This week NBC affiliates have agreed to join deals NBCUniversal makes — freeing distributors from having to approach each station owner separately in order to offer the network in their communities. That means if NBCUniversal makes a deal to be on DIRECTV NOW, Playstation Vue, or Sling TV they will get access not to just NBC owned stations but ones from their affiliates also.
This deal has been in the works between NBC and their affiliates for months. In a statement NBCUniversal said “We are happy to once again reinforce NBC’s commitment to and recognition of the value of the affiliate partnership and that of local broadcasters. This agreement in the digital space reaffirms that commitment,” said Jean Dietze, president of affiliate relations for NBC.
“We are happy to once again reinforce NBC’s commitment to and recognition of the value of the affiliate partnership and that of local broadcasters. This agreement in the digital space reaffirms that commitment,” said Jean Dietze, president of affiliate relations for NBC.
“We are excited to take the important step of planting local Affiliates linear feeds in a position to join the Over the Top space, along with our network partners,” said NBC Affiliates chairman Ralph Oakley in a statement. “We believe that OTT distribution can play an important role in ensuring the growth and development of local, network-affiliated television stations. We appreciate NBC’s forward-looking approach to growing our historic partnership.”
Now don’t expect your local NBC Station to just show up on DIRECTV NOW tomorrow. Streaming services and NBCUiversal still need to make a new contract to include more stations. Though services like Sling TV now only have to talk with NBC and no longer have to go to each of the more than 200 NBC affiliate to get a deal done.
It is likely that other broadcast networks will be closely watching this deal. Hopefully more come up with a similar setup to help speed up the process of getting local channels on streaming services.
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