During yesterday’s Peacock presentation to investors, NBCUniversal announced that NBC News would team with Sky News on a new global streaming news platform for the streaming service.
While additional details -such as an actual name and launch date- were scant, Variety has reported the service will exist independent of Sky News and NBC News, with bases set up in London and New York and a team of journalists stationed around the world.
Comcast acquired Sky in Oct. 2018 for $39 billion. At the time of the acquisition, Comcast chief executive Brian Roberts said this international global news streaming platform would launch in late 2019. However, it now appears that the service is set to launch later in 2020.
In fact, according to Variety, this service is set for a limited launch in April and a wider national launch in July, However, there are no immediate plans for an international roll-out, despite the fact that Sky News is heavily involved.
If it seems like Comcast is overloading you with news, you might be right. In addition to the linear broadcast networks (NBC News and Telemundo), the linear cable networks (MSNBC and CNBC), the pay-TV juggernaut also launched free streaming service NBC News Now in 2019, which it intends to build out for the aforementioned Peacock service in 2020.
NBC News is also producing twice-daily U.S. news shows with Jeffrey Katzenberg‘s Quibi platform, which is set to launch in April. NBC appears to be devoting a significant amount of resources to this particular venture, including additional journalists and a separate studio at 30 Rock.