniversal. The US Network which holds the exclusive US TV broadcasting rights for the Olympics announced both record ad revenues and at the same time a decline in TV viewers compared with the 2012 London Olympics.

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Quick Take: Why Mr. Robot App Is an Exciting Case To Watch

Karol Severin

19 Aug 2016

Mobile messaging

Mr. Robot is a cyber-security psychological thriller of NBCUniversal, popular with the tech-crowd. The company has partnered up with Telltale Games and Night School Studio and created a mobile game as a spin-off.

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The Voice Comes To Snapchat

Tim Mulligan

9 Aug 2016

Yesterday’s announcement by TV Network NBCUniversal that it has agreed a new multi-year deal with Snapchat to produce short form versions of its content specifically for the messaging platform represents a significant move forward for both companies.

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