LOS ANGELES — The Microsoft-branded theater in downtown Los Angeles will be no more: The L.A. Live venue owned by AEG will soon be named the Peacock Theater.
How's that for spreading your feathers?
The renaming officially happens July 11 and comes ahead of a pair of global sporting events kicking off in Los Angeles over the next few years: the 2026 FIFA World Cup and the 2028 Summer Olympics. Peacock, the streaming service that NBCUniversal launched in 2020, will be streaming those events exclusively and L.A. Live — AEG's 4 million-square-foot sports and entertainment district — will be hosting key happenings, so the multiyear agreement "aligns the brands at a strategically important time and place over the next several years," AEG and Peacock said in a Thursday statement.
Financial terms of the deal, which was brokered by AEG Global Partnerships, were not immediately available.
The theater — the home of the Emmy Awards, Grammys preshow and BET Awards, as well as countless movie premieres — is perched across the streets from Crypto.com Arena, whose name was also changed from the stalwart Staples Center in 2021. Across town in Inglewood, the former sports and music venue previously know simply as as the Forum was rechristened the Kia Forum last year.
The Microsoft Theater is a 7,100-seat concert and special events venue that opened in 2007 and was rebranded in 2015. The venue has hosted more than 7.5 million guests and a variety of legendary artists and performances including the Eagles, the Who, Lady Gaga, Justin Bieber, John Legend and Juanes, AEG said.
Meanwhile the partnership between Peacock and AEG also includes naming rights to key assets across L.A. Live. The entertainment district's 40,000-square-foot open-air plaza, formerly known as Xbox Plaza, will now be called Peacock Place, the partners said.
A signature flourish will include a dedicated LED marquee at the corner of Figueroa Street and Olympic Boulevard that will feature two video boards — the larger of which measures 29 by 88 feet —that will be permanently attached to L.A. Live's faCade.
Peacock will also launch a branded content studio at the sports and entertainment district at L.A. Live.
"Like Peacock, L.A. Live is at the epicenter of premium original entertainment, exhilarating sports, one-of-a-kind experiences and extreme fandom," Peacock President Kelly Campbell said. "Through Peacock Theater and Peacock Place, we'll have the opportunity to bring all the elements of our brand to life with the millions of fans who visit L.A. Live each year, while partnering with the incredible team at AEG to further cement Peacock as the ultimate destination for audiences."
"We are ecstatic for the opportunity to be able to partner with the amazing leadership team at Peacock for this long-term relationship," added Nick Baker, chief operating officer for AEG Global Partnerships. "The content within the Peacock platform is ideal for our audiences and the synergies between both organizations around our variety of events is limitless."
