Peacock Will Be Free With Charter’s Spectrum TV Select Under Multiyear NBCUniversal Deal Renewal

Charter Communications has inked another deal to stir streaming into the cable TV mix.

NBCUniversal and Charter announced a new multiyear distribution deal that will make the Peacock Premium ad-supported streaming service for “no additional cost” to Spectrum TV Select video customers.

The addition of Peacock to the Spectrum TV lineup comes after Charter inked similar deals for Disney+ and ESPN+, Warner Bros. Discovery’s Max and Discovery+, Paramount Global’s Paramount+ and BET+, AMC Networks’ AMC+ and TelevisaUnivision’s Vix. All told, according to Charter, through the programming deals reached over the past year, the cable operator will soon provide Spectrum TV Select video customers up to $65 per month of retail direct-to-consumer streaming value.

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Charter is understood to be paying a per-subscriber wholesale fee to the media companies for the rights to bundle their streaming services with Spectrum TV. So while the streaming services are “free” to some of Charter’s cable TV customers, it seems likely that the company will be raising monthly subscription rates to account for the additional linear-plus-streaming programming.

Financial terms of the NBCU-Charter agreement were not disclosed. Under the pact, Charter will continue its carriage of NBCU’s full portfolio of broadcast, entertainment, Hispanic, news and sports networks in addition to bundling Peacock Premium with Spectrum TV Select “in the coming months.”

Charter also will allow video customers to upgrade to the the ad-free Peacock Premium+ tier. In addition, the operator will make both Peacock products available for purchase to its broadband-only customers in 2025.

“This extension of our strategic relationship with Charter ensures Spectrum video customers will continue to have access to the leading media portfolio, whether they choose to watch on traditional TV or stream it on Peacock,” Matt Bond, chairman of content distribution at NBCU, said in announcing the deal. “We also achieved our primary goal, which was to strike a deal that recognizes the value of our linear programming and the investments we’ve made in developing premium content, expanding the distribution of Peacock to more consumers. We are pleased to partner with Charter to reach these objectives to the benefit of our viewers.”

In addition to the inclusion of Peacock Premium for Spectrum video customers at no extra charge, the distribution agreement ensures Charter’s continued carriage of NBCU’s NBC- and Telemundo-owned stations, Bravo, CNBC, CNBC World, E!, MSNBC, Universo, Oxygen, SYFY, Telemundo Network, Universal Kids, USA Network, The Golf Channel, NBC Sports Regional Networks and New England Cable News. Also, the following channels will be included in the Spectrum TV Stream service: Bravo, CNBC, CNBC World, E!, MSNBC, Oxygen, SYFY and Universal Kids.

“With the renewal of our long-standing partnership with NBCUniversal, we now have completed deals with every major programmer to create better flexibility and greater value to our customers by including DTC streaming apps with their Spectrum TV service, at no extra cost,” said Tom Montemagno, Charter’s executive VP of programming acquisition.

As of the end of June, Charter had 12.72 million residential video subs, a drop of 393,000 in the period and down 9.6% year over year. Including business pay-TV customers, Charter’s video base stood at 13.3 million as of June 30.