Comcast’s Peacock is strutting its stuff on center stage.
The company announced more details about its upcoming service Peacock at a special investor presentation Thursday. The latest entrant in the streaming revolution is expected to draw users away from traditional cable and satellite subscriptions and more towards over-the-top and subscription replacements.
Peacock can be seen as a way for Comcast to hedge their losses and plan for the future. The service will have three tiers. An ad-supported version with 7,500 hours of programming will be free for everyone. There will also be a full version that includes 15,000 hours of programming with original content, which will be $4.99 for an ad-supported version and $10 for an ad-free version. Comcast and Cox customers will get the full ad-supported version for free. Of the major streaming subscription services, only Hulu currently allows for traditional advertising.
The service previously announced it will be the exclusive home for hit content including “The Office,” “30 Rock,” the “Law and Order” series, and “Parks and Recreation,” as well as Universal movies like the “Fast & Furious” and “Back to the Future” franchises. It will also have original series like reboots of “Punky Brewster,” “Battlestar Galactica” and “Saved by the Bell,” in addition to a new series based of the novel “Brave New World” and the podcast “Dr. Death.”
Comcast is expected to spend about $2 billion on content. New shows including “MacGruber” and DreamWorks Animation series like “Madagascar: A Little Wild” will debut on the service. “The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon” and “Late Night with Seth Meyers” will post at 8 p.m. ET ahead of its late-night airings. And, a joint-venture live-news service between NBC News and Sky will stream on the platform.
As a telecommunications company, Comcast has been in an interesting position as the number of cable subscriptions dwindle. The five largest pay-TV services lost a total of 3.2 million customers in 2018 or about 4.2 percent, according to their company reports. The numbers have continued to decline, including a 1.74 million subscriber drop in Q3 of 2019 alone, according to Leichtman Research Group.
To launch the service, Comcast is pulling many of its shows from rival streamers. It reportedly paid $500 million for a five-year deal to move “The Office” off of Netflix and onto Peacock. It is also expected to move shows from Hulu to Peacock once their current deals expire. Exclusivity rights with Hulu end as early as this year, and Comcast can cancel its licensing agreements starting in 2022. Comcast was previously a partial owner of Hulu, but the company sold its stake to Disney for $5.8 billion through a deal announced in May 2019.
Ford is recalling more than 355,000 of its pickup trucks across the U.S. because of an instrument panel display failure that’s resulted in critical information, like warning lights and vehicle speed, not showing up on the dashboard.
Nvidia reported a 56% increase in second-quarter revenue and a 59% rise in net income compared to a year ago.
The Rev. Al Sharpton is set to lead a protest march on Wall Street to urge corporate America to resist the Trump administration’s campaign to roll back diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives. The New York civil rights leader will join clergy, labor and community leaders Thursday in a demonstration through Manhattan’s Financial District that’s timed with the anniversary of the Civil Rights-era March on Washington in 1963. Sharpton called DEI the “civil rights fight of our generation." He and other Black leaders have called for boycotting American retailers that scaled backed policies and programs aimed at bolstering diversity and reducing discrimination in their ranks.
President Donald Trump's administration last month awarded a $1.2 billion contract to build and operate what's expected to become the nation’s largest immigration detention complex to a tiny Virginia firm with no experience running correction facilities.
Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos claims audiences don't want to watch Netflix movies in theaters, but that seems not to be the case recently.
Chipmaker Nvidia is poised to release a quarterly report that could provide a better sense of whether the stock market has been riding an overhyped artificial intelligence bubble or is being propelled by a technological boom that’s still gathering momentum.
Cracker Barrel said late Tuesday it’s returning to its old logo after critics — including President Donald Trump — protested the company’s plan to modernize.
Low-value imports are losing their duty-free status in the U.S. this week as part of President Donald Trump's agenda for making the nation less dependent on foreign goods. A widely used customs exemption for international shipments worth $800 or less is set to end starting on Friday. Trump already ended the “de minimis” rule for inexpensive items sent from China and Hong Kong, but having to pay import taxes on small parcels from everywhere else likely will be a big change for some small businesses and online shoppers. Purchases that previously entered the U.S. without needing to clear customs will be subject to the origin country’s tariff rate, which can range from 10% to 50%.
Southwest Airlines will soon require plus-size travelers to pay for an extra seat in advance if they can't fit within the armrests of one seat. This change is part of several updates the airline is making. The new rule starts on Jan. 27, the same day Southwest begins assigning seats. Currently, plus-size passengers can pay for an extra seat in advance and later get a refund, or request a free extra seat at the airport. Under the new policy, refunds are still possible but not guaranteed. Southwest said in a statement it is updating policies to prepare for assigned seating next year.
Cracker Barrel is sticking with its new logo. For now. But the chain is also apologizing to fans who were angered when the change was announced last week.
