What We Know About NBCUniversal’s Future Streaming Service

NBCUniversal’s announcement this week that it intends to launch a streaming service in 2020 presents a new challenge to the media industry: The digital pool is about to get very crowded with fierce rivals and competing consumer options.The Comcast-owned media conglomerate’s yet-to-be-named broadband entity, which will be overseen by veteran programming chief Bonnie Hammer, will join rival streaming outlets from Walt Disney Co. and AT&T’s WarnerMedia that are set to debut this year. Of course, these streamers will vie with already established ones: Netflix, Amazon and Hulu, CBS All Access, ESPN+ and Fox Nation. Also joining the mix: Apple in January struck a deal with Samsung to make its iTunes streaming-video app available on Samsung smart-TV sets.“All the kids are doing it,” says Tim Hanlon, CEO of Vertere Group, a media and advertising consultancy firm. “The days of a major network group not having a stated goal to have at least one major OTT service out in the market and soon are over.”