NEW YORK—Peacock, NBCUniversal’s upcoming streaming platform, will strut its feathers starting in April for Comcast customers before it becomes available to everyone later in the year, officially joining the ongoing streaming wars between many major studios and networks.
NBCU unveiled the plan for Peacock at a Comcast investor presentation on Jan. 16, offering a myriad of details for the free, ad-supported streaming service that will feature subscription tiers and content that includes more than 600 movies and 400 TV shows, as well as live and on-demand news, sports, late night and reality content.
Comcast Xfinity X1 and Flex customers will have access to Peacock as of April 15, three months before it will be available nationally on July 15.
Unlike its already released competitors Disney+ and Apple TV+, Peacock is offering tiered subscription plans for the service, including a free, ad-supported option. Peacock Free, as it is known, offers next-day access to current seasons of freshman broadcast series, complete classic series, movies, curated daily news and sports programming—which will include the Olympics—Spanish-language content, select episodes of Peacock originals and tent-pole series, and access to Peacock streaming genre channels like “SNL Vault,” “Family Movie Night” and “Olympic Profiles.”
Then there will be Peacock Premium, which will have an ad-supported version that can be bundled at no additional cost to Comcast and Cox subscribers, and available for $4.99 per month for non-bundled customers; NBCU says it expects to expand its bundling partners in the coming months. In addition to all of the Peacock Free offerings, Premium will provide the full seasons of Peacock originals and tent-pole series, next day access to current seasons of returning series, early access to late night talk shows and additional sports programming, including the Premier League.
If customers want to go for an ad-free service it will cost an additional $5 per month for Premium customers, or $9.99 per month for anyone.
As far as what content will be available for Peacock customers, the service announced it will be the streaming home for Dick Wolf’s “Law & Order” and “Chicago” brands; Paramount Network’s “Yellowstone”; as well as “Two and a Half Men” and “The George Lopez Show.” These shows join previously announced content that included “30 Rock,” “Battlestar Galactica,” “Brooklyn Nine-Nine,” “Cheers,” “Downton Abbey,” “Everybody Loves Raymond,” “Frasier,” “Friday Night Lights,” “Married … With Children,” “The Office,” “Parks and Recreation,” “Saturday Night Live” and “Will & Grace.”
Peacock will also host a number of original series. Kevin Hart’s Laugh Out Loud network signed a multi-year deal that in addition to the network’s archived content will include a stand-up special from Hart, an original interview series and a series of short-form content. There will also be the Tina Fey-produced “Girls5Eva,” international series from NBCUniversal International Studios and a number of classic series reboots like “Saved by the Bell,” “Punky Brewster” and more.
Peacock will also take advantage of the Olympics in its first few months of existence, with the streaming platform providing live coverage of the Opening and Closing Ceremonies before they air on NBC in primetime and three daily Olympic shows, including “Tokyo Live,” “Tokyo Daily Digest” and “Tokyo Tonight.” The service will also have more than 1,000 hours of the Paralympics and will have access to the Olympic Channel, following the Tokyo games.
Other sport offerings will include the Premier League starting in August and the 2020 Ryder Cup in September.
Peacock will also feature live breaking news coverage through its NBC News Now streaming network, which will feature “NBC Nightly News With Lester Holt,” “Today,” “Meet the Press With Chuck Todd” and other NBC News content.
More information on Peacock is available at www.peacocktv.com.
