Peacock a new American-based video streaming service is here. With many streaming services launched this one looks to unite NBC’s shows, Universal’s films, and original content into a single service that will put a much bigger emphasis on live, curated content than nearly any other competing service.
Some feel that Peacock is arriving late to the game where it is currently very crowded, one that’s already filled with Netflix, ShowMax, Disney Plus, HBO Max, Apple TV Plus, and Amazon Prime Video — which means it’s going to have a big challenge to break through to customers.
So what will differentiate its self from the crowd? It is offering a completely free, ad-supported tier that will offer thousands of hours of content to customers. If you would like to try it out, here’s everything you need to know about getting started with Peacock.
Peacock Pricing
Peacock has three different tiers that determine what content you’ll get and how many ads you’ll see. Unlike other platforms, the base tier of Peacock is completely free, but get ready to see many ads. You will enjoy over 13,000 hours of NBCUniversal content.
The premium version of Peacock costs $4.99 monthly subscription that includes more than double the content of the base plan, Peacock’s exclusive original shows, next-day episodes of current NBC series, and more live programming including Premier League soccer just like ShowMax Pro. It should be noted that this bundle will offer much more content, and still has ads.
Finally, there is the $9.99 version of Peacock, Premium Ad-Free, which offers the same content as the Premium version but without ads. But even the Ad-Free plan isn’t totally ad-free: the company warns that “due to streaming rights, a small amount of programming — Peacock channels, events, and a few shows and movies — will still contain ads.”
If you prefer to pay annually, both paid plans also have discounted rates of $49.99 per year for Premium and $99.99 per year for Premium Ad-Free.
The Content
The Peacock service will offer access to more than 20,000 hours of content drawing on the vast back catalogs of NBC shows. Below is a list of popular programs;
- 30 Rock
- Parks and Recreation
- Saturday Night Live
- Psych
- Monk
- Battlestar Galactica
- Downton Abbey
- Suits
- Royal Pains
- Columbo
- The Matrix series
- Phantom Thread
- the Bourne films
- Jurassic Park franchise
Peacock Premium will expand that library with even more content, including; Two and a Half Men, House, Frasier, Cheers, Law & Order, Law & Order: SVU, Ray Donovan, and the Shrek films. The Premium version will also include Premier League soccer games, The Late Night With Seth Meyers and The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.
Devices you can watch Peacock on
Peacock is currently available on Android, Android TV, Apple TV, Chromecast, iOS, Xbox One, Vizio SmartCast TVs, and LG Smart TV. It’ll have an app released for the PlayStation 4 during the week of July 20th. There’s also a desktop web player for streaming on Mac, Windows, and Chromebook devices. Those who have Amazon’s Fire TV and Roku will have to wait a bit longer.
Availability
Right now, Peacock is only available in the United States at launch but there is nothing a simple VPN by-pass will not solve for you. Officially, NBCUniversal has yet to announce plans for future countries.
Peacock can be signed up for through the Official website or through the various Peacock apps on your service of choice.
Sharing and HD content
Peacock supports a maximum of three concurrent streams, so you can share an account. There’s no support for profiles at launch, but Peacock will offer a basic PIN system for parental controls that will lock mature content behind a password.
Right now, the service will only stream in HD, with more premium options like 4K video, HDR, or Dolby Atmos not available at launch. The company is looking to add them in the future, though.
