Peacock: Everything about NBCUniversal's partly free, partly paywalled app - CNET

Peacock launched across the US on July 15. 

Angela Lang/CNET

Peacock, a streaming app from Comcast-owned NBCUniversal, offers thousands of hours of free programming, as well as extra shows, movies and originals if you pay for a $5 or $10 a month subscription after a seven-day free trial. Those paying members get access to all nine seasons of The Office, plus extended episodes with deleted scenes from the third season (more seasons with these so-called "superfan episodes" are going to be released in March.) Peacock paying members also unlock exclusive access to more than 175 Premier League soccer matches, can watch titles like Trolls World Tour and Yellowstone and -- starting next month -- stream everything WWE. 

Starting March 18, Peacock will be the exclusive streaming home to WWE Network. The service will widen to include more than 17,000 hours of new, original, and library WWE Network programming on demand and on a 24/7 "channel" on Peacock. That includes live "pay-per-view" events available to stream at no added cost.  The the first is Fastlane on March 21. WrestleMania will stream a week later in March, and SummerSlam is set for August.

Overall, Peacock has a catalog of thousands shows, movies, news, sports, curated channels, trending highlights and exclusive big-budget original programming. 

But Peacock is missing from Amazon Fire TV devices, like its boxes and low-priced plug-ins commonly called Firesticks. Roku reached a deal in September to support the Peacock app after a two-month absence, but Amazon's Fire TV remains the only major platform without Peacock.

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Peacock's free tier, with about two-thirds of the catalog, is available to watch right away with advertising after you register an email and password. The full library of shows and movies comes with a price -- a "premium" membership includes commercials and costs $5 a month, while a "premium plus" membership is ad-free and costs $10 a month. 

Some promos can cut that cost. If you're a customer of Comcast Xfinity or Cox, you should be eligible for a $5 discount on the premium tier. And if you're a Spectrum video or broadband customer, you'll be able to qualify for an extended free trial to Peacock Premium. 

Read more: Hulu vs. Peacock: Which streaming service is best for you?

Because of the coronavirus pandemic, several plans for Peacock's wider rollout were upended. Filming of original programming largely shut down in March, and the plan to piggyback Peacock's national launch on NBC's live coverage of the summer Olympics was moot once the games were pushed back to July 2021. Because of the Olympics delay and the fact that much of its original programming won't materialize until later than planned, Peacock will "arguably really be hitting its stride" in 2021, Matt Strauss, the executive in charge of Peacock, said in July as the service launched nationally.

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Peacock was one of a flood of new streaming services from tech and media giants that launched over the last year and a half. Competitors include other new services like Disney Plus, Apple TV Plus, and WarnerMedia's HBO Max, as well as vets like Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Hulu and CBS All Access. (Note: ViacomCBS is the parent company of CNET.)  

But Peacock is unusual among these rivals in that it has a free tier. It's also unusual among the crop of new services in that it'll have live sports and news; most of the newest streaming services are focused squarely on video-on-demand entertainment along the lines of Netflix. 

Other differences: Peacock has "channels" of TV, but these aren't live streams of its networks. Instead, they're curated feeds of shorter programming or full episodes, organized around themes. One channel, for example, is Today All Day, which mixes clips from NBC's Today show with original segments for Peacock by the show's hosts. Other channels are based on The Office, SNL and Keeping Up With the Kardashians, all stocked with clips, or things like the Tonight Show, True Crime or Bob Ross, with full episodes.

So far, Peacock has signed up 22 million accounts through about the end of September. That includes people who registered with Peacock when it rolled out just to Comcast pay-TV customers in April, as well as new members who've signed up since its national launch on July 15. 

So is Peacock worth paying for? All the finer details are below, but basically: Thanks to the free tier, it doesn't cost anything to try it out for yourself. If you love NBC's style of programming or you want even more big-name movies to stream -- and especially if Netflix has spoiled you into hating ads -- you may find yourself paying for yet another streaming service. 

How much does Peacock cost? What is available free?

Peacock has three tiers: a limited one that's free, an all-inclusive one that's $5 a month with ads, and an all-inclusive one that's $10 a month without ads. 

The free tier limits how much you can watch. For example, Peacock offers only select episodes of its originals free, withholding the rest inside its paywall. Free accounts can watch the first two seasons of The Office but no more. This limited free tier has access to roughly two-thirds of Peacock's total catalog of movies, current season TV, TV classics, curated daily news, sports, Hispanic programming and curated channels. 

Both paid tiers are basically an all-access pass to the full catalog on the service. That means about 20,000 hours of content. Peacock Premium is $5 a month or $50 a year with advertising, or you can upgrade to Peacock Premium Plus for ad-free viewing at $10 a month or $100 a year (this tier is also the only one that lets you download to watch offline). Peacock offers a standard seven-day free trial for new signups to either of the paid tiers. 

