Technology

Comcast and ViacomCBS join forces to launch a new streaming service in Europe

In this article

Brian Roberts, Chairman and CEO of Comcast
David A. Grogan | CNBC

Comcast and ViacomCBS are partnering to launch a European streaming service, the companies announced Wednesday.

The service, dubbed “SkyShowtime,” is expected to launch in 2022 and roll out in more than 20 European countries including Spain, Portugal and the Netherlands. It will include libraries from Comcast-owned Sky and NBCUniversal, and ViacomCBS brands like Showtime, Nickelodeon, and Paramount Pictures.

The companies did not announce a price for the service, but a person familiar with the matter told CNBC SkyShowtime will be priced competitively with other streaming products. However, pricing will differ market to market, according to a person.

Shares of ViacomCBS were up more than 3% premarket Wednesday, while Comcast shares were largely flat.

The news comes just two weeks after ViacomCBS said it would partner with Sky to launch Paramount+ in Europe. Last month, several media outlets reported Comcast Chief Executive Brian Roberts and ViacomCBS chairman Shari Redstone had reportedly met to discuss a deal.

Both NBCUniversal and ViacomCBS trail behind many of the streaming giants with just 54 million Peacock sign-ups and 42 million streaming subscribers respectively. That puts them behind streaming giants like Netflix, Disney and Amazon.

–CNBC’s Alex Sherman contributed to this report.

Disclosure: Comcast is the owner of NBCUniversal, the parent company of CNBC.

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