Peacock (streaming service)

Peacock (streaming service)
Peacock is an American over-the-top video streaming service owned and operated by Peacock TV LLC, a subsidiary of NBCUniversal Television and Streaming. Named after the NBC logo, the service launched on July 15, 2020. The service primarily features series and film content from NBCUniversal studios and other third-party content providers, including television series, films, news, and sports programming. The service is available in a grandfathered free ad-supported version with limited content, while premium tiers include a larger content library and access to additional NBC Sports, Hallmark Channel, and WWE content.
In December 2022, the service reached 20 million paid subscribers. In March 2023, Peacock reached 22 million paid subscribers. As of October 2023, Peacock reached 30 million paid subscribers.
History
On January 14, 2019, NBCUniversal announced plans to launch an over-the-top streaming service in 2020, which would feature original and library content, and be available in free advertising-supported and paid ad-free versions. The service would be led by chairman Bonnie Hammer, under the division NBCUniversal Direct-to-Consumer and Digital Enterprises.
On September 17, 2019, it was announced that the service would be named "Peacock", an allusion to the NBC logo. The service announced further details on its initial slate of original programming, including sci-fi series Brave New World (moved from USA Network's slate), limited series Angelyne, crime drama Dr. Death, comedy Rutherford Falls, teen drama One Of Us Is Lying, talk show The Amber Ruffin Show, and reboots and continuations of Battlestar Galactica, Punky Brewster, and Saved by the Bell. It was also announced that library rights to the NBC sitcoms The Office and Parks and Recreation would move exclusively to Peacock in October 2020 and January 2021, respectively.
Peacock soft launched for Comcast Xfinity cable subscribers on April 15, 2020, beginning with X1 and Xfinity Flex customers. The service then launched nationally on July 15 of that year.
As of August 2021, the service had reached at least 54 million signups. In April 2022, the service reached 28 million monthly active accounts and 13 million paid subscribers, an increase of 40% from the previous quarter. It also reported a 25% increase in engagement year-over-year. In September 2022, the service had 30 million monthly active accounts and 15 million paid subscribers, a 70% increase in paid subscribers since the start of 2022. As of December 2022, the service has reached 20 million paid subscribers, with its coverage of the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Spanish having been credited for an increase in the fourth quarter of 2022.
Distribution
Peacock has three tiers of service: Free, Premium, and Premium Plus. The Premium tier is a subscription-based service that includes Peacock's full library of content, while the Free tier contains a subset of its content. The Free and Premium tiers are advertising-supported, with commercials limited to five minutes per hour. Peacock Premium is included in some services from television service providers, such as Cox, which ended January 15, 2023, and Xfinity. Subscribers to Peacock Premium, whether subscribing directly or receiving service through a provider, can upgrade to the ad-free Premium Plus tier for an additional monthly cost. In January 2023, NBCUniversal discontinued the Free tier for new users: only subscription-based plans are available, with the Free plan only available to existing users, and those whose Premium subscription has lapsed.
On May 6, 2020, a distribution deal with Apple made Peacock available on iOS devices and Apple TV on-launch. Peacock content is also available on the Apple TV app, and the Premium service is available as an in-app subscription. On July 20, 2020, Peacock launched an app for PlayStation 4. On September 21 of that year, Peacock became available on Roku. The company's September 18 agreement for the service narrowly averted a blackout of NBCUniversal's TV Everywhere apps on Roku devices due to a dispute over revenue sharing and advertising inventory assignment. On June 8, 2021, Peacock launched an app for Samsung smart TVs. On June 24, 2021, Peacock launched an app for Amazon Fire TV and Amazon Fire tablets, such as Fire HD.
In April 2023, as part of its multi-year partnership with Meta Platforms, a Peacock app was launched for Meta Quest 2 and Quest Pro Virtual reality headsets.
DirecTV customers can now watch Peacock TV through their DirecTV subscription. To do this, they must sign up for Peacock Premium or Peacock Premium Plus.
Content
The service is drawn primarily from the NBCUniversal library, including subsidiaries such as Universal Pictures and Universal Television. It is said to include at least 15,000 hours of content on-launch without a subscription, and an additional 5,000 hours of content for Premium subscribers. Current episodes of NBC series are available on Peacock the day after their premiere for Premium subscribers; non-subscribers will receive them on a week's delay.
Peacock also offers a lineup of about 25 curated digital linear channels, including long-form and digital-originated programming content from NBCUniversal's broadcast and cable properties (such as Today All Day, a digital extension of NBC's morning show Today), as well as third-party content providers. They are designed to emulate a traditional broadcast programming experience (similar to services such as Pluto TV and Xumo, the latter of which was purchased by NBCUniversal parent Comcast in February 2020).
