Fubo CEO ‘Horrified’ and ‘Sad’ About Peacock-Exclusive NFL Playoff Game
Comcast may be crowing about the audience for its Peacock-exclusive NFL Wild Card game, but the stunt appears to have infuriated its competitors. Speaking today at the Needham Growth Conference, Fubo CEO David Gandler was asked about the Peacock game and said, “I’m horrified.”
Fubo pays to air NBC, presumably with the understanding that that deal would include the rights to any NBC NFL games. When Comcast yanked a playoff game to promote its streamer, its broadcast partners had to be seeing red. But Gandler said the tactic isn’t just frustrating for businesses. “When I think about the Peacock situation from a consumer perspective, it’s sad to see,” Gandler said.
The CEO took the complaint a step further, suggesting the FTC needs to look into the issue as a matter of consumer protection. “People are paying for much of the same content several times,” Gandler said. Peacock does feature many programs that people may have already paid for with their live TV package. Paramount+ is another streamer that bolsters its library with a lot of duplicated titles from live TV channels.
Peacock claims its exclusive Chiefs-Dolphins playoff game drew 23 million total viewers. But the Lions-Rams game that aired the next night on linear NBC averaged 31.9 million viewers. Comcast made a calculated gamble to drive subscribers to its streaming service, but we don’t yet know how many of those new subscribers will stick around. It’s also impossible to tell how many people chose illegal sites to watch the game.
The battle between shared content and exclusive content is one that will continue to plague the entertainment industry as we move forward. Exclusive content can bring in new subscribers, but some of those new users will be frustrated at having to add the service. Shared content is a win for consumers who don’t want to pay for dozens of streamers, and it provides more revenue to the original rights owners. But sharing content dilutes the value of a streamer. When Warner Bros. Discovery let “Six Feet Under” go from Max-exclusive to a shared situation with Netflix, it took some of the shine off their streamer.
Each entertainment company takes a different approach with its rights. Because of the overwhelming popularity of live sports (particularly the NFL), most companies will use those games as their most important chess pieces. Fox won’t let its games stream on Tubi, for example, because it assures that cable and streaming companies have to pay for the Fox channels. Disney normally puts Monday Night Football on ESPN to force providers to pay up for that channel.
But Comcast’s decision with the playoff game broke with the established protocol for sports broadcasters: pick one outlet and keep the games there for the entire season. Breaking that pattern only serves to anger your audience. NBC’s infamous 1992 Olympic Triplecast was an example of a company overestimating its audience’s willingness to sign up for a new product just to watch sports.
While it’s too early to tell how the Peacock game will impact the TV landscape moving forward, you can bet Gandler will be more aggressive negotiating with Comcast when their next rights deal is due. Fubo has already abandoned the Warner Bros. Discovery channels like CNN, TBS, and TNT. If Comcast is willing to remove marquee content from its channels, Fubo would be foolish to continue to pay a premium.
Fubo
Fubo is a live TV streaming service with about 90 top channels that start at $79.99 per month. This plan includes local channels, 25 of the top 35 cable channels, and regional sports networks (RSNs). In total, you should expect to pay about $91.99 per month, after adding in their RSN Fee. Fubo was previously known as “fuboTV.”