A.M. anchors, assemble!
Peacock is getting ready to launch a morning-news bundle that includes all of NBCUniversal’s various A.M. offerings from CNBC, MSBC and NBC News. For the first time, under the right circumstances, a single viewers may get real-time access to Savannah Guthrie, Joe Scarborough and Becky Quick, all from the same media source.
MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” and CNBC’s “Squawk Box” will make their Peacock debut March 28th, joining NBC News Now. the NBC News live-streaming service and “Today,” which is available to “Premium Plus” subscribers of Peacock through local NBC station channels. “Morning Joe” will stream live each weekday from 6-10 a.m. eastern and “Squawk Box” will stream live weekdays from 6-9 a.m.
“We’re continuously exploring ways to expand Peacock’s premium live content, and creating this unique morning news hub powered by trusted sources across NBCUniversal is something only Peacock can do,” said Brian Henderson, executive vice president of programming, Peacock, in a statement. “With ‘Morning Joe’ and ‘Squawk Box’ live each morning, not to mention ‘Today’ for our Premium Plus users, we’re giving subscribers a new reason to start each morning with Peacock.”
Peacock spreads its news wings as more consumers are gravitating to other streaming-video sites for information. According to a 2022 study from Pew Research, for example, the share of U.S. adults who say they regularly get news from TikTok has roughly tripled, from 3% in 2020 to 10% in 2022. A Pew Research study done a year earlier, meanwhile, found that 86% of U.S. adults said they got their news from a smartphone, computer or tablet “often” or “sometimes,” including 60% who say they do so “often.”
Ad dollars are likely to follow some of that movement. U.S. digital advertising is seen growing 9% in 2023, according to Magna, a media-research unit of ad giant Interpublic Group, “while linear advertising formats, more vulnerable to the uncertain economic environment, will erode by -4%.”
The Peacock move will serve up shows typically associated with a cable or broadcast network available to those who do not or no longer use traditional methods to watch video favorites. Counting those viewers and adding them to the totals typically ascribed to those programs by Nielsen will no doubt be an issue that could surface during the industry’s annual “upfront” market, when U.S. media companies try to tell the bulk of their commercial inventory, often based on the number of viewers who see their various programs.
NBCUniversal did not provide details on how it managed to assuage the concerns of cable and satellite distributors that carry MSNBC or CNBC.