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Taylor Swift’s The Tortured Poets Department, strong gains in publishing revenue and a jump in merchandise sales propelled Universal Music Group (UMG) to solid revenue growth in the second quarter of 2024.
Despite a fall in ad-supported streaming that hampered streaming revenue gains, UMG’s overall revenue rose 8.7% to 2.93 billion euros ($3.16 billion at the quarter’s average exchange rate), the company announced Wednesday (July 24). Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) rose 17.4% to 580 million euros ($624 million) and EBITDA margin improved 1.1 percentage points to 19.8%. EBITDA was helped by revenue growth and cost savings from layoffs announced earlier in the year, though those benefits were partially offset by an increase in lower-margin revenue from merchandise and physical sales.
In the recorded music segment, revenue grew 5.8% to 2.2 billion euros ($2.37 billion). Subscription revenue improved 6.5% to 1.14 billion euros ($1.23 billion) while other streaming revenue dropped 4.2% to 343 million euros ($369 million). Overall, streaming revenue fell 4.2% due to slower growth at ad-supported platforms and the timing of deal renewals.
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Subscription growth was slowed by two factors, CFO Boyd Muir said during the earnings call. First, price increases in 2023 provided a boost a year ago. Second, while Spotify, YouTube Music and “many regional and local platforms” have continued to show strong growth, some other subscription services “have been less successful in driving global adoption.”
Physical revenue rose 9.5% to 357 million euros ($384 million) thanks to releases by Swift and Billie Eilish, which helped offset a tough comparison against a strong quarter in Japan for physical sales in the prior year, said Muir. Licensing and other revenue climbed 18% to 315 million euros ($339 million). Download revenue fell 21.3% but amounted to just 48 million euros ($52 million).
At Universal Music Publishing Group, revenue rose 10.1% to 511 million euros ($550 million). Digital revenue rose 17.8% to 311 million euros ($335 million) and accounted for most of publishing’s gains. Performance royalties improved 3.1% to 100 million euros ($108 million), while synch royalties grew 1.7% to 61 million euros ($66 million) and mechanical royalties fell 10.3% to 26 million euros ($28 million).
Of the 15 different songs to reach No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 this year, UMPG had songwriters n 13 of them, which CEO Lucian Grainge called “an extraordinary achievement.”
Merchandising revenue jumped 44.6% to 227 million euros ($244 million) due to higher direct-to-consumer sales and gains in touring merchandise sales. Muir credited tours by Olivia Rodrigo, The Rolling Stones, Nicki Minaj, 21 Savage and Morgan Wallen for that growth.
Topline results for Q2:
Total revenue of 2.93 billion euros ($3.16 billion), up 8.7%.
EBITDA: 580 million euros ($624 million), up 14.9%.
Recorded music revenue of 2.2 billion euros ($2.37 billion), up 6.8%.
Recorded music subscription revenue of 1.14 billion euros ($1.23 billion), up 6.5%.
Recorded music other streaming revenue of 343 million euros ($369 million), down 4.2%.
Publishing revenues of 511 million euros ($550 million), up 10.1%.
Merchandising revenue of 227 million euros ($244 million), up 44.6%.
Eminem could tweak the lyric of one of his most famous hits to “Love the Way You Stream.” The American rapper has received a Brit Billion Award by the BPI, which represents the U.K.’s leading music companies. The award recognizes artists who have achieved more than one billion U.K. career streams – a mark that […]
Don’t be surprised if Spotify decides to further raise prices on its premium subscription plans.
Although CEO Daniel Ek and interim CFO Ben Kung didn’t provide a timeline for future price increases, they sent numerous signals during Tuesday’s second-quarter earnings call that additional price increases are possible.
Spotify waited more than a decade to raise prices in the U.S. and many other markets in 2023 — from $9.99 to $10.99 a month for an individual plan. In 2024, the rate was bumped up to $11.99 per month. If those price increases were poorly timed, Spotify would have seen subscribers leave and revenues would suffer. Neither happened.
In the second quarter, the company added 7 million subscribers from the prior the quarter — 1 million more than it told investors it expected — and revenue reached 3.8 billion euros ($4.15 billion), up 20% year over year, the company announced Tuesday. Higher prices, combined with extensive layoffs, helped Spotify turn a 247 million euro ($269 million) operating loss in the second quarter of 2023 into an operating profit of 266 million euro ($290 million) — a swing of 513 million euros ($559 million).
