In a dramatic shift to the long-established TV order, NBCUniversal will move the premiere telecasts of NBC flagship late-night stalwarts The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon and Late Night with Seth Meyers to the company's new streaming service Peacock. Starting in July, the two shows will stream on Peacock at 8 and 9 p.m. EDT respectively each weeknight, with the NBC broadcast network essentially airing a rerun of each show three-and-a-half hours later. Peacock will announce the decision this afternoon at an investor's conference.
While NBC execs aren't talking (yet) about their thinking behind the move, NBC's affiliated TV stations, which pay substantial fees for the rights to NBC shows, will likely not love the idea of two important pieces of nightly programming being made available to streaming audiences first. This could be one reason why Peacock says its so-called "late night early" feature will only be available as part of Peacock Premium, a special tier available for free to authenticated cable subscribers (starting at launch with Comcast and Cox customers, or roughly 24 million homes) and for $4.95 (or $9.95 without ads) to anyone else. Tonight and Late Night will not stream early on the free version of Peacock, which will contain ads and be available to all consumers.