• by Wayne Friedman , Staff Writer, May 31, 2022

NBCUniversal's Peacock is offering free movie tickets to its customers -- and in turn also looking to curry favor with movie theater owners who have been through some hard times over the past two-and-a-half years.

This is a nice promotion for streaming enthusiasts to upgrade their Peacock subscription -- to consider all venues where NBCU content is screened, including traditional out-of-home forms of entertainment.

You can understand why. First-quarter 2022 attendance at movie theaters is still down more than 40% from the pre-pandemic 2019 first-quarter period.

Movie-theater attendance is projected to lag in attendance for some time to come. Movie attendance might not get back to anywhere near those levels for perhaps two to three years -- if even then -- according to estimates.

Mind you, movie-theater attendance wasn't all that great before the pandemic began. The pandemic just kicked at-home digital entertainment into overdrive.

But just like legacy media companies see where traditional linear TV is going, these companies need to also address traditional movie theaters' challenges -- especially as they still rely on traditional media revenues while they look to diversify their businesses more to digital.

One wonders what other traditional entertainment distribution channels' legacy media need to support going forward.

How could they help say their TV station affiliates (and owned TV stations)?

What about cable system owners and other pay TV distributors? Perhaps there are also niche digital-first video platforms, who distribute legacy TV content, that might be suffering in the future due to a possible slowdown.

Can legacy TV companies offer promotions or some sort for these companies to stir their businesses?

To be frank, while NBCU wants to do well for its movie theater partners, the movie ticket promotion is for “a free Fandango movie ticket or Vudu movie rental” for Peacock members. Fandango is a movie ticket/movie search platform owned by NBCUniversal.

Premium streaming services seem to be saying: Yes, our new streaming platforms may have hurt movie-theater business, initially. Help Us. Help our partners.

And for heaven's sake, consume more entertainment -- wherever it lands for us.