Peacock & A+E Networks Pact for Content Deal

Peacock, NBCUniversal’s new streaming service, has signed a licensing deal with A+E Networks that is set to make hundreds of hours of episodes of hit series from A&E and HISTORY, including Pawn Stars, available to stream after the platform launches later this year.

Featured A&E series available on Peacock include: Cold Case Files, which explores compelling new cases that have gone cold for years and chronicles the journeys of the detectives who reopened them, and The First 48, a genre-defining series that has inspired countless true-crime programs. After 15 years and thousands of investigations, audiences continue to be engrossed in the emotional stories featured in the series.

Also included in the deal is Storage Wars, which quickly became A&E’s top-rated non-scripted series and went on to inspire a number of similar series and creating an entire reality TV sub-genre. The series follows professional buyers who visit storage facilities looking to strike it rich by buying repossessed storage units.

HISTORY series set to be available on Peacock include American Pickers, a documentary series that explores the world of antique “picking” as Mike Wolfe and Frank Fritz hunt for America’s most valuable antiques and the stories that follow them; Ancient Aliens, which explores the controversial theory that extraterrestrials have visited Earth for millions of years; and Curse of Oak Island, which follows Rick, Marty and the Oak Island team in their quest to solve the 224-year old treasure mystery.

Also from HISTORY is Pawn Stars, the longest-running show on cable, which takes you inside the colorful world of the Gold & Silver Pawn Shop on the outskirts of Las Vegas, run by the Harrison family. Lastly, Project Blue Book, a new series follows a brilliant professor recruited by the U.S. Air Force to spearhead the military’s clandestine investigations into reports of UFOs and related phenomena, is set to bow on Peacock. Each episode draws material from the authentic government files that were top secret when they were originally compiled under the Blue Book header.

Launching in April for Comcast video customers with Xfinity X1 and internet-only customers with Xfinity Flex, and nationally across platforms in July, Peacock will feature thousands of hours of on-demand movies and shows—including exclusive originals—from NBCUniversal and beyond, as well as current and live content including news, sports, late night, reality, Hispanic programming and more.

“We are excited to make some of A+E Networks’ most popular shows available on Peacock later this year,” said Frances Manfredi, president of content acquisition and strategy at Peacock and NBCUniversal Digital Enterprises. “In addition to the strong portfolio of NBCUniversal programming available on Peacock, we continue to aggregate content from other networks and studios, like A&E and HISTORY, that maximizes the breadth and depth of choice for our customers.”

“We are excited to partner with Peacock,” said Steve MacDonald, president of global content licensing and international at A+E Networks. “We of course strongly believe in the power of the A+E Networks’ library of content, and that it will prove to strengthen Peacock’s offerings.”