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Back to Why Peacock is making a huge bet on YouTube, with Matt Strauss.

How Does Peacock Afford Rising Sports Rights?

Matt Strauss says Peacock handles rising league demands by looking across the entire portfolio and ecosystem. Games run on both broadcast and streaming, which grows reach for the leagues and factors into how the leagues take their rights to market.

Sunday Night Football has been number one on NBC for 15 consecutive years, and the NFL is a longtime partner. The company also entered an 11-year arrangement with the NBA. The first year of the NBA relationship grew audience and shaped a weekly cadence of premium sports on Sundays with the NFL, the NBA, and now MLB. The mix also grew advertising. When the flywheel works, the company can partner with the leagues in creative ways. The same evaluation covers sports and entertainment programming.

The slate works like a mutual fund. Some content drives acquisition, some drives engagement, and some drives frequency. The role of a title can change with the life cycle of the business, and a title might be a loss leader while it adds value elsewhere in the portfolio.

Transcript

Why Peacock is making a huge bet on YouTube ·

Decoder with Nilay Patel

More from this episode

  1. What Is Versant, and Why Did Comcast Spin Off Its Cable Channels?Matt Strauss says NBCUniversal spun some cable assets into Versant last year because the channels that stayed worked better together.
  2. Why Does Peacock Move Viewers Between Shows?Matt Strauss says moving viewers back and forth across the portfolio is a critical part of continued growth: 40% of Love Island viewers also tuned in to watch…
  3. Why Is Comcast Spinning NBCUniversal Off?Matt Strauss says the decision to spin NBCUniversal off from Comcast was made by Brian Roberts and Mike Cavanagh. He was not in the room.
  4. Why Does Peacock Still Share Sports With Broadcast?Matt Strauss says about 20% of television households in the country still use over-the-air antennas.
  5. Did Live Olympics on Peacock Hurt Primetime Ratings?Matt Strauss says putting every event live on Peacock did not pull viewers off NBC primetime.
  6. Why Does Peacock Look Like Broadcast Television?Matt Strauss says Peacock was built from the start as an extension of the broadcast business, on the bet that streaming would look like television.
  7. Why Does Peacock Put Love Island Clips on TikTok?Matt Strauss says a Love Island clip on TikTok is a win for Peacock because it grows share of audience and opens the sales funnel.
  8. Why Is Peacock Being Bundled Into YouTube Premium?Matt Strauss says NBCUniversal will launch a bundle next year that pairs the ad-supported tier of Peacock with a tier of YouTube Premium.
  9. Why Is Peacock Partnering With YouTube?Matt Strauss says YouTube TV has grown at a 26% to 27% compound annual growth rate over the past five years, while the pay TV ecosystem has declined at a 6%…
  10. Has Matt Strauss Talked With the Trump Administration About Broadcast?Nilay Patel asks how NBCUniversal is handling pressure on NBC News from the Trump administration and FCC Chairman Brendan Carr, including broadcast licenses…
  11. Is Peacock Profitable?Matt Strauss says Peacock was profitable in the third quarter, for the second quarter in a row.

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