NBCUniversal’s streaming service has a launch date
One Chicago fans now know when they can subscribe to the NBCUniversal streaming service, but what does that mean for One Chicago episodes?
One Chicago viewers have been keeping a close eye on the NBCUniversal streaming service, trying to find out how it may affect the Chicago franchise. This week, that project took one step closer to becoming a reality.
During a recent conference call, executives at Comcast—the parent company of NBCUniversal, which in turn owns NBC—told reporters that their as-yet-still-untitled service is going to go live in April 2020. That’s roughly eight months from now.
Here’s where that gets interesting if you’re a fan of Chicago Fire, Chicago PD and/or Chicago Med.
April is the penultimate month of the next One Chicago season. The fall TV cycle runs from September till May, so if the streaming service goes live when it’s scheduled, it’s going to happen during the biggest part of our shows’ season.
What happens at that point? If NBCU does decide to add the Chicago shows to their new platform, do they just disappear from Hulu and move to NBCU in the middle of the season? Or is there a set expiration date on the network’s current deal with Hulu?
If it’s the former, it would be incredibly awkward for fans who might be trying to catch up before the season finales in May. On Hulu, the latest five installments of Chicago Med, Chicago Fire and Chicago PD are currently available to stream free.
But the NBCUniversal streaming service is a pay platform, similar to the one that CBS currently offers, so viewers would suddenly have to fork over a subscription fee to stream an episode they missed.
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If it’s the latter, the company would have to wait until their contract with Hulu expires before they are able to acquire the One Chicago franchise. That could be sometime later in 2020 or beyond; we have no idea.
As discussed previously, it makes sense that NBC would want the Chicago shows on their service, as this is one of their biggest current properties. But the logistics of such a move are getting more and more complicated, the more that we learn. Fans will want to continue watching this story to see how it impacts watching their favorite shows next season.
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