NBC and Roku Reach Deal Over Peacock

Peacock’s on its way to Roku devices after all. Early Friday morning, news first broke that NBCUniversal — the parent company behind Peacock — and Roku had arrived at an impasse, forcing NBCU to pull all services from the leading streaming hardware provider. Now, Bloomberg reports just a matter of hours later the two have come to terms on a new deal. Not only will existing NBCU services stay on the hardware, but Peacock will soon be added as well.

Though terms were not disclosed, the deal’s said to include an advertisement revenue sharing agreement between NBCU and Roku. Better yet, this means the media conglomerate has also managed to beat WarnerMedia to the punch, a company that’s struggled to agree to terms with the hardware provider to get HBO Max added to the library.

“We are thrilled millions more will now be able to access and enjoy Peacock along with other NBCUniversal apps on their favorite Roku devices,” an NBC spokesperson tells Bloomberg. “Roku’s incredible reach will not only help us ensure Peacock is available to our fans wherever they consume video but continue to expand NBCUniversal’s unrivaled digital presence across platforms.”

Just this morning, Roku distributed an email to its customers warning them they’ll soon lose service to NBC’s apps, after the two sides were unable to come to an agreement.

“Comcast is removing the channels in order to try to force Roku to distribute its new Peacock service on unreasonable terms. While the NBC TV Everywhere apps represent an insignificant amount of streaming hours and revenue on our platform, we believe they are important to those consumers who use them, especially when so many Americans are at home,” Roku’s statement said.

NBCU quickly countered, blaming Roku for wanting too much of the revenue sharing pie.

“We are disappointed Roku is removing its users’ free access to NBCUniversal programming — 11 network apps, 12 NBC-owned station apps, 23 Telemundo-owned station apps — and continues to block access to the only free premium streaming service available in the market, Peacock. Roku’s unreasonable demands ultimately hurt both their consumers and their consumer equipment partners to whom they’ve promised access to all apps in the marketplace,” NBC’s earlier statement read.