Netflix Studies Hosting Peacock After Passing on Roku

Netflix has discussed putting Peacock and Fox One inside its own app, The New York Times reported on Aug. 24, and no deal is close. The people who described the talks said Netflix still has not picked a structure.

Fox Corporation is buying the living-room platform Netflix looked at and left. YouTube has already folded Peacock into its paid tier for 2027. Amazon Prime Video already bills tens of millions of add-on subscriptions from inside a rival app.

Netflix Has Held Talks With NBCUniversal and Fox

John Koblin of the Times, citing three people familiar with the discussions, wrote that Netflix leaders recently spoke with NBCUniversal and Fox Corporation about making Peacock and Fox One available through Netflix. They said there was no imminent deal to announce. They also said it was not yet clear whether Netflix would sell those subscriptions the way Amazon does, or absorb the shows the way YouTube plans to absorb Peacock.

WHAT WE KNOW

• The talks: Netflix has discussed Peacock and Fox One with NBCUniversal and Fox, according to three people who spoke to The New York Times, and no pact is close.
• The fork: One path is an in-app store that sells extra subscriptions. The other folds outside catalogs into the Netflix rows members already use.
• The France test: Netflix has already put a domestic broadcaster, TF1, onto the service in France, with live channels and on-demand shows.
• The member base: Netflix has more than 325 million paid memberships worldwide and no longer reports that figure every quarter.

WHAT IS UNCONFIRMED

• The billing: Whether members would pay extra, as they do on Prime Video Channels, or get the catalogs inside the plan they already buy.
• The cut: How much of each extra dollar, or of the ads against those shows, would stay with Netflix.
• The sports: Whether NFL, NBA, World Cup, or news feeds would arrive in full or in a trimmed feed.

Any move in that direction would break from what Netflix told shareholders two years ago, when the company said it “already operates as a go-to destination for entertainment.” Greg Peters, a co-chief executive, called the early TF1 results “very promising” on last month’s earnings call and then left the door open. “If we see additional deals that similarly serve our members that work for our partner, that work for us, we’ll certainly consider them,” Peters said.

Investors asking why Netflix does not simply buy Peacock or Fox One are pointing at the expensive path the company already walked around. Hosting the apps is cheaper than owning them. It also leaves NBCUniversal and Fox as tenants in someone else’s house, which is the trade those firms have already accepted on Amazon and YouTube.

YouTube Already Put Peacock Inside Premium

On July 27, NBCUniversal and YouTube announced a multi-year pact that will put ad-supported Peacock Premium into YouTube Premium for eligible U.S. members in early 2027. YouTube’s Mary Ellen Coe, the chief business officer, wrote that members will get Peacock inside YouTube Premium on top of ad-free YouTube, downloads, and YouTube Music. The Times described the pact as a five-year deal. The companies called it a multi-year global partnership.

Peacock’s own press note said the pact is the service’s largest wholesale distribution partnership to date. Neal Mohan, YouTube’s chief executive, said the pairing puts Sunday Night Football, the NBA, Universal films, and original series next to YouTube’s creator slate, “all in one place.” Matt Strauss, chairman of NBCUniversal’s media group, said it would bring Peacock to millions of YouTube Premium members and open “the next phase of growth.”

YouTube Premium’s individual plan rose to $15.99 a month in April, YouTube spokesperson Jessica Gibby told The Verge, and the Times rounded the price to $16. Gibby said that price will not jump when Peacock arrives. At the July announcement, Peacock listed its ad-supported Premium plan at $10.99 a month. Peacock’s help pages now list Premium at $12.99 a month from Aug. 18, 2026, so the wholesale gift is larger against today’s rack rate than it was on announcement day.

The same week, YouTube began a consumer campaign for Premium on rival apps, including Prime Video and HBO Max. It already sells HBO Max, Fox One, and Paramount+ through Primetime Channels, a store inside YouTube that is closer to Amazon’s model than to the Peacock wholesale gift. Netflix is studying both of those products at once.

Fox Paid $22 Billion for the Other Front Door

On June 15, Fox and Roku said Fox would acquire Roku for $22 billion in cash and stock, or $160 a share. Roku’s platform reaches more than 100 million streaming households, including more than half of U.S. broadband homes. The companies said they will keep operating Roku as an open, partner-friendly platform, and they expect the deal to close in the first half of 2027. On a combined basis they would rank as the third-largest player in U.S. television by share of viewing.

Peters told the Financial Times in June that Netflix had looked at Roku and did not bid against Fox. Lachlan Murdoch, Fox’s executive chair and chief executive, called the purchase “a defining moment” that joins live news and sports with “the preeminent streaming platform through which America watches it.” Fox One, the company’s $19.99-a-month streaming service, launched in August 2025 and is already sold through Amazon and through YouTube Primetime Channels.

If Fox is buying the operating system, putting Fox One on Netflix looks less like surrender and more like another shelf. The SEC notice pledges “ubiquitous distribution of FOX content.” A Netflix button would be one more shelf, sitting beside the Roku home screen Fox is paying for.

THE HUB CALENDAR

1. August 2025: Fox One launches as Fox’s unified streaming service at $19.99 a month.
2. June 15, 2026: Fox agrees to buy Roku for about $22 billion, with a close aimed at the first half of 2027.
3. June 19, 2026: TF1 live channels and TF1+ shows go live inside Netflix in France.
4. July 23, 2026: Comcast reports Peacock’s first profitable quarter, $189 million of adjusted EBITDA, and 48 million paid subscribers.
5. July 27, 2026: YouTube and NBCUniversal say Peacock Premium will sit inside YouTube Premium in early 2027.
6. Aug. 24, 2026: The Times reports Netflix talks with NBCUniversal and Fox about Peacock and Fox One, with no deal close.

