NBCUNIVERSAL REVEALS PEACOCK'S FIRST ADVERTISING PARTNERS

NBCUniversal announced that Capital One, L’Oreal, Molson Coors, Subaru, and Verizon have signed up to be launch sponsors for the new streaming service Peacock on 13 April, ahead of its debut this week. Peacock will launch on Wednesday, 15 April, free of charge for customers of Comcast, its parent company. After three months, the service will be offered at a price of up to $10 a month. Peacock plans to expand its service to all consumers by July 15.

Some of the app’s other sponsors include Apartments.com, State Farm, Target, and Unilever, which the company stated will help “define the Peacock advertising experience.” “Our primary goal is to meet consumers in the right places, at the right times, with the right message,” Brad Feinberg, Vice President of Media and Consumer Engagement at Molson Coors Beverage Company North America said. “It is therefore imperative that we continue to invest in emerging platforms like Peacock that have some of the best original content and are well-positioned to support shifting consumer media behaviors.”

According to the company, Peacock will have five minutes of ad loads per hour or less. Some of its ad options include Trending, Solo, Curator, Explore and On-Command. They will join previously available features like Shoppable TV and Prime Pods. The app forms part of NBCUniversal’s platform, which allows marketers to reach audiences across the NBCUniversal ecosystem as broadly or narrowly as they want. Partners quoted in the release focused on streaming, innovation and a desire to experiment beyond traditional commercials. “As viewers continue to migrate to streaming platforms, partnering with Peacock is an opportunity for L’Oréal to test and learn with a company that shares our vision for consumer-centric marketing,” said Gretchen Saegh-Fleming, Chief Marketing Officer at L’Oreal USA in the announcement. “Peacock’s dynamic platform will enable us to look beyond traditional 15 and 30-second video formats and collaborate with an industry leader who is committed to building a best-in-class content experience.”

Peacock’s launch slate is heavily impacted by the ongoing COVID-19 outbreak. “Brave New World” was originally scheduled for production in the U.S., but has been halted. All other original series from Peacock’s inaugural slate was paused by the pandemic. Coverage of the Tokyo Olympics was supposed to be the main driver for viewership and subscriptions, but that will no longer take place in 2020, with the summer games postponed to 2021. However, the pandemic is viewed as an opportunity for Comcast to boast a fair-sized streaming platform that can also promote its other assets, including broadband growth. Peacock will rely heavily on its library content, including “The Office” and the vast Dick Wolf series portfolio. President of Advertising Sales and Partnerships at NBC Universal, Laura Molen said Peacock’s goal is to “redefine the industry’s conception of what is possible for an ad-supported streaming relationship with advertisers.” “At a time when people all over the world are turning to our content for comfort, entertainment, and connection, a consumer-first platform has never been more vital,” she said in a statement. "NBCUniversal will give launch partners a seat at the table alongside its own engineers and creators to pilot new commercial innovations and learn what resonates most with audiences.”

Peacock will offer more than 15,000 hours of content. Entertainment programming includes original shows, such as Tina Fey’s “Girls5Eva” comedy, revivals of “Saved by the Bell,” “Punky Brewster,” and films from the Universal Pictures and DreamWorks Animation libraries. Also, Peacock will offer episodes of NBC and Telemundo shows such as “Saturday Night Live,” “Law and Order: SVU,” the Chicago franchise, “Manifest,” “La Doña,” and “World of Dance” the day after they debut on air. Other shows that will be aired include “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon,” “Late Night with Seth Meyers,” “30 Rock,” “Everybody Loves Raymond,” “House” and “King of Queens.”

It’s latest competition is Quibi, which launched on 6 April, as well as HBO Now, which is set to launch in May. Netflix is also a rival, with 5,378,819 users in Poland alone, placing it number one among demand services in the country. Disney+ boosted Disney’s trading share to about 7% after-hours last Wednesday by attracting 50 million subscribers. The app is considered a sign of hope for the company, who is in the midst of a crisis as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.