The tiers with advertising are supposed to have no more than five minutes of commercials per hour.

Some people can score discounts that cut the cost of Peacock if they're already customers of certain cable companies. Peacock gives Comcast X1 and Flex subscribers the paid versions of the service at a $5 discount. So if they want to watch with advertising, they pay nothing for Peacock Premium; if they want to watch ad-free, they need to pay $5 a month for Premium Plus. 

Cox customers also get that $5-off deal. Peacock has said it's working on partnerships to offer this discount to a wider array of consumers. 

In January, NBCUniversal said that it reached a deal with cable company Charter Communications for Spectrum video and broadband customers to get an extended free trial to Peacock. Those offers haven't begun yet. 

The pricing at Peacock's competition runs the gamut. 

Among the services that have ad-supported options, Hulu is $6 a month with ads and $12 a month ad-free. CBS All Access charges $6 for its tier with advertising, and $10 for the ad-free version. 

By comparison, Netflix, which has no ads, offers its cheapest tier at $9 a month, while its most popular plan is $14. Apple TV Plus is $5 a month, Disney Plus is $7 a month, and HBO Max is $15 a month. None of them includes advertising. 

And none of these competitors -- whether with ads or without -- offers a free tier like Peacock's.

What devices support Peacock? 

Peacock is available on the web at peacocktv.com, and it's supported on:

• Apple devices like iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch, Apple TV 4K and Apple TV HD.
• Google devices including Android phones and tablets, and Android TV devices, Chromecast and Chromecast built-in devices. 
• Xbox One consoles.
• Sony PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 4 Pro consoles.
• Vizio SmartCast TVs. 
• LG Smart TVs.
• Roku devices.

To check the exact models that support Peacock, check the service's support page. 

After the Roku deal, Amazon Fire TV is the only major family of devices to not carry the Peacock app.

What product features does Peacock have? 

• Up to three devices can stream Peacock simultaneously from a single account. 
• Peacock won't require accounts to register devices with the service, nor will it limit the number of devices a single account can use to stream. 
• Peacock won't support high-end formats like 4K resolution, high dynamic range and Dolby Atmos sound at launch, but they're on the roadmap to be added. 
  
• It won't support profiles yet, a feature that typically allows for various members of a household to keep their viewing and recommendations separate. That feature is also on the roadmap, Peacock said.
• Parental controls are managed by a PIN.
• Mobile downloads are available for those who subscribe to its top tier, Premium Plus.  
• The app's user interface will be in English only. The programming on Peacock will support any language audio or subtitles tracks that come with a specific title. At launch, it'll have some content with Spanish language tracks and subtitles. 

What's up with that name? 

Peacock is a nod to NBC's longtime logo and mascot. Strauss said that calling the service Peacock was meant as an homage to NBC, but he stressed that the service is licensing lots of non-NBC content too. 

"We did not call this service NBC Plus. We called it Peacock. In many ways, that was by design," he said. "Pay homage to NBCUniversal but not be limited to just NBCUniversal content." 

At the service's unveiling in January, writer, producer and actress Tina Fey said she originally wanted the title of 30 Rock to be The Peacock. "I was told it was a hard 'no,' and that it would not pass the censors," she said. "And here we are."

When did it launch? When will it expand outside the US?

NBCUniversal launched a "preview" of Peacock's streaming service April 15 for Comcast's Xfinity X1 cable customers and its Flex streaming customers. Peacock launched for everyone else in the US in July. 

International expansion will come, Peacock has said, but it hasn't specified a timeline.

What happens to NBC programming on Hulu? 

For now, NBC's shows will keep streaming on Hulu. 

The Office started streaming on Peacock at the beginning of 2021.

NBC

NBC was a partner in Hulu for years, but NBCUniversal-owner Comcast struck a deal with Disney to give Disney full Hulu control last year. That deal included terms that essentially allow NBC to have programming stream both on Hulu and on Peacock at the same time.

NBCUniversal can start pulling its programming off Hulu starting this year, and by 2022 it has the right (but not the obligation) to cancel most of its content-licensing agreements with Hulu, Variety reported.

"It's too early to tell" whether NBC will want to go that route yet, NBCUniversal Chairman Steve Burke said at the presentation unveiling Peacock in early 2020. 

Shows and movies: What's available to watch on Peacock?

The company has said Peacock Premium has about 20,000 hours of content available; roughly two-thirds of it will be available on the free, ad-supported tier. 