Following widespread price increases in 2023 and additional price hikes this year in the U.S., U.K. and Australia, “We’re seeing less churn in this round of increases than we did in our prior one, which was already very low by any measure,” Ek said. The churn rates following the second round of increases were “better than expected,” added Kung.
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Following the two rounds of price hikes, Spotify is “very encouraged by what we’re seeing in the three major markets where we’ve taken price now, that’s basically about two times in the last 12 months,” said Kung. “And so I think we see that as a great data point for … what might be possible … in the rest of our territories.”
Why are subscribers not leaving? Ek attributes its churn rates to “the tremendous value we’ve added to the service over the last several years.” That includes features such as the year-ending recap Wrapped and Discovery Weekly, a personalized playlist of new releases. More recently, the company invested heavily in podcasts and audiobooks. Spotify is now a well-rounded audio platform, not the music-focused streaming service of its early years. “Access to all of this content would cost a user approximately $26 — significantly more than a Spotify subscription,” said Ek. “Spotify remains a pretty outstanding deal.”
Engagement is important for subscriber retention. As long as Spotify can keep listeners listening, it believes it has an ability to raise prices. “The most important thing in the near term is just making sure that audiobooks are driving incremental engagement for the platform, and we’re seeing this happening in a way that makes us feel good about the path that we’re on here,” said Kung.
The U.S., U.K. and Australia appear to have absorbed two rounds of price increases without missing a beat. Spotify executives didn’t say what to expect in other large, mature markets, but Ek suggested that listeners in developing markets, which currently skew more toward ad-supported listening, could stomach paying more. “The high engagement in [developing] markets gives us tremendous confidence in our ability to raise prices,” he said.
Separately, Spotify believes a subset of its subscribers are willing to pay substantially more for an elevated experience. Spotify first announced a high-quality audio tier, called HiFi, in 2021 but delayed its launch. Now, it appears HiFi is back on. “The plan here is to offer a much better version of Spotify,” said Ek. “So, think something like $5 above the current premium tier, so probably around $17-$18 price point, but sort of a deluxe version of Spotify that has all the benefits that the normal Spotify version has plus more control and quality across the board.”
Spotify’s stock surged 12% on Tuesday after Spotify reported quarterly earnings that beat subscriber growth and profit margin expectations.
In a wide-ranging discussion of the company’s earnings that touched on the controversy sparked by Spotify’s audiobook bundling, its plans for a premium music tier and missing its target for monthly active user growth, Spotify chief Daniel Ek said the company he helped found 18 years ago is reaching a turning point.
“While many believe that Spotify has a great product, we needed to prove that we could also be a great business,” Ek said. “I think we’re really starting to show this now.”
Here’s what else you should know about the global streaming giant’s most recent quarterly earnings and what was said on the call.
“It was a very strong quarter across most of our key metrics”
Ek said at the top of the webcast. The streaming giant, which has for most of its 18-year history failed to be profitable, reported its third-straight profitable quarter spurred on by the addition of seven million net new subscribers, an expanded gross profit margin of 29.2% and 490 million euros ($533 million) in free cash flow, the most in the company’s history. However, the company missed its internal target for total monthly active users (MAUs), reporting a total of 626 million MAUs compared with a goal of 631 million.
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Ek said they are tackling this by enhancing free products to boost engagement and retention in developing markets.
The bundle controversy
When Spotify announced plans to raise subscription prices in the U.S. and the addition of 15 hours of audiobooks per month in May, it also asserted it could pay a discounted “bundle” rate to songwriters for premium streams that Billboard estimates could cut songwriters’ and music publishers’ royalty payments by $150 million. The Mechanical Licensing Collective sued Spotify, claiming it “improperly” classified its premium tiers as bundles. Ek declined to comment on the lawsuit, but defended Spotify saying that it paid out a record-high amount to music labels and publishers in 2023 and will “beat those numbers” in 2024.
“A lot of people want to make this a zero sum game where we have to win in order for them to lose or they have to win and we sort of lose,” Ek said. “It’s not as much a zero sum game as people make it out to be. That’s not to say we don’t quibble around various things at various points. That’s the nature of all supplier and distributor relationships. Overall we have had healthy relationships with the music industry for the better part of now 18 years. … Overall the music industry is growing. We are spending a lot of time and effort making sure it keeps growing.”
