Four months into his position as NBC Entertainment co-chairmen, George Cheeks and Paul Telegdy are talking more about a future streaming company coming through NBC to have a streaming service for past and present NBC shows.
"Live ratings do still matter, particularly for affiliate partners," Telegdy carefully says before him and Cheeks talked the digital future of their network at NATPE's annual conference in Miami Beach.
"The company has been very thoughtful about how we go into the market," said Cheeks. "Netflix chasing is not a strategy. All of these major media companies approaching this, it's not a one-size fits all strategy."
Both Telegdy and Cheeks were quick to say that the NBCUniversal streamer would have both ad-free and ad-supported versions. "We believe through less ad cutter, with more targeted pods, we've seen more engagement," added Telegdy.
When asked which legendary NBC-owned series would end up on the streamer, the two didn't seem to give a direct answer.
"The Office has been on Netflix for 10 years and it's still in their top 5," said Cheeks. "The licensing deal is up in a couple years, it will be interesting to see where that goes."
Cheeks did note that NBC shows currently being screened on other platforms will be judged as an addition to the new service on a "case-by-case" basis... which may have to do with the price of the show as we saw with Friends.
We have noticed streaming shows is skewing towards younger audiences for current shows on NBC. Cheeks mentioned that the average Brooklyn Nine-Nine viewer on the network is 46. On digital, it's 27. Furthermore, the linear crowd for long-running Law & Order: SVU is 57, its Hulu audience is 30.
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