Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Entertainment
  3. News

NBCUniversal's comedy streaming service to allow subscriptions via Amazon

Kris Wouk
By

nbcu seeso amazon subscription parks 1
Image used with permission by copyright holder
In January, NBCUniversal launched its ad-free comedy-only streaming service, offering NBC sitcoms and next-day access to Saturday Night Live in addition to a mix of other shows from both NBC and elsewhere. The company hasn’t said how well the service is doing, but it’s about to get much easier to add it to your streaming lineup.

NBCUniversal and Amazon agreed yesterday to add SeeSo to the lineup of streaming channels that Amazon offers via Prime Video, Deadline reports. An exact date hasn’t yet been specified, but the companies say that the service will be available via Amazon sometime this spring.

Recommended Videos

This comes as part of Amazon’s Streaming Partners Program, which launched late last year, offering mainly single-channel streaming like Showtime and Starz, but featuring more specialized services as well. Smithsonian, Curiosity Stream, and Tribeca Shortlist are among the other subscriptions offered.

Related

Subscriptions vary from service to service, but in the case of SeeSo, it will be $4 per month, the same as a standalone subscription to the service. Amazon offers free trials for most subscriptions, with the customer being charged if they haven’t cancelled by the end of the trial period. Neither company has yet confirmed whether SeeSo will offer a free trial, but considering it offers a trial via its website, it seems likely.

While shows like 30 Rock, Parks and Recreation, and Saturday Night Live are the most heavily promoted, SeeSo offers a fairly diverse catalog. Classic British comedies like Monty Python’s Flying Service and Fawlty Towers are available alongside original content like Before the Morning After and The UCB Show from Upright Citizens Brigade founders Amy Poehler, Matt Walsh, Ian Roberts, and Matt Besser.

These subscriptions are bringing us closer to the dream of an a-la-carte future, but it may not be everything we’ve dreamed of, with some cord cutters complaining that by the time they’ve added up their various subscriptions, the total is the same as their cable bill. Still, if you only watch content from a few channels, there has never been a better time to watch TV.

Editors' Recommendations

Topics
Kris Wouk
Kris Wouk
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Kris Wouk is a tech writer, gadget reviewer, blogger, and whatever it's called when someone makes videos for the web. In his…
Amazon expands its virtual healthcare service across the U.S.
Amazon Clinic on a smartphone.

Amazon is expanding its Clinic healthcare platform to all 50 U.S. states, plus Washington D.C.

Amazon Clinic launched in November 2022 to help people seek medical help for more than 30 common health conditions such as migraines, sinus infections, and pink eye.

Read more
The Digital Trends guide to FAST streaming services
Amazon Freevee.

When you talk about the best streaming services, you typically talk about video-on-demand (VOD) services like Netflix. Or Disney+. Or Amazon Prime Video. Or Hulu. And for good reason — they have a ton of paying subscribers. Netflix alone is closing in on a quarter-billion. Disney+ is about halfway there.

And while the numbers drop off a good bit from there, another flavor of streaming should constitute a good bit of the discussion. FAST services — that's the industry acronym for free advertising-based streaming television — continue to grow both in numbers and in popularity. Think of FAST like the streaming version of broadcast TV, or your cable box. Shows are on at the same time for everyone, and everyone is watching the same thing, with ads. Only unlike YouTube TV or Hulu With Live TV, you don't have to pay anything upfront. It's all supported by advertising — you just don't get the "good" channels like you will on the paid services.

Read more
Amazon Fire TVs can stream directly to hearing implants
A man with a cochlear hearing implant listens to TV audio.

A select number of Amazon Fire TV devices now support audio streaming to hearing implants, thanks to a partnership between Amazon and Cochlear, the world's largest provider of hearing implants. It lets hearing implant users hear a variety of audio content. Depending on the Fire TV device, that includes streaming movies and shows from Netflix and Amazon Prime Video, podcasts, audiobooks, Alexa voice feedback, system sounds, and audio from local TV networks.

The new feature uses a Bluetooth protocol known as Audio Streaming for Hearing Aids (ASHA), along with special modifications for the specific needs of those who use implants. At the moment, hearing implant streaming is available on Fire TV Omni QLED Series, Fire TV Omni Series, Fire TV 4-Series, Fire TV Cube (3rd Gen), and Fire TV Cube (2nd Gen) devices. It will work with Cochlear Nucleus 8, Nucleus 7, Nucleus Kanso 2, and Baha 6 Max sound processors.

Read more