Comcast's NBCUniversal has plenty of iconic movies and shows on their slate, and soon, all these content will be available on their own streaming service.
The media conglomerate is planning to jump into the online platform and be part of the streaming wars, along with HBO, Disney, Apple, and other large companies.
The NBCUniversal streaming service is expected to debut in the first quarter of 2020.
Free, Ad-Supported Streaming Service From NBC
According to a source on CNBC, Comcast's upcoming streaming product will be ad-supported. It will be free to any user who subscribes to a pay-TV service, even competitors such as AT&T, Charter, and others, while those who don't have a subscription to pay-TV will need to shell out a $12 monthly fee for the service.
"One of the interesting things about this that makes it different and innovative is that we'll have a big emphasis on free-to-consumer," NBCUniversal CEO Steve Burke told CNBC. "We want to create a platform that has significant scale and can scale quickly. The best way to do that, is make it free to consumers and leverage the fact that NBCUniversal's sister company is a cable company and now owns Sky."
Burke added that NBC is planning to air three to five minutes of ads per hour of programming on the service. This is expected to make NBC about $5 per month for every user from advertising.
The new service from NBC will be the first long-form, ad-supported streaming service on the market.
What Will Be Available On The Service?
Besides being free, another big draw of Comcast's new streaming product is the content, which will include hit NBC shows and Universal Pictures films.
Many beloved television series, such as Saturday Night Live, Parks and Recreation, and The Office, will be available on the service exclusively. Endgadget notes that Friends, one of the most popular NBC television shows in the past several decades, won't likely be available here as it's slated to be an HBO Max exclusive starting 2020.
While the movies expected to be in the streaming service aren't confirmed yet, some of the most iconic films by Universal Pictures include the Jurassic World series and the Fast and the Furious series.
Burke also revealed that the company plans to include live TV, such as news and sports, in their streaming service. A number of content from other companies such as Warner Bros., Sony, and Discovery are also expected.
