NBCUniversal streaming service Peacock has picked up another daily sports show. Last week saw the announcement that The Rich Eisen Show (weekdays, noon-3 p.m. Eastern) would resume on NBCSN as of August 17 and would switch its streaming from YouTube to Peacock as of October 5. Now, The Dan Patrick Show (weekdays, 9 a.m.-noon Eastern; like Eisen’s show, it was also originated by Audience Network before the repurposing of that network into a HBO Max preview channel back in February) is also heading to Peacock; it will continue on Fox Sports Radio and Sirius XM channel 211, but its video feed will be starting on Peacock as of August 24 (and ending on YouTube as of August 28). Here’s more on that from a release:
Peacock today announced an exclusive deal with The Dan Patrick Show to stream for free on Peacock. Starting August 24, Emmy Award–winning, multiplatform host Dan Patrick will be live on Peacock each weekday from 9:00 a.m. to noon ET.
The Dan Patrick Show entertains fans across the U.S. every weekday with a production team that includes Paul Pabst, Patrick O’Connor, Andrew Perloff and Todd Fritz, who are known as the Danettes. The Dan Patrick Show is known for its extensive A-list interviews from the world of sports entertainment, as well as its unique blend of situational comedy, breaking sports news, unparalleled insider access and pop culture commentary.
“I’m thrilled to be coming back home to Peacock and the NBC family to continue the show with the Danettes and the rest of my talented team,” said Dan Patrick. “A huge factor in partnering with Peacock is that our loyal fans can watch us for FREE. Who doesn’t love FREE. We can’t wait to get started—see you soon.”
…“We’re excited to welcome Dan and his devoted following to Peacock later this month,” said Rick Cordella, EVP and Chief Revenue Officer for Peacock. “Dan adds a distinctive voice to Peacock as we continue to build our live topical sports offering.”
This marks the third video change for The Dan Patrick Show in the last 18 months. In addition to airing on Audience, it was also simulcast on NBCSN from 2012-March 2019. It then shifted to AT&T’s B/R Live later in March 2019, and then went to YouTube this February. Now, it’s moving that video cast over to Peacock, where it will be included in Peacock’s free basic option. The show will also be available on demand there, and top clips will be showcased in Peacock’s Trending section.
This is a move that does seem to make some sense for both sides. Peacock is looking to make some splashes around its launch, and they’ve been looking at sports as a way to do that. They already put final-day matches from England’s Premier League there, and they’re rolling Premier League Pass into Peacock. They also anticipated putting some Olympics and Ryder Cup content there before both those events were postponed this year, and they’re planning to show some U.S. Open and U.S. Women’s Open content there, as well as simulcast a NFL playoff game there.
And picking up a daily show like Patrick’s has some advantages for Peacock. It’s already a known brand that will get some people to check out the service, it gives them some daily sports content and helps establish Peacock as a place to go for sports, and it would seem to be a perfect fit for clips for this “trending” section. And that last part could be quite important; it’s a way Peacock is hoping to differentiate itself from other streamers, pulling in timely content from various NBC News and sports properties. And Patrick’s prominence on the sports landscape means he often gets good guests, and his interviewing skills mean he often gets some notable responses out of them. Clips from The Dan Patrick Show often wind up being spread far and wide, and that’s exactly the sort of thing Peacock is probably eager for in the “trending” category.
Meanwhile, this seems like a pretty good fit for Patrick as well. He’s spent a lot of time working with various branches of NBC, from the broadcast network to NBCSN, so there should be some familiarity there. And he gets to be one of the featured and promoted things on Peacock, a service NBCUniversal is trying very hard to promote. And this gives him a video deal that’s still free for fans to watch, and one that doesn’t interfere with his existing terrestrial and satellite radio deals.
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The streaming/TV divide is narrowing further all the time, with more and more people picking up streaming adapters of one sort or another for their TV. And a free streaming service like Peacock (at least in its base tier) has a wider reach than the ones that require an additional subscription. So this is still pretty decent reach for Patrick on the video side, and he still has great reach on the radio side. And spotlights in “trending” might help him attract some new fans and reach a wider audience still.
It’s interesting to see Patrick’s and Eisen’s shows together again, at least on the streaming side (in a few months, once Eisen’s shifts to Peacock as well). They were often viewed similarly while they were both originated by Audience, and there was a natural flow from Patrick’s show into Eisen’s. And Eisen’s show should be able to give Peacock a lot of the same benefits that Patrick’s will.
Those shows have taken different paths since the end of Audience, with Fox Sports Radio/Premiere Networks keeping Patrick but moving on from Eisen, and they’re going to be in slightly different spots again (with Eisen’s show going to NBCSN this month and then adding a Peacock simulcast later this year, while Patrick’s show is sticking put on the radio side but adding a Peacock simulcast later this month), but it is notable to see this partial reunion. And we’ll see how adding these shows works out for Peacock.
