Updated October 16, 2018 12:02pm EDT The Apple-owned television network NBCUniversal is in talks to sell the streaming rights to live content, a move that would give the network a massive cash infusion as it struggles to recover from the company’s stock price plunge.
The company has been working on the idea of selling streaming rights, which it first unveiled in January 2018, for years, but never made a concrete move.
It has long been a concern for NBCUniversal, which is under the oversight of CEO Brian Roberts, who is also chief financial officer.
That includes Comcast, which bought NBCUniversal for $32.5 billion in 2017.
But there has been little progress since then, and last week, the company announced it would not be renewing its streaming rights agreement with Comcast, and would instead launch its own streaming service.
Now that it’s got a deal to sell those rights, the question is whether the move will pay off for the company.
The new deal with NBCUniversal could create a new streaming service that could compete with the likes of Amazon Prime Video, Netflix and Hulu Plus.
But that’s a big if.
In a conference call with analysts, the executives at NBCUniversal noted that it may be harder for them to turn a profit from a new product that could be seen as an encroachment on their business.
In the event that they do manage to make money, the Comcast acquisition could provide a boost to the company, which was the fourth-largest U.S. media company last year.
But it could also cause it to be less competitive in a market dominated by Amazon Prime, Netflix, Hulu Plus and other competitors.