Spotify’s interim CFO Ben Kung declined to share details of Spotify’s royalty payout agreements but said the company is confident in its position.
New ultra-premium tier on the horizon
Asked about Spotify’s plans to launch a long-delayed high definition audio offering, Ek described the company’s effort to bring something like a “deluxe version” of Spotify to life for “a large subset” of Spotify’s now 246 million subscribers.
“The plan here is to offer a much better version of Spotify. So, think something like $5 above the current premium tier, so probably around $17-$18 price point, but sort of a deluxe version of Spotify that has all the benefits that the normal Spotify version has plus more control and quality across the board,” Ek said.
Spotify added 7 million subscribers in the second quarter, roughly 1 million more than it forecasted, which bolstered revenue and profit margins, the streaming giant said on Tuesday.
Spotify reported 3.8 billion euros ($4.15 billion) in total revenue, a 20% increase from the year-ago quarter, with a record high gross margin of 29.2% that beat guidance. Its operating income was up for the second straight quarter to 266 million euros ($289.6 million), which the company said was thanks to a stronger 7% gross margin and lower marketing, personnel and other costs.
While Spotify’s 626 million total monthly active users (MAUs) came in lower than the 631 million MAUs the company expected in the second quarter this year, it grew premium subscribers by 1 million more than forecast, and as Spotify raises prices in the U.S. again, that helps the company keep its growth goals on track.
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“Overall, we are encouraged by the traction we are seeing from our monetization initiatives and remain focused on delivering the goals out lined at our 2022 investor day,” the company said in a statement.
Revenue from premium subscribers grew 21% year over year thanks to those subscriber gains and premium average revenue per user (ARPU) gains of 10% compared to last year. Revenue from ad-supported users rose 13%.
The price of Spotify’s premium individual plan in the U.S. rose $1 to $11.99 a month and the duo plan jumped a buck to $16.99 a month in July.
Spotify has been under pressure from major music companies and organizations to reverse changes it made in May to its bundled subscription services that added audiobooks to its premium tier. Spotify wants to pay songwriters a discounted bundle rate for premium streams, but groups like the MLC are suing Spotify claiming the streamer “improperly” classified its premium tiers as bundles.
Billboard estimates the move, which reclassified premium, duo and family subscription services as “bundled subscription services,” could cut songwriters’ and music publishers’ royalty payments by $150 million in the first year.
The lower personnel costs that helped boost operating income are in part due to staff cuts the company made last December.
Spotify chief executive officer Daniel Ek is expected to discuss the company’s strategy on bundling and provide greater details about his company’s quarterly earnings on a call Tuesday morning.
Topline Results for Q2:
Total revenue of 3.8 billion euros reflected revenue from premium subscribers growing by 21% and ad-supported revenue growing 13%.
Gross margin of 29.2% beat the company’s growth forecast due to improved music and podcast profitability, the company said.
Operating income also beat guidance at 266 million euros due to lower personnel and marketing costs.
Total monthly active users (MAUs) were 626 million in the second quarter, up 14% from a year ago.
Premium subscribers totaled 246 million and ad-supported MAUs totaled 393 million, up 12% and 15% from a year ago respectively.
Premium average revenue per user (ARPU) rose 10% from last year.
All products and services featured are independently chosen by editors. However, Billboard may receive a commission on orders placed through its retail links, and the retailer may receive certain auditable data for accounting purposes. We have Stranger Things to thank for giving ’80s music another chance to hit the music charts (remember “Running Up That […]
Beyond the drama and debate surrounding this year’s Copa América, we at Round saw a different kind of news story emerge: How the oldest international football competition in the world is driving niche Latin American music genres to new audiences in North America.
Soccer is increasingly finding its footing in American culture, and its rise in popularity is reflected in the number of viewers this year’s tournament reeled in. According to The Hollywood Reporter, both Fox and Univision registered record viewership for the Euro 2024 and Copa America finals. The Spain-England game drew a combined 9.43 million viewers on Sunday afternoon, and in primetime, Argentina’s victory over Colombia averaged 11.63 million viewers across the two networks. Fox scored more than 6 million viewers for both matches, which, outside of the World Cup, became the most-watched soccer telecasts ever on the network.