Now that the service is live with a free tier, the easiest way to get a sense of what's on Peacock is to browse the service itself, although you'll need to register an account with an email address to do so. If you don't want to hand over an email, you can also check third-party sites like Reelgood, which track streaming services' catalogs, to get a sense of what's available to watch. 

Generally speaking, the service's programming leans into NBCUniversal's back catalog and its franchises, but there are a couple of complexities there too. The Office, for example, is one of the top items in Peacock's catalog.

But Peacock is also licensing programming from other companies. A deal with ViacomCBS, for example, will give Peacock full seasons of shows such as Ray Donovan at launch, as well as certain classic Paramount movies later on over the course of more than three years, such as The Godfather trilogy. It'll also have past seasons of Yellowstone, a hit summer drama on the Paramount Network, as well as licensed shows from A+E, like Storage Wars. 

Peacock's free tier includes: 

• Next-day access to current seasons of NBC broadcast shows in their first season, known as freshmen series.
• Next-week access (i.e., one week after episodes air) to current seasons of returning NBC broadcast shows.
  
• Select episodes of marquee Peacock originals (but not full seasons).
• Curated genre channels, which NBC has characterized as things like SNL Vault, Family Movie Night and Olympic Profiles.
• Selections of classic series and popular movies.
• Curated daily news and sports programming, including the Olympics.
• Spanish-language content.

With the Premium membership, you basically get an all-access pass. It includes everything on the free tier plus: 

• Full seasons of Peacock originals.
• Next-day access to current seasons of returning NBC broadcast shows.
• Early access to NBC's late-night talk shows. The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon will stream early on Peacock and Late Night with Seth Meyers at 8 p.m. ET -- but this perk will begin only when the shows return to in-studio production.
• Full access to Peacock's library of shows and movies.
• Additional sports, like Premier League soccer.

Peacock also includes live programming, which originally was to include the now postponed Summer Olympics in Tokyo. Select events from the Toyko and Beijing Olympics will stream on Peacock when the games occur on the free tier.

Among other sports you'll be able to watch on Peacock's free tier, the service will have the US Open Championship, Women's Open Championship and an NFL Wild Card Playoff Game. In addition, the free tier will have on-demand replays of events like the Triple Crown horse races, daily highlights from NBC Sports and hundreds of hours of sports series and docs. 

Premium tier sports will include 175 live Premier League soccer matches in the 2020-21 season, coverage of elite cycling events like the Tour de France and La Vuelta, and more than 100 hours of WWE content, like WWE Untold, Steve Austin's Broken Skull Sessions and John Cena's Best WrestleMania Matches.

By the end of 2021, NBCUniversal plans to dissolve NBC Sports Network, with some of its programming eventually ending up on Peacock. 

As far as news programming, Peacock will draw from brands like NBC News, Sky News, MSNBC and CNBC. It'll stream same-day broadcasts of NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt and Meet the Press with Chuck Todd; live news channels will include NBC News Now, Sky News and NBC/Sky Global News (a new channel); it'll feature clips from Today, CNBC, MSNBC, E! News, NBC Nightly News and Meet the Press; and it'll widen into original content from the Meet the Press franchise, investigative documentaries including full seasons of Dateline and Lock Up, and library documentaries from NBC News and CNBC.

For its originals, the company generally tends to rely on new series from talent with a long track record at NBC, like Tina Fey, Amy Poehler and Mindy Kaling. It's also betting on reboots of shows in its catalog with an enduring appeal. It's already announced a revival of Battlestar Galactica (itself a reboot of the 1970s sci-fi series) by Mr. Robot creator Sam Esmail and reboots of Punky Brewster and Saved by the Bell. According to Deadline, NBCUniversal hopes to make a reboot of The Office, which itself was a remake of a British series. 

But not all Peacock's original programming comes straight from NBCUniversal's family tree. Some titles, like Brave New World, are fresh projects just for Peacock. 

Originals

At launch, Peacock had nine total originals at launch. The series will have all episodes available at once to stream on a premium tier, a la Netflix. 

