NBC Threatens to Black Out Apps on Roku in Dispute Over Peacock

NBCUniversal plans to black out more than 11 channels on Roku Inc.’s streaming platform Saturday morning, escalating a standoff with the company over its refusal to carry a new video app, Peacock.

NBC’s Peacock and AT&T Inc.’s HBO Max have been unable to secure spots on Roku and Amazon.com Inc.’s Fire TV since launching their streaming services earlier this year.

Roku is demanding, among other things, a cut of the advertising inventory on those apps to sell on its own. Comcast Corp.’s NBC and WarnerMedia, the AT&T division that runs HBO Max, are rejecting that push because they want to make money from ads on their streaming services.

In a statement Friday, NBC said Roku’s “unreasonable demands ultimately hurt both their consumers and their consumer equipment partners to whom they’ve promised access to all apps in the marketplace.”

Roku used similar wording in a statement. “Comcast is removing the channels in order to try to force Roku to distribute its new Peacock service on unreasonable terms,” a spokesperson said.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-09-18/nbc-threatens-to-black-out-apps-on-roku-in-dispute-over-peacock