The news is official, shows like Chicago Fire, Chicago Med, Chicago PD, Saturday Night Live, and The Voice will be moving to Peacock exclusively in the fall as the streaming giants are once again shuffling their content.
NBC Universal has terminated its agreement to license shows to Walt Disney controlled Hulu and intends to move their next day streaming from Hulu to Peacock beginning in the fall. The move had been widely expected, and the Wall Street Journal reported last month that Comcast Corp.’s NBC Universal was preparing to exit the partnership.
NBC Universal’s parent Comcast still owns 33% of Hulu, while Disney holds the rest and has operating control of the service. Hulu is part of Disney’s growing streaming business, which also includes Disney+ and ESPN+, however, NBC Universal has continued to effectively send shows to its rival Peacock.
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Comcast is expected to sell its 33% Hulu ownership stake to Disney as early as January 2024, under which Comcast is guaranteed to receive proceeds of at least $5.8 billion and potentially billions more than that.
Almost since its inception, Hulu has been streaming broadcast TV programs the day after airing, but as ownership shifted and networks created their own streaming services, content began to be pulled from Hulu. CBS took their shows to Paramount+ (formerly CBS All Access). More recently, NBC began pulling their shows like The Blacklist to be streamed on their own NBC app or Peacock and now it is official, shows like Chicago Fire, Chicago Med, Chicago PD, Saturday Night Live, and The Voice will be moving to Peacock exclusively in the fall.
Chicago PD, Med, and Fire will continue to air on Hulu the day after broadcast for the rest of this season and the most recent season will remain available until the official move. It is unclear the exact date of this move, but it is safe to assume it would occur before the beginning of the 2022 fall season.
Currently Chicago Med seasons 1-5 are streaming on Netflix, while Chicago Fire, Med, and PD are all available on the Peacock app, including the most recent season of each show. Many fans expected season 6 to also stream on Netflix, but at this time it is only available on Peacock, as well as on the NBC website. It is unknown if Chicago Fire and/or Chicago PD will become available on Netflix as well.
As of the end of 2021, Peacock, the nearly two-year-old streaming service had about 24.5 million monthly active users, but only about 9 million paying subscribers. Hulu, however, had about 45.3 million subscribers as of January 1, according to Disney’s first-quarter earnings report. The move is expected to drive more subscribers to Peacock.
Peacock charges $4.99 a month for its ad-supported premium tier and $9.99 a month for its commercial-free version. Peacock also has a free version with less content. Xfinity and Cox subscribers can stream Peacock Premium for free by linking their accounts to the streaming service via Peacock’s Account Settings. Xfinity and Cox subscribers can also choose to upgrade to the ad-free Premium Plus tier for just $4.99/month.
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