On January 26, 2020, NBC announced plans to stream The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon and Late Night with Seth Meyers at 8 and 9 p.m. ET, respectively, ahead of their television premieres on NBC. Many of NBC's affiliate groups criticized the decision out of concern that the "pre-airs" of both late-night talk shows on Peacock would cannibalize viewership for the shows on local NBC stations, and the plans never came to fruition.
On July 6, 2021, Universal announced that it would not renew its pay-one output deal with HBO in favor of bringing its films to Peacock during the pay-one window beginning in 2022. All films will exclusively be available on Peacock during the first and last four months of the 18-month pay-one window (with Universal licensing its live-action films to Amazon Prime Video and its animated films from Illumination and DreamWorks Animation to Netflix in between those two exclusivity windows). The pay-one window for Universal films was initially brought forward to four months after a film's initial theatrical release with this move, but it was later announced on December 9, 2021, that the pay-one window would be brought forward to as little as 45 days after a film's initial theatrical release (though Universal's deals with theater chains regarding the premium video on demand window for these films would be unaffected by this move).
In January 2022, NBC's Spanish-language sister network Telemundo announced TPlus, a new "content hub" for Spanish-language programming on Peacock Premium that will launch later in the same year to coincide with the FIFA World Cup.
In May 2022, Universal Pictures announced that it would shift three of its films to Peacock in 2023: Shooting Stars, a biographical feature about LeBron James based on his memoir; Praise This, about a youth choir music competition; and a remake of John Woo's 1989 crime drama The Killer.
In August 2022, NBC announced that its long-running soap opera Days of Our Lives would move exclusively to Peacock Premium beginning September 12 of that year, after a 57-year run on the network. The miniseries spin-off Days of Our Lives: Beyond Salem had previously premiered as a Peacock original series. It also announced that next-day streaming of Bravo programs would move to Peacock for the upcoming television season, as NBCUniversal had invoked its option to end an agreement with Hulu for next-day streaming rights for NBC and Bravo programming.
On November 30, 2022, live streaming of local NBC stations was added for Premium Plus subscribers. This function was available at launch in 210 markets.
Original programming
Third-party content
Lionsgate licenses library content for Peacock, as part of a larger agreement by Comcast to renew its carriage of Starz. In turn, NBCUniversal will license content for StarzPlay in the U.S. and internationally. On January 16, 2020, Peacock acquired the streaming rights to the Warner Bros. Television series Two and a Half Men and George Lopez, the Paramount Network series Yellowstone, as well as The Matrix films. In February 2020, A&E Networks licensed some titles from the A&E and History libraries to Peacock. Peacock also had rights to the Harry Potter film series as part of an existing deal with NBCUniversal networks from October 2020 until August 2021, before WarnerMedia (now Warner Bros. Discovery) took them back on September 1 of that year, for HBO Max after an adjustment in the agreement.
On July 1, 2020, ViacomCBS (now Paramount Global) non-exclusively licensed some of its television series and films to Peacock, such as Everybody Hates Chris, Ray Donovan, and Undercover Boss. The service will also hold rights to several Paramount Pictures films under a limited exclusivity window from 2021 to 2023.
On July 14, 2020, the service acquired the Canadian drama Departure for a U.S. premiere.
On July 17, 2020, Cinedigm licensed over a dozen films and three streaming channels for Peacock's launch, with hundreds of other films and television episodes to follow.
In January 2021, Peacock added Claudia Rosencrantz and Adrian Woolfe's streaming entertainment news channel LIT, with the platform serving as its U.S. launch partner for an exclusivity period.
On May 18, 2021, NBCUniversal announced that it had acquired the U.S. streaming rights to the Eurovision Song Contest for Peacock under a two-year deal, beginning with the 2021 edition (whose first semifinal was held later that day). The agreement came shortly after NBC reached an agreement with the European Broadcasting Union, which organizes the event, to produce an U.S. music competition series based on the Eurovision format. For 2022, NBC's lead figure skating analyst, Johnny Weir, was added as a commentator for its Eurovision broadcasts. The streaming rights for the contest were renewed for 2023.
On June 10, 2021, Peacock added content from anime streaming service RetroCrush.
