As Layoffs Hit Seeso, The Future Of NBCUniversal’s SVOD Service Is Cloudy

Less than a year-and-a-half after it launched, NBCUniversal’s Seeso looks like it has a rocky future ahead of it. The SVOD service, which looked to attract comedy fans with a combination of TV content and original shows, has been hit with a round of layoffs.

Deadline, which was among the outlets to report the news of the cutbacks, noted that some of the employees who have left the Seeso team have moved to other positions under the NBCUniversal Digital Enterprises umbrella. The exact number of people who have lost their jobs or been reassigned has not been publicly revealed.

Seeso launched in January 2016 as an addition to the growing number of niche options in the SVOD industry. In its case, the target audience was comedy nerds, whom it hoped would pay $3.99 per month for access to NBC shows like Saturday Night Live

as well as original programs like Bajillion Dollar Propertie$ and HarmonQuest.

In May of this year, it became clear that Seeso’s lineup had not quite met expectations. At that time, Variety reported that NBCUniversal was looking to move away from original programming and focus on tried-and-true NBC content. Given the recent layoffs, it’s not clear if that’s still the plan, nor do we know what sort of future Seeso has in store.

Maggie Suniewick, the President of NBCUniversal Digital Enterprises, is the current head of Seeso. She took over for Evan Shapiro, the service’s former frontman, back when the rumored move away from original programming was revealed.