In a segment normally reserved for looking out for consumers, NBC Nightly News used their Price You Pay series to promote NBCUniversal’s new internet streaming service, Peacock. “Next up for us, the TV streaming wars are heating up as NBCUniversal, our parent company, unveiled its new service late today,” cheered anchor Lester Holt.
Between advertisement-like soundbites of popular NBC shows picked to accentuate what she was saying, correspondent Jo Ling Kent announced the new service:
JO LING KENT: Tonight, the battle for your attention is intensifying.
[30 Rock clip]
LING KENT: NBCUniversal is rolling out Peacock.
[Cheers theme]
LING KENT: Attempting to compete with streaming heavyweights.
[The Tonight Show clip]
“Peacock will stream late-night shows more than three hours before they hit traditional airways. Subscribers will be able to access NBC News programs and a vault of TV gold, along with a front-row seat for the Olympics and Premiere League soccer,” she added in an obvious promotion.
Then, in what can be viewed as dubious, Ling Kent set up the “price you pay” part of the segment. “Peacock Free will be available to anyone with ads at no cost. For $5 you'll have access to more content and new original programming and for $10, you get it all ad-free,” she said.
What made that part of the report particularly problematic was that it was followed up with complaints about how there were too many such services and the combined price was soaring:
LING KENT: From Disney's vault of movies to Netflix’s original programming, an early entry into streaming. Services are trying to find different ways to stand out.
UNIDENTIFIED MAN: They are getting expensive and there is a lot of them now.
“That’s why experts say it's about tailoring your subscriptions to what you want. Because, for now, the field is set and the ball is in the viewer's court,” she concluded.
Now, given the advertisement NBC viewers just witnessed, which service would they pick up in exchange for another? NBC was acting in a very similar fashion to ABC News when they shilled for Disney+.
The transcript is below, click "expand" to read:
NBC Nightly News
January 16, 2020
7:22:39 p.m. EasternLESTER HOLT: All right. Next up for us, the TV streaming wars are heating up as NBCUniversal, our parent company, unveiled its new service late today. Jo Ling Kent with the Price You Pay.
[Cuts to video]
JO LING KENT: Tonight, the battle for your attention is intensifying.
[30 Rock clip]
LING KENT: NBCUniversal is rolling out Peacock.
[Cheers theme]
LING KENT: Attempting to compete with streaming heavyweights.
[The Tonight Show clip]
LING KENT: Peacock will stream late-night shows more than three hours before they hit traditional airways. Subscribers will be able to access NBC News programs and a vault of TV gold, along with a front-row seat for the Olympics and Premiere League soccer.
Peacock Free will be available to anyone with ads at no cost. For $5 you'll have access to more content and new original programming and for $10, you get it all ad-free.
[The Office clip]
LING KENT: But is there such a thing of having too much to love?
JASON LYNCH (Adweek): Do I think five or six major streaming services will be able to survive? Probably not.
LING KENT: From Disney's vault of movies to Netflix’s original programming, an early entry into streaming. Services are trying to find different ways to stand out.
UNIDENTIFIED MAN: They are getting expensive and there is a lot of them now.
LING KENT: That’s why experts say it's about tailoring your subscriptions to what you want. Because, for now, the field is set and the ball is in the viewer's court. Jo Ling Kent, NBC News.
