Peacock Removes Livestreams of ‘Morning Joe,’ ‘Squawk Box’; Focuses on News for Younger Audience
The MSNBC and CNBC morning shows will continue to be available on demand on Peacock.
As streaming continues to grow and evolve, major media companies are continually experimenting with how to dole out titles from across their vast programming portfolios. In some cases, those moves stick and become cornerstones of individual platforms, while others come and go for various reasons — only some of which having to do with viewership metrics. One of the more difficult programming genres to translate effectively to streaming has been news. While still one of the primary drivers for pay-TV subscriptions, news has not yet experienced the robust transition to streaming that live sports has, at least not in the form that viewers are used to seeing it on broadcast and cable television. The latest change on the streaming news front comes from the NBCUniversal-owned Peacock which ended the live simulcasts of MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” and CNBC’s “Squawk Box” after 10 months on the service.
- The cable broadcasts of “Morning Joe” and “Squawk Box” will no longer appear on Peacock live, but they will be available on demand.
- NBCUniversal’s digital news products had record-breaking years in 2023 and will continue to stream on Peacock.
- The move will likely help NBCU when it comes to negotiating its next round of carriage fees with pay-TV distributors.
In March 2023, Peacock created a Morning News Live hub that included live broadcasts of “Morning Joe,” “Squawk Box,” “TODAY,” and free ad-supported streaming TV (FAST) channel NBC News NOW. In addition to these flagship morning shows from across the NBC universe, Peacock also highlighted its international Sky News channel, its owned-and-operated local affiliates from across the country, and its TODAY All Day FAST channel, making a rather robust news offering, especially for an entertainment-forward streaming platform.
“We’re continuously exploring ways to expand Peacock’s premium live content, and creating this unique morning news hub powered by trusted sources across NBCUniversal is something only Peacock can do,” Peacock EVP Brian Henderson said at the time of the hub’s launch.
While “Morning Joe” and “Squawk Box” simulcasts are no longer available on Peacock, the rest of those news options are. On both the $5.99 per month Peacock Premium and $11.99 monthly Peacock Premium Plus tier, viewers can watch local news from the 10 local affiliates from around the United States as well as the NBC News NOW and TODAY All Day FAST channels. Exclusive to the Premium Plus plan, viewers in over 200 markets are also able to watch their specific local NBC affiliate, giving them access to the full, four-hour broadcast of “TODAY” as well as their local news broadcasts.
Ten months into having the cornerstone cable programs on Peacock, the service has removed their individual livestreams in an effort to focus more on the types of news content that streaming customers more often tend to gravitate toward. According to a Peacock spokesperson who spoke to The Streamable, the Peacock audience is younger than those who watch traditional television sources. That is leading to the platform’s FAST channels NBC News NOW and Sky News growing in popularity.
NBC News recently announced that its digital news products — NBC News NOW, TODAY All Day, and a FAST channel broadcasting “Dateline” episodes around the clock — posted a 75% year-over-year increase; specifically, NBC News NOW had its best viewership year in its history. The streaming channel posted yearly growth during every broadcast hour of the day, highlighted by substantial gains for original broadcasts “Hallie Jackson NOW” and “Stay Tuned NOW.”
Dateline 24/7 also had its best year on record, growing 364% from 2022. And TODAY All Day had its third consecutive record year, up nearly 100% versus 2022. It ended the year with its fifth straight record quarter in Q4 2023 and its third straight record month in December 2023.
With these digital-focused news products having so much success for NBC, it stands to reason that streaming audiences are looking for something different than their cable-first counterparts.
A report from last month in the Los Angeles Times indicated that the average age of an MSNBC viewer was 71 years old — while cable news rivals CNN and Fox News were only slightly younger at 67 and 68 respectively. While data from research firm MNTN shows that older Americans are becoming a larger portion of the streaming audience, the vast majority of cord-cutters still tend to skew younger. So, it makes sense that the type of news broadcast that streaming audiences are looking for is different than that of those watching on cable or satellite.
NBC News NOW has become a leading channel in NBCU’s news portfolio according to the Peacock spokesperson, and has seemingly connected more with the streaming audiences than the traditional news titles.
While the simulcast streams of “Morning Joe” and “Squawk Box” are no longer available on Peacock, they are each available on demand for a limited time. Similar to how the platform serves as the next-day streaming home for episodes from Bravo, NBC, USA Network, and other channels from the NBCU ecosystem, episodes of the two cable news morning shows are available on the platform in delayed windows following their initial airings.
Although the timing of their posting varies, they generally are available for approximately two to three days. Due to the news nature of each show, the episodes naturally have a fairly limited shelf-life. However, viewers will be able to go back and watch specific interviews, guests, and segments for a few days after they air.
Another factor that could play into NBCU’s decision to end the practice of simulcasting “Morning Joe” and “Squawk Box” on Peacock is that it was likely not a popular move with the company’s distribution partners. While Peacock, MSNBC, and CNBC are all corporate siblings with Xfinity — the nation’s largest cable provider — other pay-TV distributors like Spectrum, DIRECTV, DISH, and live TV streaming services generally do not support media companies making traditionally linear-only offerings available live on subscription streaming platforms.
After Warner Bros. Discovery announced that it would be launching CNN Max on its subscription video-on-demand (SVOD) streaming service Max, DIRECTV informed the media conglomerate that doing so could be considered a violation of its carriage agreements with distributors. The warning was not enough to deter WBD from launching the hub, however, perhaps because it only carries minimal, non-marquee CNN simulcasts.
While there have been no reports of similar concerns from distributors over Peacock’s Morning News Live hub, if the streaming audience was already naturally gravitating to other content, it could behoove NBCU to calm any frustrations from distribution partners and end the simulcast experiment for the time being. In The Streamable’s expert opinion, it could also aid Comcast when it comes to negotiating its next round of carriage fees with distributors.
Peacock
Peacock is a subscription video streaming service from NBCUniversal that includes original shows, blockbuster movies, and classic television series. Peacock is home to “Yellowstone,” and “The Office,” as well as original hits like “Poker Face” and “Bel-Air.” You can also watch live sports including NFL, MLB, WWE, Olympics, Premier League, NASCAR, French Open, College Football and Basketball, and PGA Tour. Premium Plus subscribers can stream their local NBC feed in all 210 markets.