Roku and NBCU Nearing Deal to Bring Peacock to Platform, TV Apps to Remain on Roku

Roku and NBCU are nearing a deal that will keep their TV Everywhere apps on the platform and bring Peacock to Roku devices for the first time, a source familiar with the negotiation told The Streamable.

Earlier this morning, we reported that earlier in the week the two sides were close to a deal, but it fell apart at the “eleventh hour.” As a result, NBCU threatened to remove their 46 TV Everywhere apps if a new agreement wasn’t reached by tomorrow.

The two sides are close enough to a deal that these apps will not go dark tomorrow. The exact timing on when Peacock would come to Roku is not clear, but we’ve heard sooner rather than later.

Ahead of launch of Peacock in July, Peacock Chairman Matt Strauss said that the company already has an app ready to go for Roku. “It’s not a sprint, it’s a marathon for us. Our launch date on July 15, is our launch date. We’re in discussions with everybody … we would like to have the app available on all platforms, but we’re committed to launching on the date that we set forth.”

Roku and NBCU were already in an extension, as their deal to carry NBCU’s TV Everywhere Apps expired at the end of August. Roku had offered to continue to carry these apps indefinitely under the current terms as the two sides worked for a carriage agreement for Peacock.

In order to renew, Roku apparently wanted content for The Roku Channel, ad inventory across the apps (including Peacock), and integration of their ad technology. While those close to the negotiations says these demands were “off-market and unreasonable”, concessions on both sides were made to get a deal done.