NBUniversal’s Peacock streamer is accelerating a number of new innovations rolling out on the platform, including plans for an AI-powered Andy Cohen avatar to guide viewers through Bravo’s vast library of series and recommend new shows.
Cohen spoke Sunday at the SXSW festival in Austin, Texas, along with NBCUniversal Media Group chairman Matt Strauss and host and writer SE Kapp.
Strauss opened the session by announcing a series of new technology features and content formats that will be available to Peacock subscribers starting this summer. Andy Cohen’s Avatar is designed to help users sift through the hundreds of series in the Bravo library. When users provide Peacock with information about shows and personalities they’re interested in, Cohen’s avatar can pop up recommendations or even pop up in the middle of an episode to answer specific questions about what’s going on in a particular episode or scene.
“It’s really exciting, because the experience is tailored to everyone. Everyone who loves Bravo has a different perspective and a different entry point. Bravo starts in the same place, but where[the new Bravoverse feature]takes you is a completely different place. It also allows you to say, ‘Wow, I like that flip. Let’s watch the whole episode. What’s the story? Why are they fighting? And I’ll tell them.” Cohen is synonymous with Bravo as the host of “Watch What Happens Live” and as the creator and promoter of the “Real Housewives” franchise, the platform’s cornerstone program.
Strauss described Cohen’s Avatar as using “generative AI to weave decades of Bravo footage into a first-of-its-kind personalized experience.” Cupp quipped to IRL’s Cohen, “Andy, what’s it like to be an AI Sherpa in the Bravo world?”
Cohen’s avatar appears to be a feature NBCUniversal used during its coverage of the 2024 Summer Olympics, providing the avatar of famed sports announcer Al Michaels to help guide viewers through the vast array of Olympic games and highlights offered through Peacock.
Strauss opened the hour-long session by discussing NBCUniversal’s evolving vision for Peacock and its plans to enhance the streaming experience. Strauss leans toward the idea that viewers are generally overwhelmed by streaming platforms that offer dozens, if not hundreds, of titles but little curation.
“We are the most connected society in history, but in many ways we are becoming more disconnected. Abundance can create emptiness, and streaming can feel like a casino, with no sense of time or place, like staring through a glass wall,” Strauss argued. “The next era of entertainment will not be defined by bigger libraries; it will be defined by deeper worlds. Entertainment will not just be something you see, it will be something you enter.”
In addition to Cohen’s avatar, Strauss touted a new vertical NBA clip format coming to Peacock designed to give fans another way to follow live games and use it in their own social content. The same goes for Peacock’s extensive archive of highlights from recent Summer and Winter Olympics. The company is also working with Dick Wolf’s Wolf Entertainment to bring immersive detective games to the platform. Strauss emphasized the importance of the changes coming to Peacock this year.
“What I’m talking about today is not a feature roadmap, it’s a commitment to our fans, not a homepage swap, not a slight upgrade to the rental shelf, not sending people elsewhere for a more expansive experience. Streaming shouldn’t take people away from the worlds they love; it should draw them deeper,” Strauss said. “This is how we best serve our fandom. This is how we get a bigger share of our time. This is how we keep our community where it belongs within the ecosystem that gave rise to it for 100 years. At NBCUniversal, we discovered today’s White Spaces that it’s clear the days of glass walls are coming to an end, and the next era of streaming is connected, personal, immersive entertainment built for fans and the communities they create.”
Cupp emphasized Bravo’s appeal to such initiatives, considering the fan enthusiasm for not just the individual shows but the brand itself. She cited the popularity of the BravoCon event, which began several years ago, and the importance of the access it provides.
“You can get a $5 million ticket to the Super Bowl, but you can’t go into the locker room and meet all the players, take pictures with them all, act out your favorite plays, buy merchandise directly from the players, and party with them later that night,” Cupp explained.
Mr. Kapp asked Cohen for an update on the latest installment of “Real Housewives of New Jersey” (“It’s getting very close. We did a powwow the other day, and it’s getting very close,” Cohen said) and the upcoming “Real Housewives of Rhode Island,” which was filmed in the Ocean State last summer. “It was so good. I watched episodes 9 and 10 on the plane coming here this morning. It’s everything I love about Housewives. They’re all-stars. They’re so funny. They’re the show,” Cohen promised.
Cohen credited Peacock’s recent success with its original reality series “The Traitors” and “Love Island USA” to its gradual return to the weekly frequency that once characterized hit TV series before the binge-watching trend took hold.
“I like the intensity of ‘Traitors’ and ‘Love Island,’ because they only post ‘Housewives’ on Peacock once a week. You know when it’s going to end, you know what time it is, and you have to arrive at that time. It’s old-school, but it really works,” Cohen said.
Strauss said the goal is to blend some of the tried-and-true practices of television that fans love with the forward-thinking vision of the Peacock streaming platform as a hub for entertainment.
“The way you use a cell phone is different than the way you use a TV. So we’ve really been thinking about how we can think a little differently about meeting fans where they are. And that’s why we know things like swipeable video and AI, the Bravoverse, work so well,” Strauss said. “We’re trying to reimagine how we use technology and different screens, and how people use them to create better experiences.”