Copa America’s record ratings were reflected on TikTok, where the #CopaAmerica2024 hashtag garnered 71.5 million views. The U.S. accounted for 13% of the content creation on TikTok around the event, second only to Mexico at 15%, according to data compiled by Round Technology, which can scrape social media platforms to provide proprietary data. Whilst conversation on social platforms was initially driven by what was happening on the pitch, we later saw audiences interact more than ever with Latin music, demonstrating how central music has become to the tournament.
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This year, Shakira’s halftime performance at the Copa America final infused Latin culture into the event despite initial reservations from Colombia’s national team coach, Néstor Lorenzo, about extending the halftime break for the show (soccer tournaments typically don’t have halftime shows, and if they do, they don’t extend beyond 15 minutes). Meanwhile, Colombia’s music elite rocked up to the tournament decider, with Feid, Ryan Castro, Karol G, Maluma, Blessd, Camilo, Fonseca and Juanes all in attendance. Impressively, those artists collectively represent more than a quarter of a billion monthly listeners on Spotify.
On TikTok, three tracks stood out as firm favorites for the platform’s users: Shakira’s “Punteria” (the official song of TelevisaUnivision coverage of the tournament); Ryan Castro’s reggaeton track “El Ritmo Que Nos Une” (the Colombian team’s official song); and MC Danone’s Brazilian funk tune “Vem Quebrando.” Together, those tracks have featured in nearly 550,000 TikTok creations since the tournament began on June 21. In comparison, across the pond in Europe, the official song of the Euros, “FIRE” by Meduza, OneRepublic and Leony, sparked just 70,000 creations, while England’s unofficial anthem “Three Lions (It’s Coming Home)” garnered 64,000 creations during the tournament.
Copa America’s surprising success on TikTok, coupled with its deepening connection to music, has been game-changing for artists by bringing attention to emerging genres. Take, for example, “Vem Quebrando,” a Brazilian funk song popularized by Colombian midfielder Richard Ríos, who performs a TikTok dance associated with the track whenever he scores.
Originally recorded by MC Danone, “Vem Quebrando” has seen a significant rise in popularity, racking up more than 85 million streams and highlighting the potential for niche genres to find a wider audience. With 1.6 million monthly listeners on Spotify, MC Danone illustrates how local Latin American sounds are being funneled to American audiences via soccer and, ultimately, how TikTok has the potential to dictate the impact of an event.
Copa America 2024 has shown that soccer is more than just a game, bringing the sport further into North American homes and introducing a rich tapestry of Latin American music to a new audience.
As the dust settles on Copa America 2024, attention turns to the 2026 World Cup, which will be hosted across the United States, Canada and Mexico. With soccer’s popularity expected to continue growing in the States, the tournament presents a huge opportunity for local sounds from Latin America to make their way to American audiences. TikTok and other UGC platforms will undoubtedly be key accelerators for these hyper-local sounds, offering a pathway for a new wave of genres to find success in the North American market.
Ray Uscata is managing director of Round, North and South America. Round is a tech-enabled digital agency using content, creators and communities to place the world’s leading brands and artists at the center of culture.
It’s earnings season once again, with Spotify the first music company set to report second-quarter earnings on July 23. Which is fitting — not only is the Swedish streaming giant the most valuable publicly traded music company by market capitalization at $60.4 billion, it’s also an important bellwether for much of the music business.
Music subscriptions will continue to be the driving force for Spotify, other streaming companies, record labels and music publishers. Subscriber gains mean more money flowing through to creators and rights owners, while rising prices are benefitting streaming services and could flow down to creators and rights owners, too — although analysts have mixed opinions on whether price increases have those downstream benefits or simply pad streaming companies’ bottom lines.
Another giant of the music business, Universal Music Group, is up next, with its earnings slated to drop the day after Spotify’s (July 24). Believe and SiriusXM earnings are due the following week (both Aug. 1), while Warner Music Group is set for the week after (Aug. 8). Follow Billboard‘s list of upcoming industry events for more earnings release dates once they’re announced.
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On the touring front, for all the hullabaloo about weakened consumer demand and canceled tours and festivals, the live music market is likely to have produced another banner quarter. While everyone’s eyes will be on Live Nation to gauge the health of the business, the concert giant has yet to announce its earnings release date; CTS Eventim, which will report earnings on Aug. 22, is the only promoter to have announced so far.
