that execs are considering a plan to potentially ditch an hour of primetime programming each night and hand back the 10 p.m. block to affiliates.NBC Could Give Third Hour Of Nightly Primetime Back To Local AffiliatesThe news followed the similarly stark outlook for the CW now that it is mostly owned by Nexstar Media Group. Execs at Nexstarthat the company would look to turn a profit on the CW by 2025.
Accelerating cord-cutting and the explosion of streaming options have robbed the broadcast nets of much of their mojo outside of sports and non-scripted programming over the past decade. As media companies have restructured to reflect blended focus on streaming, cable and broadcast, there’s no longer a sense of a lead dog pulling the sled.
“We’ve said from the beginning since we launched Peacock that we’re taking a different approach than most of the other people in the streaming business,” NBCU CEO Jeff Shell said on Comcast’s first-quarter earnings call last April. “We don’t view Peacock really as a separate, distinct business. We think it’s an extension of our existing TV business, and we manage it that way. That’s how we set up our business. That’s how we program it.