On October 31, 2022, NBCUniversal announced an SVOD agreement with Hallmark Media, under which Peacock Premium would add a hub featuring content from Hallmark Channel, Hallmark Movies & Mysteries and Hallmark Drama. The agreement includes both on-demand content from Hallmark's library of original series and made-for-TV movies, and the live, linear feeds of all three networks. A similar agreement with Reelz (including true crime programming such as On Patrol: Live) was announced on February 28, 2023; due to conflicts with Peacock's exclusivity agreement with WWE, the linear Reelz channel will be blacked out on Peacock when it carries MLW Underground Wrestling.
On April 13, 2023, Peacock added films from Magnolia Pictures.
WWE content
On January 25, 2021, NBCUniversal, which already televised WWE's professional wrestling weekly programs Raw and NXT on the USA Network, acquired the exclusive U.S. distribution rights to the WWE Network streaming service beginning March 18, 2021. WWE content is carried within a branded channel on Peacock, which includes a selection of WWE content on Peacock's free tier, and the full library for Peacock Premium subscribers, including WWE Network original programming, archive content, and all premium live events (pay-per-views) live and on-demand. Some WWE content on Peacock has been edited to meet NBCUniversal standards and practices, particularly to remove content considered inappropriate under current standards. The standalone WWE Network service for existing U.S. subscribers was shut down on April 4, 2021.
In May 2021, Peacock announced that it had ordered WWE Evil, a documentary series created, produced, and narrated by John Cena that chronicles WWE's most prominent antagonists.
WWE committed to produce a "signature documentary" for the service annually beginning in 2022; the first—Wooooo! Becoming Ric Flair—was released in December 2022.
Sports programming
Peacock has carried NBC Sports and Telemundo Deportes programming, including live events either in simulcast with NBC or Telemundo, or exclusive to the service. Many of the standalone subscription services offered under the NBC Sports Gold banner were merged into Peacock Premium shortly after its launch, including Premier League Pass, IndyCar Pass, Figure Skating Pass, Rugby Pass, Snow Pass, motocross, and speed skating.
In August 2020, Peacock launched "NBC Sports on Peacock", a content hub featuring sports talk shows and radio simulcasts such as PFT Live with Mike Florio, The Dan Patrick Show, The Rich Eisen Show. In September 2020, NBC Sports on Peacock added Brother From Another, a sports and pop culture-themed show co-hosted by former ESPN reporter Michael Smith and sports writer Michael Holley. In the 2021 NFL season, the channel added an NFL studio show, Sunday Night Football Final, hosted by Kathryn Tappen and Chris Simms. Fantasy Football Happy Hour and Fantasy Football Pregame with Matthew Berry premiered for the 2022 season.
Notable sporting events carried or simulcast by Peacock include:
Olympic Games: During the 2020 Summer Olympics, Peacock carried coverage of selected events, as well as a "Tokyo Now" channel featuring exclusive studio programs. At the 2022 Winter Olympics, all events were streamed live on Peacock Premium.
National Football League:
All Sunday Night Football and playoff games in simulcast with NBC beginning in the 2021 season. Peacock will carry one exclusive game per-season beginning in 2023 and add a hub featuring NFL Films library content.
Peacock will exclusively carry one Wild Card game during the 2023 playoffs, marking the first NFL playoff game to be exclusive to streaming.
Major League Baseball: MLB Sunday Leadoff—exclusive national midday games on Sunday afternoons for Peacock Premium subscribers beginning in the 2022 season.
Soccer:
Premier League: 175 Premier League matches not on linear television per-season, all matches available on-demand.
FIFA World Cup: Simulcasts all matches in Spanish from Telemundo and Universo beginning in 2022 (English-language rights are held by Fox Sports).
United States Soccer Federation: Simulcasts all matches in Spanish from Telemundo and Universo beginning in 2023, such as United States men's and women's national team home matches and the U.S. Open Cup (English-language rights are held by Warner Bros. Discovery Sports).
College football:
Notre Dame football: Simulcasts all NBC games beginning in 2021. One exclusive home game per season.
Big Ten Conference: Will simulcast NBC's Big Ten Saturday Night games beginning in the 2023 season, and carry eight exclusive games per-season.
College basketball:
Big Ten Conference: Will exclusively air 47 men's basketball games and 30 women's basketball games beginning in the 2023–24 season, and the opening night doubleheaders of the Big Ten's men's and women's basketball tournaments.
IndyCar Series: Coverage of practice sessions, qualifying sessions, and Indy Lights series events beginning in 2021. Starting in 2021, the series aired one race annually exclusively on Peacock, which will expand to 2 races in 2024 (Toronto & the first Milwaukee race).
IMSA SportsCar Championship: Coverage of all IMSA races in 2023.