Here’s what to expect in the upcoming slew of earnings reports.
Subscription gains — but without churn?
The recorded music market is having its cake and eating it, too: subscription prices are increasing, and customers don’t appear to be leaving in droves. Music subscription services are benefiting from price increases — namely Spotify in 2023, with some additional price hikes in 2024 — with little churn. Higher prices and continued subscriber growth will lead to gains in total revenue and average revenue per user (ARPU); Spotify expected 245 million subscribers at the end of June, which would be 6 million net additions in the quarter and a whopping 25 million greater than the 220 million subscribers it had on June 30, 2023. Watch out for any indications that higher prices negatively affected Spotify’s churn rate, however — although the company does not release specific churn data, it will likely warn investors if subscriber losses were greater than expected and are headed in the wrong direction. So far, however, any consumer complaints have been more bark than bite. In another good sign, streaming activity has been healthy, too. U.S. audio streams — by count, not by dollar value — were up 8.1% in the second quarter, according to Luminate.
Payoffs from price increases and cost-cutting
Spotify expects to have operating income of 250 million euros ($273 million) in the second quarter, which would be a nearly 500-million-euro ($545 million) improvement over the 247-million-euro operating loss it saw in the second quarter of 2023. If attained, that big shift from loss to profitcould be chalked up to r Spotify’s decisions in 2023 to raise prices and drastically cut back on its headcount (including a 17% workforce reduction in December). Those moves quickly produced benefits: Gross margin increased to 27.6% in the first quarter of 2024, up from 26.7% in the fourth quarter of 2023 and 25.2% in the first quarter of 2023. The reduced expenses from layoffs also helped operating margin improve to 4.6% in the first quarter — a big gain from the -2% and -5.1% margins it saw in the fourth and first quarters of 2023, respectively. Additionally, Spotify’s second-quarter guidance of 3.8 billion euros ($4.1 billion) of total revenue would be a 19.6% improvement from the prior-year period revenue of 3.18 billion euros ($3.47 billion). ARPU also increased 7% in the first quarter and is likely to improve again in the second quarter.
More advertising weakness
Music subscription services chose a good time to raise prices. Weak advertising revenues have been a recurring theme since music and tech companies began warning investors in 2022, and continued unsteadiness in the advertising market will impact ad-supported revenues for streaming companies, record labels and music publishers. On July 1, Guggenheim lowered its estimate for Universal Music Group’s recorded music ad-supported streaming growth to 10.6% from 11.1% “to better reflect more challenging comparisons” against the prior quarter, as Guggenheim analysts wrote in an investor note. However, that revision was still above the first-quarter estimate of 10.3% due to UMG’s renewal of a licensing agreement with TikTok in May.
Continued strong demand for live music
For all that has been written about fans’ lessened appetites for live music, public companies appear to be in stable conditions. In its first-quarter earnings report in May, Live Nation said that through mid-April, the percentage of large shows booked was up double-digits while concert margins had improved, too. “We are seeing no weakness,” said president/CFO Joe Berchtold, adding that artists who toured in both 2023 and 2024 are seeing better sell-through this year. And with fewer stadium shows in 2024 than 2023, Live Nation will have more concerts in the more profitable arenas and amphitheaters that it owns or operates. Analysts are still bullish on Live Nation in the wake of the Department of Justice’s antitrust lawsuit against the company filed in May: As of this week, 18 analysts have “buy” recommendations on Live Nation, four have “hold” recommendations and only one has a “sell” on the stock. CTS Eventim expects another solid year, too. In April, the German promoter and ticketing company reiterated comments contained in its 2023 annual report that predicted “further moderate sales growth” in 2024.
The Taylor Swift Effect
UMG’s financials will get a boost from Taylor Swift’s latest album, The Tortured Poets Department. Released on April 17 through UMG’s Republic Records, Tortured Poets has remained at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 album chart for 11 consecutive weeks since its April 19 release, with sales boosted in subsequent weeks by additional variants that helped it maintain chart position. In the most recent chart week, for example, two CD versions of the album that fans initially ordered through Swift’s webstore in early June were shipped. In all, Swift’s latest album topped the Billboard 200 for 9 of the second quarter’s 13 weeks and sold 2.4 million units in the U.S., with about 2 million of those coming from CD and LP sales, according to Luminate. That led Republic Records’ U.S. market share to reach an industry-leading 15.72%, up from 12.42% in the first quarter – greater than Warner Music Group. UMG’s total market share in the quarter was 36.37%, up from 34.48% in the prior-year quarter and well ahead of its 33.9% share in the first quarter of 2024.
