NBC is going strong in the segment of Pay-TV as it has joined the bandwagon of the latest trend of online streaming. The NBCUniversal of Comcast has declared to put its step forward in the genre with a free streaming service supported by ads, during the first 3 months of 2020, to anyone who is the subscriber of the conventional Pay-TV services like Dish, AT&T, Charter, and others. The people who are not the subscribers of streaming products of the Pay-TV services will be able to see the TV shows of NBC for 1,500 hours that includes SNL and Parks and Recreation. The package will also include several hours of Universal movies in exchange for $12 each month.
Though the plans of NBC are subject to the accomplishment of the yet-to-be-finalized deal with the providers of Pay-TV, the product will be offered free of cost to the consumers. Therefore, NBC has not yet designed any plan that involves managing the challenges on its way of accomplishing the agreements.
The company is highly hopeful regarding the growth of the customer base as the service will be initially offered free of cost. In fact, NBC is expecting the company to have a consumer base ranging from 30 million to 40 million, which will be a huge milestone against the paid service that acquired zero subscribers during the initial period and growing at a slow pace.
According to the CEO of NBCUniversal, Steve Burke, the initial plan of NBC is to go live amidst the ads of 3 to 5 minutes every hour of a program. The company expects to make around $5 each user every month from the advertisements. He further mentioned that the market survey shows the viewers prefer services worth zero cost which are low on ads. Therefore, the chances of the acceptance of the package are high.