To buttress its streaming inventory, “Today All Day” will stream on Peacock at launch. NBCU is the parent company of Peacock and “Today.” The 24-hour effort is also available on Today.com.
Here’s how it breaks down: Users get four, six-hour blocks of “Today,” including recent show archives that relate to relevant trends. They can also watch original shows, reports Variety.
“This is very much for us about attracting new audiences,” Chris Berend, EVP, digital for NBC News Group, told the trade magazine. “We believe the things that make the ‘Today’ brand powerful, which are the emotion, the utility it provides, will be discovered by and attract a brand new audience — and outside the context of traditional television.”
Given the pandemic, viewers are likely to want personal-finance tips, cooking demos, advice segments and human-interest stories, added Ashley Parrish, vice president of strategic content at NBC News Group. “As we get more and more into the feed, there will be more original programming specifically for it, so we can respond to consumer habits and what we are seeing,” she told Variety.
“Today” will be exclusive to NBCU’s properties,” but Berend says NBC News is searching for other venues to eventually stream the show.
Morning TV may be lucrative for the networks, but viewers need to be reached cross-platform.
NBC’s rivals also understand the necessity of streaming. Fox Nation is an SVOD; ABC News has a live-streaming arm. CBS’ “60 Minutes” has a shortened version on Quibi.
The “Today” revamp is to expand its reach and influence. The show has aired since 1952.