(Bloomberg) -- Charter Communications Inc. struck a deal with Comcast Corp.’s NBCUniversal that will give its cable-television customers access to the Peacock streaming service at no extra cost, as traditional TV providers fight to keep customers from cord-cutting.
The multiyear distribution agreement will make the ad-supported version of Peacock available to Charter’s Spectrum TV Select subscribers in the coming months, the companies said in a statement Wednesday. Financial terms of the deal weren’t disclosed.
The move gives Charter subscribers access to the streaming arms of most of the traditional TV programmers. Chief Executive Officer Chris Winfrey has argued that cable-TV customers were being forced to pay twice for the same content.
With cable and satellite-TV providers losing customers to streaming services like Netflix Inc. and Amazon Prime Video, Charter has been racing to add similar platforms to its packages. Charter struck an agreement with HBO parent Warner Bros. Discovery Inc. in September that gave its cable customers free access to the ad-supported version of the Max streaming service.
The company also negotiated a new deal with Walt Disney Co. last year that gave Spectrum customers access to the Disney+ and ESPN+ streaming platforms, and it has made similar arrangements to add in Paramount Global’s Paramount+ service and TelevisaUnivision’s ViX service. Charter said Wednesday that thanks to programming deals reached over the past year, its customers will soon receive $65 a month in value from streaming services.
At the same time, NBCUniversal has been trying to bolster Peacock’s popularity and used the 2024 Olympics in Paris to lure viewers. Peacock, which includes current NBC shows, off-air favorites like The Office, Universal movies and live sports, currently costs $7.99 for its ad-supported version after raising prices over the summer.
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