Over the past twenty years the media landscape has grown into a $2 trillion hurricane, its scale and complexity growing by the minute. In between a surge of new content streamers and the growing popularity of social media, competition for both viewers and advertising dollars has never been more fierce. 

As such, legacy media companies such as NBCUniversal are attempting to evolve into something entirely new: direct to consumer (DTC) technology companies. 

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The first step? Embrace streaming.

Truth be told, by the time NBCUniversal launched its streaming services, Peacock, in July of 2020, they were a little late to the game. Despite this, Peacock has, outperformed initial expectations by acquiring 24.5 million monthly active accounts and 9 million paid subscribers in under two years.

While Peacock’s strong “comfort watch” content offerings were certainly key to attracting subscribers, another major factor was its unique pricing model. Unlike other providers, Peacock offers 3 pricing tiers: ad-free ($9.99 per month), ad-supported premium (4.99) and a basic free package. In addition, Peacock was one of the first major streamer to offer “linear content feeds,” otherwise known as TV channels. 

Engaging a Digital-First Audience

Since 2014, ratings for the Olympic games have been on a downward spiral. Heading into the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing, an event marred by the lingering COVID-19 pandemic and geopolitical angst, NBCU knew engaging viewers would be more challenging than usual. 

With this in mind, they sought to make the 2022 Olympics more accessible and interactive than ever. To start, viewers have numerous options as to where they can view the games: on regular TV, Peacock or a variety of social media platforms such as Tiktok and Youtube. 

Secondly, the company launched a new virtual reality app dubbed the NBC Olympics VR by Xfinity App. Using the app and their own VR hardware, viewers can watch the Olympics in 3D and experience all sorts of immersive content, something NBCU plans to deliver more of in the future. 

“We strive to create innovative viewing experiences so immersive it rivals being at the Winter Olympics live,” Sophia Ahmad, Executive Vice President, Xfinity Consumer Services told AIAuthority in a recent interview. “Our robust network makes it possible for Xfinity customers to get closer to the action than ever before, experiencing for the first-time ever, the Games in 8K VR.” 

NBCU’s One Platform

Viewer habits and preferences aren’t the only thing that has evolved since the dawn of the digital age. The way in which TV advertising is bought and sold has also undergone a massive transformation. Advertisers not only want access to real-time viewer data, they also want seamless, integrated ad-buying experience.

By weaving together linear broadcast and cable networks with digital, social and streaming, NBCU’s One Platform serves as a one-stop-shop for purchasing and managing ads across the NBCU ecosystem. 

To help advertisers make better, more evidence-driven ad-buy decisions and develop personalized ad campaigns, NBCU recently launched a new addition to the One platform, NBCUnified. An identity platform for marketers, NBCUnified aggregates billions data points from NBCU’s movies, entertainment, news, sports, ecommerce, subscriptions and theme parks businesses into a single database. 

According to NBCU’s website, “NBCUnified is designed to give all marketers—from local businesses to DTC companies to big brands—a complete picture of their existing and potential customers and the advertising experiences that move them to action. Because when marketers use data to understand more about who they’re reaching, they can more effectively determine how, and with what message, to reach them.”

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