Is Peacock Enough to Replace NBC Programming & Sports If It’s Dropped By YouTube TV?
Over the weekend, the situation between YouTube TV and NBCUniversal rose from a tiff to a kerfuffle, leading many to worry if they’ll have their favorite NBC stations available on YouTube TV should the two sides fail to reach some sort of agreement. Would NBCUniversal’s Peacock be enough to replace NBC’s linear channels in the event of a stalemate? Let’s examine exactly what shows Peacock has available and if it would be enough to meet your viewing needs.
Sports on Peacock
Sports fans will be able to watch the same national sports they’ve had, as they can watch Sunday Night Football, select PGA golf events, and WWE pay-per-view events through Peacock. However, they’ll lose their NBC regional sports networks and will have to find another live TV streaming service to watch them. This will affect fans in Philadelphia, Washington, DC, Chicago, and California. Here are your options, ignoring YouTube TV, of course, should you lose the NBC RSNs on YouTube TV. You also won’t be able to watch NASCAR on Peacock. You will be able to stream the English Premier League games that air on NBC, but not those on NBCSN or USA.
Your best bet is either a Hulu Live TV, which offers a a 7-Day Free Trial, fuboTV, or DIRECTV STREAM.
| DTV STREAM | Fubo | Hulu | Philo | Sling TV | YouTube | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Free Trial | Free Trial | Sign Up | Free Trial | Get 50% Off | Sign Up | |||
| $79.99 | $91.99 | $76.99 | $25 | $40 | $40 | $72.99 | ||
| NBC Sports Bay Area | + $29 | ✓ | ✓ | - | - | - | ✓ | |
| NBC Sports California | + $29 | ✓ | ✓ | - | - | - | ✓ | |
| NBC Sports Chicago | + $29 | ✓ | ✓ | - | - | - | ✓ | |
| NBC Sports Philadelphia | - | ✓ | ✓ | - | - | - | ✓ | |
| NBC Sports Washington | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | |
TV Shows on Peacock
You can watch NBC’s most popular shows on Peacock the day after they air on the linear channels. The latest episodes of Brooklyn Nine-Nine, Law and Order: SVU, Chicago Fire, The Voice, and more are available 24 hours after their original air date through Peacock Premium.
NBCUniversal also owns the rights to other stations, like USA Network, Bravo, Syfy, Oxygen, and E!. While some shows, like Chrisley Knows Best, Below Deck, Keeping up with the Kardashians, Celebrity Game Face, and the Real Housewives universe are available on Peacock, others, like Watch What Happens Live will not be available.
Again, to stream those live you can use Hulu Live TV, which offers a a 7-Day Free Trial, fuboTV, or DIRECTV STREAM. Some of those shows are also available on-demand with Hulu's SVOD Plan.
To watch them, you’ll need another live TV streaming service, like the following:
| DTV STREAM | Fubo | Hulu | Philo | Sling TV | YouTube | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Free Trial | Free Trial | Sign Up | Free Trial | Get 50% Off | Sign Up | |||
| $79.99 | $91.99 | $76.99 | $25 | $40 | $40 | $72.99 | ||
| Bravo | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | - | - | ✓ | ✓ | |
| E! | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | - | - | ✓ | ✓ | |
| Oxygen | + $40 | ✓ | ✓ | - | - | + $6 | ✓ | |
| Syfy | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | - | - | ✓ | ✓ | |
| USA Network | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | - | - | ✓ | ✓ | |
Granted, you’ll have the full slate of The Office back, so maybe you won’t need all these other shows while you binge the entire series for the 800th time?
The Office
The everyday lives of office employees in the Scranton, Pennsylvania branch of the fictional Dunder Mifflin Paper Company.
News on Peacock
Peacock offers national news coverage in the form of NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt and Morning News NOW as well as Sunday morning political discussion shows like Meet the Press and Sunday Today. You can watch clip collections of your local NBC news affiliate but not any sort of live feed. If you’re looking for live news, you can use Peacock’s channel function to watch NBC News NOW on The Choice, but those looking for stock market updates will be frustrated to learn there isn’t a business-focused news stream.
Both CNBC and MSNBC have limited presences on the platform, usually offering their shows in the form of clip playlists. Again, there’s no live stock market coverage, so fans of Mad Money with Jim Cramer, Squawk Box, and The News with Shepard Smith will need another live TV streaming service to watch them live.
| DTV STREAM | Fubo | Hulu | Philo | Sling TV | YouTube | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Free Trial | Free Trial | Sign Up | Free Trial | Get 50% Off | Sign Up | |||
| $79.99 | $91.99 | $76.99 | $25 | $40 | $40 | $72.99 | ||
| CNBC | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | - | - | + $6 | ✓ | |
| MSNBC | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | - | - | ✓ | ✓ | |
Background
Over the weekend, we reported that YouTube TV subscribers may lose all NBCU channels if the two sides can’t reach a deal by Thursday, September 30th. This means 14 NBCU-owned channels including all local NBC affiliates and NBC Sports RSNs will cease to exist on YouTube TV. In a statement to The Streamable, an NBCU Spokesperson said:
NBCUniversal is seeking fair rates from Google for YouTube TV’s continued carriage of the only portfolio offering entertainment, Hispanic, news and sports networks. Unfortunately, Google is refusing to make a deal at these fair rates and is willing to withhold entertainment, news and sports programming from their paying customers. NBCUniversal feels a responsibility to inform our fans that they are at risk of losing their favorite shows if Google continues with their demands.”
YouTube TV is also currently in a carriage dispute with Roku, which doesn’t allow new subscribers to download the YouTube TV App. Instead, customers have to access the service through the YouTube App, which has yet to be removed from the platform. This doesn’t bode well for fans of NBCU stations, but you never know — even Spectrum and Roku ended their beef after almost a year of quarreling.