NBCU’s Peacock will be mostly ad-supported, confirms Comcast CEO Roberts

Comcast CEO Brian Roberts has laid out the company’s plans for its new streamer, Peacock, saying that the company is looking for the “fastest way to get to profitability with the least amount of investment” with an ad-supported model being the way forward. 

The CEO was speaking at a Q&A during Goldman Sachs’ annual Communacopia conference. 

He said that the company wanted to “do something different in a very increasingly crowded field”.

Clarifying the situation, Roberts added that Peacock will be offered for free to existing US Comcast customers. The streamer will be available for non-Comcast users for free with ads, or with no ads for an as-yet unknown monthly fee.

He added that “advertising with a light ad load,” combined with “the premium content that will be on this network” will create a platform “unlike any advertising inventory available”.

Peacock was officially unveiled by NBCUniversal this week with a touted Spring 2020 launch. 

The streamer will launch with over 15,000 hours of programming and will be sold on the strength of existing properties like The Office, 30 Rock and Parks and Recreation – the latter having been bought back from Netflix and set to be added to the service in October. 

Roberts also said that Peacock will be central to a major marketing push during next year’s Summer Olympics in Japan, with original shows promised to launch after the flagship event.