United States Football League (2022): Simulcasts all games televised by NBC and USA Network. In 2022 only, four exclusive games will streamed on Peacock.
Collegiate Olympic sports
Big Ten Conference: 40 telecasts of Olympic sports per-season beginning in the 2023–24 season.
Figure skating: U.S. Figure Skating championships and World Figure Skating championships
Alpine skiing: FIS World Alpine Skiing championships
Golf:
Simulcasts of NBC Sports coverage of the PGA Tour and USGA tournaments.
Exclusive coverage windows and alternate feeds during USGA tournaments.
News programming
NBC News's digital streaming channel NBC News Now, and Sky News—a British news channel owned by Comcast subsidiary Sky Group—are carried on Peacock's free tier. NBC News and Sky News had also planned to collaborate on an international news channel for Peacock known as NBC Sky World News, but the proposed service was scrapped in August 2020.
In October 2020, during the lead-up to the 2020 presidential election, NBC News launched a new channel on Peacock called "The Choice", which airs original news and opinion programs. At launch, these included The Majority Report with Sam Seder, The Mehdi Hasan Show, and Zerlina. In July 2021, the channel was rebranded as "The Choice by MSNBC". In 2022, The Choice was folded into a new MSNBC hub, featuring original content and on-demand streaming of selected MSNBC programs.
In January 2021, Peacock premiered The Overview, a weekly series hosted by Gadi Schwartz that features conversations on news topics and "paradigm shifts" impacting the world.
In January 2022, Peacock launched 24/7 streaming local news channels from the NBC Owned Television Stations division. The channels feature simulcast and encore news programming, along with breaking news and original content produced by its NBC station's local news operations. The four markets launched the streaming local news channels on January 20, with stations in Chicago (WMAQ-TV, as NBC Chicago News), Miami (WTVJ, as NBC Miami News), Philadelphia (WCAU, as NBC Philadelphia News) and Boston (NBC 10 Boston/NECN, as NBC Boston News) as launch cities, followed by New York City (WNBC, as NBC New York News) and Los Angeles (KNBC, as NBC Los Angeles News) on March 17, 2022. NBCLX launched in 2022 shortly after the local news channels.
International syndication and versions
In June 2020, Canadian broadcaster Corus Entertainment acquired exclusive English Canadian broadcast rights to Peacock Original programming. In October 2021, Quebecor Content acquired exclusive French Canadian rights to Peacock Original programming for its streaming service, Club Illico.
In December 2021, OSN acquired Peacock's original programming with the Middle Eastern streaming service, OSN+.
In August 2020, NBCUniversal signed a distribution deal with Australian streaming service Stan, including Peacock's original programming until 2022.
On July 29, 2021, Comcast and Sky announced that Peacock would launch in Austria, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom in Q4 2021 and would be available to all Sky Q, Sky Glass, and Now/Wow (in Germany, Ireland, Italy, and the United Kingdom) customers at no extra cost. Peacock was given a soft launch in the UK and Ireland on November 16, 2021, to all Sky and Now subscribers. On January 25, 2022, Peacock further expanded in Sky territories, soft launching in Austria and Germany, followed by Italy on February 15 and Switzerland on March 2.
On August 18, 2021, Comcast announced an agreement with Paramount Global (then known as ViacomCBS) to launch SkyShowtime, a joint streaming service combining programming from both companies, including Peacock Originals, which will be based on Peacock's infrastructure. The service would be available in 20 smaller European territories, including four Nordic countries along with Hungary and Poland, where it will replace Paramount Global's Paramount+ (Nordic countries) or its eponymous SVOD service (Hungary and Poland, where it was known as Paramount Play), instead of Peacock and Paramount+ operating separately in those markets. SkyShowtime was released on September 20, 2022, in the Nordics, launched in October 25 in the Netherlands and Portugal, launched in the former Yugoslav countries (except North Macedonia) on December 14 and in the rest of Central and Eastern Europe on February 14, 2023. SkyShowtime finished its expansion by releasing in Spain and Andorra on February 28, 2023.
Peacock was curtailed in Sky territories in January 2023.
In May 2023, NBCUniversal announced an agreement with Viacom18—a joint venture of Reliance Industries and Paramount Global—to launch Peacock in India as a content hub on JioCinema, as part of a larger library agreement.
See also
List of streaming media services
Notes
References
External links
NBCUniversal
Internet television streaming services
Subscription video streaming services
Internet properties established in 2020
Internet television channels
WWE Network
PlayStation 4 software
PlayStation 5 software
Xbox One software
Xbox Series X and Series S software
IOS software
Android (operating system) software