NBC is moving to compete with Hulu, Netflix, etc., with its new streaming service, Peacock. The new service, which launched in the middle of the pandemic, offered consumers a world-class collection of the best live and on-demand programming from NBCUniversal while many people were sheltering in place. Rolling out spoke with Matt Strauss, chairman of Peacock and NBCUniversal Digital Enterprises, about diversity issues within the entertainment industry and whether the network plans to capitalize on the fact that going to the movies isn’t an option in 2020.
How does Peacock plan to serve consumers differently now that so many people are relying on home entertainment because of the restraints placed on most of us due to social distancing?
While so much has changed in the world over the last few months, our strategy for Peacock has remained the same. Even before the pandemic, we knew people were experiencing subscription fatigue and questioning how many streaming services they need. So instead of repeating the subscription video-on-demand service model, we wanted to provide consumers with a fresh proposition — a free, premium streaming service that taps into the different ways people watch TV by bringing the best of TV and streaming together.
We also knew that a broad on-demand catalog was great for when people know what they want to watch, and Peacock aggregates more than 20,000 hours [of] the best movies and shows, as well as LIVE and on-demand news, sports, reality, Spanish-language content from across NBCUniversal and beyond. But sometimes, viewers don’t know what they want to watch; they just want to lean back and watch TV. So, we created more than 30 curated channels on Peacock featuring everything from live news to dedicated channels of the best moments from popular series like “The Office” or “Saturday Night Live.”
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