News Information and Media Site: Byers Market: Steve Burke's Peacock plan; Trump's trade pact problem

January 16, 2020 | Hollywood

Good morning. 🇺🇸 Tonight in SoMa: "Mike Bloomberg will ask tech billionaires to support his presidential campaign in a private reception with some of Silicon Valley's biggest power brokers," Recode's Teddy Schleifer reports.

• The big picture: The event is "a reminder of the support that Bloomberg... is drawing from the mega-wealthy who are concerned about the anti-billionaire rhetoric from [Elizabeth] Warren and Bernie Sanders."

Bonus: Warren was caught on a hot mic after Tuesday night's debate accusing Sanders of calling her a liar. He in turn accused her of calling him a liar. That's where we're at.

Join the Market.

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The Streaming Wars

Steve Burke's Peacock plan

Moving the Market: Steve Burke will today unveil Peacock, NBCUniversal's new streaming service. It is the latest and last major entrant in the Hollywood streaming wars. But it will differ from its rivals in at least two big ways: It will rely heavily on advertising and it will likely include live programming.

• The big picture: Netflix, Disney+ and most other services are based on subscription models (rather than ad-supported models) and on-demand programming (rather than live). Burke is betting that there's a business to be built in bringing old, linear tricks to the new streaming space.

• That said, Peacock won't be a replica of NBC's linear channels, because as much as Burke wants Peacock to succeed, he also doesn't want it to undermine the core television business. So while there will be live news and sports, it will likely be limited compared to what's on TV.

• Disclosure: NBCUniversal is the parent company of NBC News.

What's next: Burke will likely offer three tiers of pricing:

1. A free, ad-supported option that gives viewers access to some but not all Peacock content. This will be the most popular offering and will allow NBC to achieve scale that it can pitch to advertisers.

2. A low-cost option — say, $5 a month — that will also include ads but will give subscribers access to the full library of Peacock content, including full seasons of old shows and new, exclusive programming.

3. A more expensive option — say, $8 or $10 a month — that will be ad-free, similar to the traditional streaming model of Netflix or Disney+, and also offer the full library of Peacock content.

How it's playing: The Information's Jessica Toonkel and Tom Dotan see Peacock "as more of a supplemental offering for cable TV subscribers than a must-have destination that could entice people to cancel cable."

• Recode's Peter Kafka notes that, in addition to competing with Netflix and Disney, Peacock may help NBC win back the revenue its not getting whenever NBC content is posted to YouTube and Facebook.

Bonus: One fun piece of scuttlebutt surrounding Peacock is that it will give subscribers the ability to watch "The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon" ahead of its usual 11:35 p.m. ET airtime. Good news for the early-to-bed crowd.

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Future of News

Burke to unveil NBC-Sky play

Moving Midtown: Burke "will also unveil an international news service created by NBC News and the news division of Sky, the satellite TV company Comcast bought in 2018," Peter Kafka reports.

• The big picture: The NBC-Sky service would significantly expand NBCUniversal's news footprint. Some see it as a potential competitor to other international services like CNN and the BBC.

What's next: "If Comcast puts real resources behind the service," Kafka writes, "it might have a chance."

📺 HBO Max eyes ads 📺

Speaking of ad-supported streaming... HBO Max content chief Kevin Reilly said yesterday that WarnerMedia will introduce an ad-supported product "about a year within launching the service," per THR's Natalie Jarvey.

Bloomberg/Getty

U.S.-China Affairs

Trump's trade pact problem

Big in the Bay, big in the Beltway: President Donald Trump and Chinese Vice Premier Liu He have signed a new trade deal that includes provisions to stop Beijing from stealing U.S. technology and trade secrets. But that doesn't necessarily mean they'll be enforced.

• The big picture: "Foreign lawyers say the new rules have large loopholes," NYT's Keith Bradsher reports, giving Chinese regulators "broad discretion to act as they see fit in cases that involve 'special circumstances,' 'national state interests' and other fuzzy exceptions."

What's next: "The question is whether China will stick to its pledges."

Market Links

• Vijaya Gadde leads content enforcement at Twitter (Bloomberg)

• Reed Hastings balances price and volume in Asia (Information)

• George Cheeks will join ViacomCBS as head of CBS (Variety)

• Henry Blodget sets growth targets for Business Insider (Poynter)

• The Murdochs may have a Sean Hannity problem (BuzzFeed)

Eugene Gologursky/Getty

The Pod Business

Simon Sutton lowers Luminary

Dept. of bad bets: Luminary, the subscription podcast service launched by Matt Sacks and now run by Simon Sutton, has been forced to cut its monthly subscription fee from $7.99 to $4.99, per PodNews. It's a bad sign for a podcast business already struggling to compete with Spotify and Apple.

• The big picture: Sacks made a $100 million bet that he could create a "Netflix of podcasting" by signing exclusive deals with talent and charging for subscriptions. The problem: Spotify and Apple built far more robust podcasting businesses, and most talent didn't want to go behind Sacks' paywall.

Joe Raedle/Getty

Print Problems

Craig Forman faces big debt

Trouble in Sac-town: "McClatchy, the second-largest newspaper publisher in the U.S. by circulation, skipped a $12 million debt-interest payment due Wednesday as it continues to negotiate with creditors to avoid a bankruptcy-court proceeding," WSJ's Lukas Alpert reports.

• The big picture: "The publisher's struggles come at a particularly tumultuous time for the newspaper industry. ... Gannett [has] merged with... GateHouse Media, while hedge fund Alden Global Capital moved in to become the largest shareholder in Tribune Publishing."

What's next: McClatchy, "the publisher of 30 newspapers including the Miami Herald, Charlotte Observer, Sacramento Bee and Kansas City Star, now has 30 days to work out a deal in which debt could be swapped for equity in the company."