All products and services featured are independently chosen by editors. However, Billboard may receive a commission on orders placed through its retail links, and the retailer may receive certain auditable data for accounting purposes.
Copa América 2024 is approaching a climactic end with the finals set to take place on Sunday (July 14), featuring a performance from Shakira. Four teams currently remain as we enter the semifinals and kicking off the matches will be Lionel Messi and Argentina who will face off against Canada tonight, Tuesday (July 9).
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Drake is making it known who he’s hoping takes home the victory, as the rapper reportedly bet $300,000 for Canada to win over the Lionel Messi and the Argentinian team, according to ESPN FC on X.
You still find tickets to watch Copa América semifinals, but in case you can’t travel to the soccer match in person at the MetLife Stadium in Rutherford, N.J., you can livestream Canada vs. Argentina to see who will move on to the finals and take on either Uruguay or Colombia.
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The semifinal match will air live on FS1 and the easiest way to watch the soccer match is through cable. If you’ve recently cut the cord, you don’t have to spend hundreds of dollars on a cable package to watch Canada vs. Argentina, there are some live TV streaming platforms that offer the channel — and for a fraction of the cost.
Keep reading to learn the streaming options available to watch Argentina vs. Canada online without cable.
How to Watch Canada vs. Argentina Online for Free
FS1 will be livestreaming the first semifinal game on Tuesday (July 9) at 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT. You can stream the soccer match for free through promos and free trials offered by live TV streamers that ShopBillboard has listed below.
DirecTV Stream
Watch Canada vs. Argentina on DirecTV Stream, which includes FS1 as part of the hundreds of channels available in its lineup. New users can score a five-day free trial when you subscribe to one of the four packages offered. Every single package includes FS1, FS2 and Fox in addition to more sports and local channels. Additional savings: save $30 when you combine a streaming package with a “Sports Pack.” Currently, the Entertainment + Sports Pack is $85 (reg. $95) for the first three months.
Other benefits include unlimited DVR storage and no cap on the amount of devices you can stream on at once.
Sling Tv
You can watch Canada vs. Argentina semifinal game on Sling TV for as little as $30 (reg. $40) when you sign up for one of the three packages as a new user. The streaming platform is offering a promo that gives you $10 off your first month, but you’ll only get access to FS1 through the Blue package or the Orange + Blue package. For $35 (reg. $45), the Blue plan will give you access to local channels, FS1 and more live entertainment and sports content as well as up to 50 hours of DVR storage.
Get even more content when you combine the Blue and Orange plans for $50 (reg. $60) and get all 48 channels including FS1 and the NFL Network, and the ability to stream on up to three devices at once.
FuboTV
Fubo is another free streaming option to watch Canada vs. Argentina online, as it comes with a seven–day free trial when you sign up. You’ll be able to livestream Copa América games and more than 100 channels at no cost during the trial period. Once your free trial is over, you’ll be charged based on the package you choose at checkout.
Plans start out at $79.99 a month, which will give you 199 channels to flip through, 1000 hours of DVR storage and the ability to watch content on up to 10 screens at once. Expand your options when you upgrade to the Premier plan for $99.99 a month that includes everything in the Elite plan as well as access to Showtime and 275 channels.
Hulu + Live TV
Hulu + Live TV is offering a rare three-day free trial for new users who sign up. Along with getting access to the entire Hulu library, you’ll also receive more than 75 live channels (including FS1) to watch whenever. Once the free trial is over, you’ll be charged $77 a month (with ads) or go ad-free for $90 a month.
Hulu + Live TV will automatically be bundled with ESPN+ and Disney+ expanding your program offerings and giving you access to the most content out of all of the options listed here. In addition to FS1, you’ll be able to watch exclusive content offered on ESPN+.
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NBC is the official home of the 2024 Paris Olympics on TV, and the network will have hours of live coverage each night this summer. That means if you want to watch Simone Biles present a jaw-dropping floor routine or see who takes home the gold for track and field events, you’ll need to tune into your local NBC affiliate channel.
