NBCUniversal's comedy streaming service to allow subscriptions via Amazon

By Kris Wouk Published April 20, 2016

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.

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.

Former Contributor

Kris Wouk is a tech writer, gadget reviewer, blogger, and whatever it's called when someone makes videos for the web. In his…

Topics

Entertainment

Amazon Prime Video’s latest trick is natural lip-sync for dubbed audio

At last, translated audio will look natural on the actors' faces. And yeah, AI is involved.

Amazon Prime Video lip-sync technology

I have watched plenty of stuff on streaming platforms where the translated audio doesn't feel natural on the faces of the actors appearing on the screen. It just looks odd and takes away the fun from watching dubbed films and TV shows. I would prefer to watch content with the original audio and see the translated captions, rather than deal with the asynchrony between the audio and facial expressions. Amazon finally has a solution.

The company is launching a new lip-sync technology on Prime Video that will use AI and VFX to sync the lip movement of actors so that they appear to naturally speak the dialog, even if it has been translated and dubbed from another language. The technology is making its debut with the first and second seasons of Maxton Hall, and will also be used when the third season premieres on the platform.

Entertainment

EXCLUSIVE: Hope director Na Hong-jin on making his sci-fi epic after a decade

Filmmaker Na Hong-jin opens up about his decade-long journey to make Hope

Hwang Jung-min and Hoyeon in the film Hope.

Ten years after releasing his horror film The Wailing, filmmaker Na Hong-jin has returned with a new feature, the epic sci-fi thriller Hope. Set in the town of Hope Harbor, this South Korean film follows the police chief (Hwang Jung-min), his deputy (Hoyeon), and a team of hunters as they try to kill a giant creature rampaging through their village, leaving death and destruction in its path.

Nominated for the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival, Hope delivers a suspenseful, gory, and action-packed adventure in the vein of Jaws and Attack on Titan. Having already premiered in South Korea, the movie has received a 78% "Fresh" rating from critics on Rotten Tomatoes. Acclaimed film studio NEON is now set to distribute the movie throughout the United States, giving American audiences a chance to see this unhinged, ultraviolent adventure.

Entertainment

This wild new TV mount moves your screen without you touching it

TVs can already adjust their picture and sound without much help from you. Perlegear now wants the physical screen to adapt to you as well.

Indoors, Interior Design, Lamp

TVs have become incredibly smart over the years. They can automatically tweak picture quality, adjust sound for your room, and recommend what you should watch next. Yet once you bolt one to the wall, there’s one decidedly old-fashioned thing about it: it’s staying exactly where you put it.

Perlegear has an interesting solution at IFA 2026. The company is showing off the AX1 Smart Adaptive Mount, a motorized TV mount that detects where you’re watching from and automatically moves the television to a more comfortable height. It’s an idea that sounds a little excessive until you think about how many different ways we use TVs today. You might be sitting on the couch for a movie, standing up for a workout, playing a motion-controlled game, or have kids watching from the floor. The ideal screen position for one isn’t necessarily great for the others.