NBC Doesn’t Want People To Cut The Cord For Obvious Reasons

With millions of households in the U.S. cutting the cord each year to shift to video services such as Netflix, conventional pay-TV is dying and subscription video streaming services are racing against each other to launch the best products.

With legendary media companies finding it hard to simply stand and watch this change, they are slowly coming to terms with reality and are gradually disrupting their business models. Disney is at the forefront of this matter, with the launch of Disney+ this year at $6.99.

Comcast’s NBCUniversal, owned by the United States’ largest cable company doesn’t think you should cut any cords. Without submitting to the nearing demise of pay-TV, NBC has taken a stand to fight back. This will be seen through its streaming service to be launched next spring.

NBC’s streaming service which will be supported by ads will be freely available to all its customers paying for traditional live TV, irrespective of whether it’s through Comcast or other providers. Assuming partnerships are in place, virtual bundles of pay-TV like YouTubeTV or AT&T’s DirecTV Now will also be available. For those who do not have a connection for traditional cable television will probably have to pay $10.

The free service for subscribers of pay-TV will include episodes of same- and past-seasons, and channels with live linear streaming. Customers can watch NBC programs anywhere, on any of their devices regardless of whether NBC has a footprint or not.

For those who cut the cord, the $10 version will neither have live linear streaming nor any shows of the same season. There will be plenty of reruns (also available on your subscribed Hulu service) and a few originals. It’s not much for a monthly charge of $10, but that’s their point.

Without expecting much revenue from its cord cutting customers on the company’s new streaming service, NBC seems to be actively making its streaming service inferior for them, and instead a nice benefit for its pay-TV subscribers.