Peacock is doubling down on live news, bringing a pair of cable news programs to its live streaming lineup.
The NBCUniversal-owned streaming service will stream MSNBC’s Morning Joe and CNBC’s Squawk Box live beginning Tuesday, March 28. The shows will be part of a “Morning News Live” editorial element on Peacock, expanding its live news lineup to political and financial news. Morning Joe will stream from 6-10 a.m. while Squawk Box runs from 6-9 a.m.
NBC’s flagship Today show already streams for Peacock Premium Plus subscribers (the tier includes a live feed of the user’s local NBC station, which includes live NBC News programming), though it will also be included in the new Morning News Live hub for subs to that tier.
The addition of MSNBC’s signature morning show and CNBC’s stalwart pre-market program make for a significant expansion of live news programming on Peacock, which already includes NBC News Now, Today All Day and programming from Sky News and local NBC stations.
“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,” said Brian Henderson, executive VP of programming for Peacock. “With Morning Joe and Squawk Box live each morning, not to mention Today for our Premium Plus users, we’re giving subscribers a new reason to start each morning with Peacock.”
The move is also one of the first times that a daily cable news program will be easily accessible outside of the pay-TV bundle. Fox News, for example, streams its primetime opinion shows on its Fox Nation service the next day, but does not stream them live. CNN, meanwhile, is only available to pay-TV subscribers (occasionally during major breaking news events cable channels will make their streams free for a limited amount of time).
While Morning Joe is only 4 hours of MSNBC’s schedule (and Squawk Box 3 of CNBC’s), they are both staple shows on those cable channels, and making them available to non pay-TV subscribers is significant.
Hosted by Mika Brzezinski, Joe Scarborough, and Willie Geist, Morning Joe will celebrate its 16th anniversary on MSNBC next month. Squawk Box is currently hosted by Joe Kernen, Becky Quick and Andrew Ross-Sorkin, and has been a part of CNBC’s morning lineup since 1995 (that’s before MSNBC even existed).
In fact, Peacock has cut a few unusual deals that make it something in between an SVOD service like Netflix and a small pay-TV service. Premium subscribers can stream Hallmark Channel and Reelz Channel live, whether or not they pay for cable.
Depending on how pay-TV providers respond, the deal could also potentially lead the way for CNN or Fox News to stream some of their programming online as well.
