Comcast Pulling Saturday Night Live and More NBCUniversal Content From Hulu

By Cameron Bonomolo

Saturday Night Live and The Voice are among the NBC shows soon leaving Hulu for NBCUniversal's Peacock. According to a new report, Comcast-owned NBCU plans to stop sending many of its marquee titles to Hulu​, the shared streaming service operated by majority owner Disney (67% to NBCU's 33%). Starting in September, NBCU-owned shows will no longer be available to stream on Hulu the day after they air on NBC. As reported by Deadline, this includes episodes of SNL, reality singing competition The Voice, and Superstore creator Justin Spitzer's new workplace comedy American Auto. The two companies in 2019 cut a deal​ agreeing for Comcast to sell its stake to Disney in early 2024. 

The complete list of programming leaving Hulu for Peacock is not yet available, Deadline notes, because of contracts involving next-day broadcasting rights and rights to TV and library titles. The report adds Hulu still holds rights "into the future" for NBC catalog titles like Law & Order: SVU, This Is Us, 30 Rock, Parenthood, Friday Night Lights, and Will & Grace.

"With the proliferation of streaming services entering the marketplace, we have long anticipated changes to our third-party content offering and over the past few years have increased our investment in original content," a Hulu spokesperson told Deadline in a statement, referencing Hulu Originals Only Murders in the Building, Dopesick, Reservation Dogs, and How I Met Your Father. "We continue to transform Hulu into an exclusive home for stories from across The Walt Disney Company and beyond to bring our viewers even more premium content led by Hulu Originals and next-day television programming."

Following online rumors Comcast was finalizing a deal to remove NBCUniversal content from Hulu before 2024, Comcast chief financial officer Mike Cavanagh said the company was not planning an early exit from "great business" Hulu. 

"We're happy to be along for that ride," Cavanagh said during a conference call with Wall Street analysts in October (via Variety). "I'm glad we didn't exit at the time three or so years ago [during the Disney-Fox merger]. I like the deal we have…It'll be fine if we stay until the end because I expect the value to keep increasing."

NBCUniversal chief executive Jeff Shell added Peacock, notably the exclusive streaming home​ of The Office after the fan-favorite comedy left Netflix last January, is "heading in the right direction." NBCU is "really pleased with Peacock," Shell said of its 24.5 million subscribers. "We're way ahead of where we expected to be at this point." 

See everything coming to Peacock in March 2022 and everything streaming on Hulu this month. 

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