Comcast Shares Get Small Boost After NBCU Unveils Peacock

shares closed up 1.3% on Friday from the previous day’s close

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Comcast shares received a modest bump during trading hours on Friday after unveiling NBCUniversal’s nascent streaming service, Peacock. Shares of NBCUniversal parent company Comcast closed up 1.3% on Friday from Thursday’s close.

NBCUniversal rolled out the multi-colored carpet for Peacock during an investor event on Thursday at 30 Rockefeller Plaza in New York.

The company announced that the upcoming streaming service will launch on April 15 for Comcast Xfinity X1 and Flex subscribers. It will become available nationwide on July 15, a little more than a week before the start of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

Peacock will offer a tiered subscription model, including a free, ad-supported version and Peacock Premium. The premium service will have an ad-supported version included for the 24 million Comcast and Cox subscribers. Premium customers can upgrade to an ad-free experience for an additional $5 per month, or any customer can purchase the ad-free experience directly for $10 per month.

NBCUniversal unveiled a deluge of shows and films — both original and classic — that will be available on the platform at launch, and in the year to come. Old titles such as “The Office,” “Parks and Recreation” and “Battlestar Galactica,” as well as new revivals like the “Saved by the Bell” and “Punky Brewster” were already known — but Peacock also announced some new acquisitions, like the streaming rights to “Two and a Half Men,” “The George Lopez Show,” “Yellowstone” and Dick Wolf’s “Law and Order” and “Chicago” franchises, as well as series orders for original projects, like the Tina Fey-produced pop-star comedy “Girls5Eva.”

“Peacock will provide consumers with a destination that goes beyond movies and television, aggregating a variety of content that fans want on one service,” Matt Strauss, chairman of Peacock and NBCUniversal Digital Enterprises said in a statement. “By delivering timely and topical content like breaking news, live sports, and watercooler moments from late night, Peacock is uniquely bringing a pulse to the world of streaming that does not exist in today’s marketplace.”

NBCUniversal sold its new streaming service to investors all on its advertising prowess.

Peacock is entering a crowded streaming landscape dominated by Netflix and Amazon, and made even more competitive by new entrants such as Disney+, Apple TV+ and WarnerMedia’s forthcoming HBO Max.

Comcast shares have had a solid run as of late: Up more than 2% in last three months and nearly 31% over the last 12 months.

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