Matt Strauss is the Chairman of Direct-to-Consumer at NBC Universal. That’s a big fancy title that means he’s not only in charge of Peacock but also every other streaming video offering the company has worldwide. So you can bet Matt and I got into what that structure even looks like, and how it all operates under the overall ownership of Comcast, which is in the middle of its own massive transition as its traditional cable TV business continues to fade. There’s a lot in this one – tech, media, sports, and culture, all at once. It’s quite a ride.

Links:

Comcast's new DVR ditches the hard drive, stores your recordings in the cloud (The Verge, 2013)
Comcast and Charter Lost Another 269,000 Broadband Customers Last Quarter (The Motley Fool)
It's official, people aren't watching TV as much as they used to (The Verge)
The future of TV is up in the air (The Verge)
Peacock Quarterly Loss Narrows to $348M as Subscribers Drop to 33M (THR)
OTA and free online video drives higher US TV-video viewing hours (S&P Global)
Streaming was part of the future — now it’s the only future (The Verge)
US pay-TV losses reach a nadir (Light Reading)
The 2024 Olympics were a big win for TV of all kinds (The Verge)
Court blocks Disney-Fox-WBD sports streaming bundle (The Verge)
An AI version of Al Michaels will deliver Olympic recaps on Peacock (The Verge)

Transcript:

Credits:

Decoder is a production of The Verge, and part of the Vox Media Podcast Network.

Our producers are Kate Cox and Nick Statt. Our editor is Callie Wright. Our supervising producer is Liam James.

The Decoder music is by Breakmaster Cylinder.

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