In what amounts to a sneak preview, Comcast’s NBCUniversal will offer its long-in-the-works streaming platform, Peacock, to some cable subscribers on Wednesday before making it widely available in the summer.

The platform is vital to NBCUniversal’s future, and on Tuesday company executives described the initial rollout as a “milestone in our company’s history.” Peacock will be streamed into the homes of the more than 10 million Comcast subscribers who have Xfinity X1 and Flex devices.

But with the coronavirus pandemic upending American life and the entertainment industry, the new streaming service will face challenges that would have been unimaginable a few months ago.

NBC, the exclusive broadcaster of the Olympics in the United States, had planned to promote the platform in July and August throughout the Tokyo Summer Games. Now that the international competition has been postponed a year, the company has lost a marketing advantage.