Report: Comcast To Change Content Sharing With Hulu

Comcast Corp.’s NBCUniversal is finalizing a plan that would drastically change its partnership with Hulu, shifting high-profile programming to its own Peacock streaming platform, according to The Wall Street Journal citing people familiar with the matter.

Starting this fall, new episodes of shows like “The Voice,” “Saturday Night Live” and “American Auto” would no longer be available on Hulu soon after they air as a result of that plan, they said.

NBCUniversal has taken many steps recently to strengthen Peacock, which has struggled to establish itself in a crowded environment. The move would also be the latest indication of the changing relationship between Hulu’s co-owners—Walt Disney Co. and NBCUniversal—which went from streaming partners to direct competitors in recent years.

Comcast, which owns a third of Hulu, launched Peacock less than two years ago, while Disney, which owns the rest, introduced Disney+ in late 2019. The two new services have had varying fortunes: Disney on Wednesday said Disney+ had nearly 130 million subscribers globally, while NBCU last month said over 9 million people were paying for Peacock, which is available free of charge to subscribers of Comcast and other cable providers. Peacock also offers a no-frills, ad-supported version that is free to anyone.

Expanding Peacock’s subscriber base is one of Comcast’s top priorities, as the company is looking to become a streaming giant in its own right. Comcast is doubling its content spending for Peacock to $3 billion this year, and the service is betting that a series of high-profile sporting events—from the Beijing Winter Olympics to the coming Super Bowl—will help it attract more customers. Starting this year, NBCUniversal is also making most Universal movies available for streaming on Peacock as soon as 45 days after their theatrical release.

Hulu rose to prominence among cord-cutters as a destination for next-day airings of broadcast TV series, such as ABC’s “Grey’s Anatomy” and NBC’s “This Is Us.” NBCUniversal is considering making next-day airings of future NBC shows exclusively on Peacock’s premium tier, which subscribers have to pay for, some of the people familiar with the matter said. The Wall Street Journal earlier reported NBCUniversal was considering removing content from Hulu and making it exclusive to Peacock.

NBCUniversal has until Friday to inform Disney of its plans regarding the Hulu content-sharing pact, people close to the situation said. The company was originally scheduled to announce its decision earlier this year, but the deadline was pushed back to Feb. 11 as the two sides continued to negotiate an exit strategy, they said. If NBCUniversal chose not to exercise the option to remove the shows, they would remain on Hulu through 2024.

The recent proliferation of streaming services—many of which are owned by companies that also produce content—has led to a major realignment of priorities for most players. Many media giants that were once happy to license their shows and movies to streaming platforms are now having to decide what to take back, giving up licensing revenue for the promise of attracting more subscribers. Shortly after it announced the launch of Peacock in 2019, Comcast said it would take away “The Office,” one of the most popular shows on streaming, from Netflix Inc. and offer it on Peacock exclusively.