NBCUniversal and Charter Communications announced Thursday a multi-year distribution renewal agreement that will allow broadband and video subscribers of Charter’s Spectrum service—about 30 million customers across 41 states—continued access to NBCUniversal channels.
The new deal includes distribution of NBCU’s direct-to-consumer service Peacock. Charter broadband and video customers will be offered an extended free trial of the service as as part of their subscriptions.
“We look forward to delivering our industry-leading network content portfolio, as well as the strong collection of original and library content in our Peacock Premium offering, to Charter’s subscribers everywhere,” said Matt Bond, Chairman, Content Distribution, NBCUniversal.
Charter will continue to offer its Spectrum consumers the following channels from the Comcast subsidiary: NBC, Telemundo, Bravo, CNBC, E!, MSNBC, The Olympic Channel, Oxygen, Syfy, USA Network, Universal Kids, Universo, The Golf Channel, CNBC World, New England Cable News (NECN), and NBC Sports Network, as well as five of NBC’s Regional Sports Networks: NBC Sports Bay Area, NBC Sports Washington, NBC Sports Northwest, NBC Sports Boston, and NBC Sports Chicago.
In the future, Charter intends to distribute the Peacock app via its Spectrum Guide platform. So far, the NBCUniversal streaming service, which had its nationwide debut this past July, is available on the Roku platform, Apple and Google devices, Microsoft XBOX One and Sony Playstation devices, and VIZIO and LG Smart TVs.
The agreement comes amid a recent leadership restructuring at NBCUniversal. Peacock launched in July with a mix of original and library content. Most recently the service became the exclusive home to the classic NBC comedy “The Office,” which left Netflix at the end of the year.