The TV NBC, Peacock & USA Want to Buy
Part V of our Fall Market Guide
Elaine covers the TV market from L.A. Today is part of her exclusive tour of what every studio and streamer wants right now and how to pitch them (for paid subscribers only). Previously, she covered Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Disney’s brands, ABC, Disney+, Hulu and FX, and Apple TV+. As a paid subscriber to Series Business, you’ll receive richly reported dispatches from both Elaine and Manori Ravindran for a global perspective on the TV business. This is a standalone subscription separate from The Ankler. For access to Series Business and everything The Ankler publishes, including Sean McNulty's The Wakeup and columns from Richard Rushfield, you can subscribe here.
Hello again, Series Business crew. After last week’s look at how a second Trump term could impact the TV industry, we’re returning to our usual programming — which means a new installment of our Fall Market Guide.
Today we’re taking a look at NBCUniversal and its primary networks and streaming service for scripted TV content: NBC, the cable channel USA Network, and Peacock. While the rest of the town has been trying to make it 1997 again through science or magic, Jack Donaghy style, real-world NBC may be the only network actually doing so, as Dick Wolf’s television universe has expanded from Law & Order to an entire procedural world that includes a trifecta of emergency-services series that all take place in Chicago.
That also means, however, that the linear schedule is pretty full — and Peacock may be the place to take your more unorthodox or boundary-pushing ideas. Then there’s also USA Network, back in the Blue Skies business (its Suits-era heyday of the late 2000s and early 2010s) and slowly figuring out how to position itself in this brave new world of prestige TV and cord-cutting.
Agents and writers generally have positive things to say about NBC and Peacock’s creative execs, led by NBCU scripted content head Lisa Katz.
“They’re great. Peacock’s great. Actually, I love those executives,” says one executive producer-level TV writer who recently brought a pitch to the streaming service.
In this week’s Series Business, you’ll learn:
The two kinds of one-hour dramas Peacock wants now
One specific demographic Peacock is courting
How pitching works at NBCU given its multiple distribution channels — and why it’s not top-down
What kind of programming NBC wants to complement its sports portfolio
The per-episode budgets of your average NBC and Peacock series — and where USA per-hour budgets may land
Why Peacock is more similar in taste to Apple TV+ than you think
NBCU Studio Group chairman and chief content officer Donna Langley’s influence on Peacock’s strategy
The three traits that characterize NBC’s drama strategy
Whether there’s room for more comedy on NBC’s schedule
What USA actually wants in 2025
