MSNBC To Stream On Comcast's Peacock Service

MSNBC said Thursday it is putting much of its TV lineup on its parent company’s Peacock service, an effort to increase its offerings as competition in streaming news heats up.

The Wall Street Journal reports beginning this spring, shows including “Morning Joe,” “All In With Chris Hayes, ” “The ReidOut,” “Deadline: White House” and “The Beat with Ari Melber ” will appear on Peacock hours after they air on TV, MSNBC said. The shows will be available to Peacock Premium subscribers, who pay at least $4.99 a month for the service.

MSNBC President Rashida Jones said in an interview that the streaming push will introduce the TV shows to viewers who watch the network’s channel on Peacock, which until now had been called “The Choice.” The network is doing away with that brand soon, putting all of its streaming programming under the banner MSNBC on Peacock, she said.

“The idea is, you can watch it live on cable or you can watch it at your leisure on streaming,” Ms. Jones said.

The decision to put some of MSNBC’s programming on Peacock with a delay allows the network to capture streaming subscribers without competing directly with the cable bundle, a profit center for TV news. Some of the network’s programs, including “The Rachel Maddow Show,” “The Last Word” and “The 11th Hour” aren’t slated to appear on Peacock, according to a person familiar with the matter.

The move is part of an effort by NBCUniversal News Group Chairman Cesar Conde to transition the company’s news networks toward streaming as viewers cut the cable cord. The group’s offerings include NBC News Now, an advertising-supported streaming service that is widely distributed on services including Alphabet Inc.’s YouTube and Roku Inc.’s the Roku Channel.

Competitors of NBCUniversal, a unit of Comcast Corp., also are making significant investments in streaming. CNN has said it plans to hire hundreds of employees to launch CNN+, a coming streaming service that is slated to cost $5.99 a month and include shows from prominent journalists including Chris Wallace, Jake Tapper and Anderson Cooper.