Roku is already in the add-on trade. Antenna told the Times that new subscriptions sold through Roku’s channels rose 19 percent in the second quarter from a year earlier. Fox is buying that register as well as the hardware.

How France Gets TF1 Inside Netflix

The only working template Netflix can point to is not American, and it is not a store. On June 17, 2025, Netflix and TF1 Group said French members would get TF1 channels and TF1+ on-demand shows as part of their existing subscription, with no extra app. The feed went live on June 19, 2026. Netflix’s own notice lists live TF1 channels on Netflix inside Continue Watching, My List, and Top 10 rows.

The Hollywood Reporter, writing at launch, said Netflix takes the TF1+ live and on-demand feed through TF1’s API, while programming and advertising stay under TF1’s control. Netflix runs distribution, the product, and the recommendation engine. Financial terms were not disclosed.

WHAT FRENCH MEMBERS GOT ON DAY ONE

• Live networks: TF1, TMC, TFX, TF1 Séries Films, and the rolling news channel LCI.
• Live sports: the Rugby Nations Championship and major French national-team football matches, with FIFA World Cup 2026 coverage excluded.
• Daily drama: soaps including Demain nous appartient and Ici tout commence, plus series such as Diplôme, Zodiaque, and La Cible.
• Big entertainment: Koh-Lanta, Secret Story, Dancing with the Stars, and other TF1 staples, sitting in the same rows as Netflix shows.

Peters said at launch that people have more entertainment choices than ever, so Netflix has to give them “the best variety of TV and films in a seamless and personalized way.” Rodolphe Belmer, TF1 Group’s chief executive, said the pairing would reach new audiences and “open up new opportunities for our advertisers.” That is the TF1 bargain in one line. Netflix keeps the member and the home screen. TF1 keeps the ads against its own shows and borrows Netflix’s recommendation machine.

Copy that model onto Peacock or Fox One in the United States and Netflix would be giving members NFL games and Fox News inside a plan they already pay for. Copy Amazon’s model and Netflix would be taking a cut of a second bill. Those are different companies, and the Times said Netflix has not chosen.

A Storefront and a Fold-In Split the Bill

Antenna, a subscription research firm, told the Times that over the last three years, subscriptions bought through third-party platforms such as Amazon, Roku, or YouTube have grown roughly 60 percent. About a third of all new subscriptions are now purchased that way. As of June, Amazon had at least 49 million subscriptions for other services through Prime Video, Antenna said, and remains the runaway leader.

The Times noted the trade for any network that sells through those doors. The platform can take a large cut of subscription and advertising revenue. The network generally loses the direct relationship with the customer, because the platform owns the account. The gain is reach, fewer tech and marketing bills, and more views.

Jonathan Carson, Antenna’s chief executive, told the Times the industry is sorting into a blunt split. “You’re either going to be a platform, or you’re going to distribute everywhere,” he said. Disney remains a holdout, selling a vast majority of its subscriptions directly to consumers. Paramount’s planned combination with Warner Bros. Discovery could still shuffle how Paramount+ and HBO Max use third-party stores, the Times added.

A storefront would put Netflix in Amazon’s business, years late, against a company that already has 49 million of those bills on the books. A fold-in would put Netflix in YouTube’s business, after YouTube already paid up for Peacock’s sports and Bravo slate. Either way, the closed catalog is no longer the whole product.

What a Netflix Hub Would Mean for Sports

Peacock is no longer a money pit looking for a ride. Comcast said that in the second quarter of 2026 the service posted its first profit, $189 million of adjusted EBITDA on $1.9 billion of revenue, and grew to 48 million paid subscribers. Brian Roberts, Comcast’s chairman and co-chief executive, credited NBA playoffs, the FIFA World Cup, and Love Island USA. Jason Armstrong, the chief financial officer, said revenue rose 54 percent, with advertising up nearly 70 percent. Comcast is preparing to separate NBCUniversal, which makes a wide wholesale deal a tool for a company that will have to stand on its own distribution.

That catalog is the hours Netflix cannot mint in-house at the same scale. Peacock’s YouTube note lists the NFL, the Olympics, the NBA, MLB, college football and basketball, the Premier League, the WNBA, and Bravo staples such as the Real Housewives franchise, plus Saturday Night Live and The Office. Fox’s Roku filing lists the NFL, MLB, NASCAR, the Big Ten, the World Cup, Fox News, and Fox Business as the live portfolio it is pairing with Roku’s home screen. When a member leaves Netflix on a Sunday night for a football feed, the three hours after the set comes on go with them.

The thing that matters is that when you turn on the TV, what app are you opening for the next three hours?

Jonathan Carson, chief executive of Antenna, speaking to The New York Times

Replies under a widely shared market recap of the Times story reached for the old 64-channel package and treated the talks as a cheaper conglomerate, rebuilt in software. That instinct is the product Netflix would be selling if it becomes a store. It is also the product Fox is buying in hardware, and the product YouTube is assembling by giving Peacock away inside a $15.99 plan.

Netflix still has no date, no term sheet, and no public comment on Peacock or Fox One. Disney is still selling most of its subscriptions itself. The conversations, as the Times reported them, are the tell that the closed library no longer holds the remote on its own.