Comcast expanded its streaming news offerings on Wednesday with the launch of a new local news vertical in partnership with some NBC stations.
The initiative will see news clips from around a dozen NBC -owned stations hosted on Comcast’s streaming service Peacock, with around 11 stations participating in the program from the start. Like Peacock, the stations whose clips are being offered at the start of the initiative are owned by Comcast through its NBC Universal subsidiary.
Starting today, Peacock subscribers — including those who use Peacock’s free tier — can access a curated selection of news clips from the participating stations. Those stations include:
- KNBC-TV (Channel 4, Los Angeles)
- KNSD (Channel 36, San Diego, CA)
- KNTV (Channel 11, San Jose, CA/San Francisco)
- KXAS (Channel 11, Dallas)
- WBTS (Channel 15, Boston)
- WCAU (Channel 10, Philadelphia)
- WKAQ (Channel 2, San Juan, Puerto Rico)
- WMAQ-TV (Channel 5, Chicago)
- WNBC-TV (Channel 4, New York City)
- WRC-TV (Channel 4, Washington, D.C.)
- WTVJ (Channel 6, Miami)
- WVIT (Channel 30, Hartford, Connecticut)
The lineup is expected to grow in the coming weeks as more content providers are added, which is likely to include dozens of Telemundo stations that are owned by Comcast.
The move comes as Comcast’s competitors in the streaming space have beefed up their own news content by tapping into content produced by local news stations across the country. Last year, Fox Corporation placed around a dozen live streams from its Fox-owned stations on its free streaming service Tubi. ViacomCBS soon followed by offering live streams of local CBSN feeds on Pluto TV.
While Tubi and Pluto TV might have had a head start, the amount of local and national news content on Peacock far surpasses its two closest competitors. In addition to the local news initiative launched today, Peacock also offers three live national news feeds (the general news-focused NBC News Now, the political affairs and opinion stream The Choice and a simulcast of its over-the-air lifestyle digital network NBC LX), access to its international news outlet Sky News and segments from its national news broadcasts, including “The Today Show,” “NBC Nightly News” and the news magazine show “Dateline.”
Peacock offers three subscription tiers: A free tier with a limited amount of on-demand content and full access to its clips and linear streams; a premium tier at $5 a month with access to its full on-demand library of TV shows and movies, and an ultra-premium tier at $10 a month that removes commercials from its on-demand content.
Comcast’s Xfinity customers with an eligible video or Internet package and at least one X1 set-top box or Flex streaming TV device receive a $5 discount on Peacock’s premium tiers, making the ad-supported plan essentially free with their service and bringing the cost of its commercial-free plan down to $5 a month.
The app is available across all major smartphones and tablets with either Apple’s iOS or Google’s Android operating system as well as for Apple TV, Android TV, Roku and game consoles. The service is not yet officially supported on Amazon Fire TV devices.