NBCUniversal wants television viewers to know that its upcoming streaming subscription service will be "very different" from Netflix. After several years of rumors, the Comcast-owned company finally announced plans for its NBCUniversal streaming subscription service in early 2019, billing it as free, but with advertising.
The service, which will launch in 2020, will enter a market that's already starting to become crowded. Many companies have plans to launch their own streaming subscription services over the next few years. Until recently, the big three were Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon Prime. However, Disney will start its streaming subscription service in November 2019, with WarnerMedia's HBO Max launching in 2020. Now, NBCUniversal wants to step into the game, but it seems the company understands that it needs to do things a little differently to get viewers tuned in.
Because it is ad-supported, NBCUniversal's streaming service is already setting itself apart. According to Deadline, NBCU CEO Steve Burke spoke about the service during a conference call with analysts. He reiterated that the business plan for his company's service makes it very different from Netflix and that NBCU has "some ideas that we think are innovative."
The NBCU service will also be the new exclusive home for The Office. The news that The Office will leave Netflix at the end of 2020 has already upset many of its fans. Netflix is also starting to lose some of its other older third-party content. The launch of WarnerMedia's HBO Max will see Netflix lose rights to its episodes of Friends. Perhaps this is why Netflix has started focusing even more attention and money on its original content. The market is finally becoming saturated to the point that original content can make or break a service.
NBCUniversal will also be different from Netflix as it doesn't currently have any plans for original content, save for one series, A.P. Bio. Although A.P. Bio was canceled on NBC, the company decided to pick it up for another season exclusively on its streaming subscription service. It also seems likely that the NBCU streaming service is only free to those who already have a cable or satellite subscription. However, NBCU will probably offer paid subscriptions to cord-cutters.
One thing is for sure: the streaming wars are heating up. With many consumers already feeling that there are too many streaming services available, all these new services popping up may result in streaming burn-out in 2020. It's going to be interesting to see which services eventually come out on top, as well as which services suffer from failure. NBCUniversal is just another service in a sea of them, so only time will tell if it will stick around.
Source: Deadline