Netflix is exploring the idea of launching live TV channels that would run 24 hours a day, according to The Wall Street Journal, which reported the story July 9 citing people familiar with the plans. TechCrunch covered the Journal's account the next day. Netflix has not confirmed or denied the report.

The Journal also reported that Netflix is considering bundling services together—packaging Netflix along with other streaming services into a single subscription. Apple already does this with Apple One, which combines Apple TV+ with Apple Music and iCloud. Netflix may partner with Peacock, owned by NBCUniversal, according to people familiar with the discussions cited by the Journal. RTTNews confirmed the reporting on July 10.

Neither Netflix nor Comcast, which owns Peacock, has confirmed these talks. The Journal's information comes from unnamed sources, which is standard for early-stage corporate discussions. There is no confirmed deal, launch date, or even final decision at Netflix to move forward.

Why This Matters

This represents a substantial shift from how Netflix started. Netflix built its business on letting people watch whatever they want, whenever they want—without ads and without being tied to a fixed TV schedule. The idea was to be different from old broadcast and cable TV, which forced you to watch shows at set times or record them. Always-on channels bring back that scheduled format, just without a cable box.

Two reasons explain why Netflix might be considering this. First, Nielsen's data showed Netflix had 7.8% of all US television viewing in April 2026. At the same time, Bloomberg reported that Netflix has noticed a problem: fewer people watch season two of its original series compared to season one. A scheduled live channel could help solve this, because viewers might keep the channel on even if they're not actively choosing what to watch.

This is already how free ad-supported streaming services like Pluto TV and Tubi work. They show continuous channels with ads, and people watch them partly because they're already on, not because they picked a specific show. Netflix launched an ad-supported subscription option in 2022, so it already has the technology to make money from ads on a live channel.

The bundle idea works differently but toward a similar goal. If Netflix bundles with other services, people are more likely to stay subscribers because they're paying for the whole package. Apple uses this with Apple One—you get Apple TV+, Apple Music, iCloud storage, and other services together. If you like two or three of those services, you keep the bundle even if you're not watching Apple TV+ that week.

What This Signals

For nearly twenty years, Netflix's main advantage over traditional TV was simple: you don't have to follow a schedule. You watch on demand. This new direction suggests Netflix sees value in some of the old TV model's tactics—scheduled channels and bundling—even though it's competing against older, bigger TV companies. Whether this is because subscriber growth is slowing, because second-season drop-off is a real problem, or because ad-supported channels have proven profitable elsewhere, the reporting doesn't yet say.

In my view, this isn't entirely unexpected. Streaming and traditional television have been getting more similar for a few years now. Netflix stopped allowing password sharing, added ads, and is now considering live channels. These changes are gradually making Netflix look more like the cable TV bundle that it was designed to replace—though Netflix still has a much bigger library and better ways of finding shows you might like. What happens next with Peacock, if they do partner, will be interesting to watch.