NBCUniversal Inks Deal to Bring Peacock to Roku
Peacock, NBCUniversal’s recently-launched streaming service, will be available on Roku in the near future.
The two companies reached a deal on Friday afternoon, several hours after reports surfaced that dozens of NBCUniversal’s other apps would be removed from Roku over the weekend due to the stalled Peacock negotiations. A Roku spokesperson stated that those apps would continue to be accessible as part of the agreement to bring Peacock to Roku. A specific date for Peacock’s Roku availability was not provided by either company.
“We are pleased Roku recognizes the value in making NBCUniversal’s incredible family of apps and programming, including Peacock, available to all of their users across the country,” an NBCUniversal spokesperson said in a statement. “More than 15 million people signed up for Peacock since its national launch in July and we are thrilled millions more will now be able to access and enjoy Peacock along with other NBCUniversal apps on their favorite Roku devices. Roku’s incredible reach will not only help us ensure Peacock is available to our fans wherever they consume video but continue to expand NBCUniversal’s unrivaled digital presence across platforms.”
Roku and Amazon’s Fire TV are the two most popular products in the connected TV market — research firm Parks Associates estimated that they control around 70 percent of the connected TV market in a 2019 study — and Peacock’s lack of availability on those platforms caused it to lose out on a significant number of potential customers at launch. Peacock is still unavailable on Fire TV. HBO Max, WarnerMedia’s streaming service that launched in May, is still unavailable on both connected TV devices.
“We are pleased to have reached an agreement with Comcast that will bring Peacock to Roku customers and maintains access to NBCU’s TV Everywhere apps,” a Roku spokesperson said in a statement. “We look forward to offering these new options to consumers under an expanded, mutually beneficial relationship between our companies that includes adding NBC content to The Roku Channel and a meaningful partnership around advertising.”
IndieWire reported in August that Peacock and HBO Max’s lack of availability on Roku and Fire TV centered on issues such as control of user data and ad inventory. Terms of NBCUniversal’s new Roku deal were not disclosed.
