MSNBC will take some of its most popular opinion news shows such as “Morning Joe,” “Deadline: White House,” “The ReidOut” and “All In with Chris Hayes" and stream them on Comcast’s Peacock service a few hours after they air on cable television.
Parent company Comcast wants to boost its Peacock streaming service, while not having it compete directly with its MSNBC cable TV shows.
MSNBC already has a channel on Peacock — which has been called “The Choice" — but that branding will change to simply “MSNBC on Peacock,” according to the Wall Street Journal, which interviewed MSNBC President Rashida Jones.
“The idea is, you can watch it live on cable, or you can watch it at your leisure on streaming,” Jones told the WSJ.
The service will be available to all Peacock subscribers who pay a monthy fee.
Not all MSNBC shows will be streamed on Peacock. But the move is another indication that the siloes between cable programs and streaming programs are dissolving as content providers seek to get more value from their content on different platforms.
“We are reimagining the MSNBC experience by adding the core of our perspective programming to Peacock and reaching audiences wherever they are and however they choose to consume content,” said Jones in a prepared statement. “As MSNBC has the most loyal viewers on cable news, our streaming expansion will further strengthen our portfolio 24 hours a day, seven days a week on all platforms.”
MSNBC’s streaming push will allow some of the network’s anchors to produce different versions of their shows for traditional TV and streaming, according to WSJ.
For its part Comcast has been putting more emphasis on Peacock. During its fourth-quarter earnings call, CEO Brian Roberts said Peacock has 24.5 million monthly active accounts (MAA) in the U.S. including more than 9 million paid subscribers primarily on the $4.99/month ad-supported tier, generating nearly $10 in average monthly revenue per user. The service also counts 7 million subscribers who get the service for free through Comcast Xfinity and other distributors.