The launch originals are: 

• Brave New World, based on the dystopian novel by Aldous Huxley and starring Demi Moore and Alden Ehrenreich from Solo: A Star Wars Story
• Psych 2: Lassie Come Home
  
• The Capture, a mystery thriller that aired last year in the UK
• Intelligence, a comedy series starring David Schwimmer that aired earlier this year in the UK
• Lost Speedways, an unscripted series featuring racer Dale Earnhardt Jr.
• In Deep with Ryan Lochte, a sports documentary
  
• New episodes of Curious George, the animated series for preschoolers
• Cleopatra in Space, a DreamWorks Animation kids series
• Where's Waldo?, another DreamWorks Animation kids series
  

Post-launch Originals 

• Hitmen, a sitcom about inept contract killers, starring Mel Giedroyc and Sue Perkins, best known as the former hosts of The Great British Bake Off 
• Five Bedrooms, about five people who buy a house together 
• A.P. Bio's new season, starring Glenn Howerton and Patton Oswalt 
  
• Noughts + Crosses, a series based on young-adult novels imagines an alternate history in racial reverse
  
• Anthony, a film In 2005 examining the murder of 18-year-old Black student Anthony Walker by imagining what may have happened had he lived
• The Sit-In: Harry Belafonte Hosts the Tonight Show, a documentary about the entertainer's stint hosting the late-night show 
• Black Boys, a documentary film that celebrates the humanity of Black men and boys in America 
• Departure, a series about the investigation into the mysterious disappearance of an airliner flying over the Atlantic Ocean
• Wilmore, a weekly special series featuring actor and comedian Larry Wilmore
• The Amber Ruffin Show, a weekly late-night-style topical show featuring comic and writer Ruffin
• Code 404, a cop comedy
• Freedia Got a Gun, a film touching on gun violence and race
• A Saved by the Bell reboot, with original cast members including Elizabeth Berkley and Mario Lopez, from 30 Rock's Tracey Wigfield

Other originals

The following are the originals in the pipeline for Peacock, but the timing of most of these projects is unclear.

Original drama pipeline highlights

• A revival of Battlestar Galactica by Mr. Robot creator Sam Esmail.
• A reboot of The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, which reimagines the classic sitcom as a drama. 
• An anthology series that'll base its first installment on Hatching Twitter, Nick Bilton's best-selling book about the creation of that social network.
  
• Dr. Death, based on the true-crime podcast, starring Jamie Dornan, Alec Baldwin and Christian Slater.
  
• Angelyne, a limited series from Emmy Rossum about a surgically enhanced LA pop-culture icon.
• One of Us Is Lying, based on the best-selling young adult mystery-thriller.
• Armas De Mujer, starring Kate del Castillo, a dramedy from the team behind Telemundo's La Reina del Sur. 
  
• A Queer as Folk reboot.

Original comedy pipeline highlights

• Rutherford Falls, starring Ed Helms, who also co-created the show with Mike Schur (the showrunner for The Good Place and co-creator of Parks and Recreation) and Sierra Teller Ornelas, who produced ABC's Splitting Up Together and NBC's Superstore.
• Straight Talk, from Rashida Jones, about two main characters with opposing ideologies forced into an odd coupling.
• The Punky Brewster reboot, starring Soleil Moon Frye as a grownup version of the titular character. This is expected to be available in 2020. 
• The Adventure Zone, a fantasy animated comedy series based on the Dungeons & Dragons podcast and best-selling graphic novel series.
  
• Clean Slate, starring Laverne Cox as a trans woman who returns to Alabama and reunites with her estranged father after 17 years, produced by legendary producer Norman Lear.
  
• Expecting, produced by Mindy Kaling, about a single woman who asks her gay best friend to be her sperm donor.
  
• Division One, a coming-of-age comedy about an underdog women's collegiate soccer team, produced by Amy Poehler.
  
• MacGruber, based on the Saturday Night Live sketch character who spawned a movie in 2010. Will Forte stars in, writes and produces this comedy series.
  
• Girls5Eva, produced by Tina Fey about a one-hit-wonder girl group from the '90s that reunites for one more shot at stardom.
  
• Lady Parts, a comedy about a female Muslim punk band, which aired on Channel 4 in the UK.

Original unscripted shows

• Who Wrote That, a Saturday Night Live docuseries from creator Lorne Michaels, exploring the famous personalities in front of and behind the camera.
• A stand-up special, comedy shorts and a new talk show from Kevin Hart and his LOL Network.
• Real Housewives Mash-up, a spinoff of Bravo's The Real Housewives franchise.
  
• A racing series from Dale Earnhardt Jr.
• Dream Team 2020, a behind-the-scenes documentary series that follows USA Basketball superstars on their Olympic journey to Tokyo, produced in partnership with the NBA.
  
• United States of Speed, which features the American runners leading Team USA to take on the domination of Jamaica's Usain Bolt.
  
• Run Through the Line, a look at the creation of Nike. 
• The Greatest Race, which interviews swimmers on both sides of the epic 4x100 relay at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. 

Original kids programming

• Archibald's Next Big Thing, from Tony Hale of Veep and Arrested Development, this comedy features a chicken who 'yes-ands' his way through life.
• Dragon Rescue Riders, in which Dak, Leyla and their dragon friends find strange crystals that change their powers.

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