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In addition to letting you watch the Paris 2024 Olympics live, NBC is home to some of TV’s most popular entertainment and news programming, including Saturday Night Live, The Today Show, The Kelly Clarkson Show and The Voice. The easiest way to watch NBC at home would be through cable or a digital antenna (like this one from Amazon), but for cord cutters, there are some live TV streamers that’ll let you watch NBC without having to drop hundreds of dollars on a cable package.
Keep reading to learn the streaming options available.
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How to Watch NBC Without Cable At Home
If you’re going the non-cable route, the simplest way to get instant access to NBC programs and live 2024 Paris Olympics coverage is through the channel’s official streaming platform, Peacock. While there is no free trial for new users, the platform offers cheap plans starting at just $5.99 a month or you can get an annual plan for $59.99 a year (which gets you 12 months of streaming for the price of 10).
Content outside of the 2024 Olympics you can look forward to streaming includes Apple Never Falls, Poker Face, Ted, The Traitors, Couple to Throuple, The Best Man: The Final Chapters, Bel-Air, Love Island, Love Island Games, One of Us Is Lying, Dr. Death, Yellowstone, Suits, The Office, Modern Family and Parks & Recreation. Bravo fans can also tune into content like Vanderpump Rules, Below Deck, The Real Housewives Ultimate Girls Trip and Summer House: Martha’s Vineyard.
How to Watch NBC Without Cable for Free Online
For the most amount of content options, live TV streamers let you watch NBC without cable in addition to hundreds of other channels. Plus, through free trials and promos going on you can save money and watch NBC at home for free.
To help you find the best live TV streaming platforms online, ShopBillboard put together our list of favorites below.
DirecTV Stream
Watch NBC online through DirecTV Stream, a live TV streaming service that includes your local NBC station as part of its channel lineup. New users can score a five-day free trial through DirecTV Stream when you sign up for one of its four packages. Every streaming package includes NBC plus CNBC, MSNBC and dozens of other channels. Bonus offer: you can save $30 when you combine a streaming package with a “Sports Pack.” Right now, the Entertainment + Sports Pack is $85 (reg. $95) for the first three months.
You’ll also receive unlimited DVR storage, local channels and the ability to stream on as many smart devices as you want.
Sling TV
Sling TV’s latest promo gets new users half-off your first month when you sign up for one of the three packages offered. The Blue package comes with NBC in addition to sports, news and entertainment channels, plus 50 hours of DVR storage for $22.50 (reg. $45).
For the most channels, you can combine the Orange + Blue package for only $30 (reg. $60) and you’ll get all 48 channels — including FS1 and the NFL Network as well as the ability to stream on up to three devices at once.
FuboTV
Fubo is another cheap streaming option to watch NBC online without cable. Even better: the streamer is offering a seven-day free trial that’ll let you watch NBC and more than 100 live TV channels for no cost.
After the free trial is over, you’ll have a few streaming plans to choose from including Fubo’s Pro Plan, which is the cheapest option at $79.99 a month. You’ll have 199 channels to flip through, 1000 hours of DVR storage and the ability to watch content on up to 10 screens at once. For more content options, you can upgrade to the Premier plan for $99.99 a month, which includes everything in its Elite plan as well as access to Showtime and 275 channels.
Hulu + Live TV
Hulu + Live TV is offering new subscribers a rare three-day free trial that’ll let you watch more than 95 channels including NBC online for free. Out of all the options available, Hulu + Live TV gives you the most content options, from live channels to the entire Hulu on-demand library of shows and movies. Once the free trial is over, you’ll be charged the regular subscription fee of $77 a month.
What we like: your Hulu + Live TV plan includes Disney+ and ESPN+ for exclusive sports coverage and programming from ESPN, and all the Disney+ originals.
Can You Watch NBC on Peacock?
Since Peacock is the official streaming platform for NBC, you’ll be able to watch original content from the channel in addition to live programing online. All you need to do is sign up or log in to your account and you’ll immediately get access to everything within the Peacock library including NBC content.
Can You Watch NBC on Amazon Prime?
NBC is not offered for free with Prime, but you can buy episodes and seasons of select NBC shows on Prime Video to watch at your leisure. Episodes go for as low as $2 or you can buy a full season starting at $25.