Everything You Need to Know About Peacock, NBCUniversal's New Streaming Service

From its original content to show lineup and price tiers, here’s everything you need to know about NBC’s new streaming service, Peacock.

Peacock
NBC

Image via NBCUniversal

Peacock

So we’re back at this again, huh? Alright. What’s Peacock and why do I need another streaming service?
Set to debut on Wednesday, July 15, Peacock is a new streaming service from NBCUniversal and Comcast. Named after the infamous NBC logo, Peacock is not dissimilar from HBO Max in the sense that it aims to be a hub for NBCUniversal’s suite of properties including NBC, USA, Bravo, Universal Pictures, and more.

Much like Disney+ and HBO Max, Peacock will allow NBCUniversal and Comcast to have direct ownership of many of their properties and generate revenue off of them. This means you’re going to see a host of shows, like The Office, for example, leave other streaming platforms so that NBCUniversal can have them on their exclusive service.

Wait. Is this is why The Office is leaving Netflix?!
Yup. Parks & Recreation, 30 Rock, Friday Night Lights among others will also leave their respective homes throughout 2020. NBCUniversal can also pull its nonexclusive content from Hulu starting in 2021, which means my beloved Top Chef will likely depart Hulu sometime next year as well.

Could not care about Top Chef at all, my guy, but The Office is my life. I need to have it on deck whenever I want it. But I really don’t want to pay for another streaming service.
Wait haven’t you heard? Peacock is free.

No way.
Yes, way.

Seems too good to be true.
If you don’t believe me, here’s what the official Peacock website says: “On July 15, Peacock will offer a free plan that will include movies, classic and current shows, channels available only on Peacock, kids shows and movies, news, and more.”

Some of Peacock’s content will be gated behind a paywall and will only be accessible with a Peacock Premium subscription which can be purchased for $49.99 a year. If you want to go entirely ad-free, it’s $99.99 for a year. 

However, if you have a cable subscription through Xfinity, you’ll receive access to Peacock Premium for no extra charge.

Alright, I can work with that. I’m guessing that, like most streaming services, Peacock is going to have some original content as well?
They sure are. There will be 9 shows, dubbed Peacock Originals, at launch including Brave New World, The Capture, Cleopatra in Space, Curious George, In Deep with Ryan Lochte, Intelligence, Lost Speedways, Psych 2: Lassie Come Home, and Where’s Waldo?. We reviewed a few of these Originals based solely on their trailers, if you’re curious.

Other Peacock Originals on the horizon include Angelyne, a Battlestar Galactica reboot from Mr. Robot creator Sam Esmail, a new Mike Schur (creator of The Good Place) comedy starring Ed Helms called Rutherford Falls, and a podcast-to-TV adaptation of Dr. Death which will star Jamie Dornan, Alec Baldwin, and Christian Slater.

Peacock Premium will also feature over 175 exclusive Premier League matches in the 2020-21 season.

What else can I expect to find on the service?
On the TV side, here’s just a few of the shows available: the previously mentioned The Office and Parks & Recreation, Cheers, Downton Abbey, Everybody Loves Raymond, Frasier, King of Queens, Monk, Royal Pains, Saturday Night Live, and more. Peacock also reached an agreement with ViacomCBS to license a handful shows including Everybody Hates Chris, The Affair, Charmed, and Ray Donovan. I bet dads are going to be really excited about that last one; everyone’s dad loves Ray Donovan.

Movies featured on the service will include Bridesmaids, Knocked Up, Back to the Future, Do the Right Thing, Jaws, Shrek, the Bourne franchise, and (of course) every single Fast & Furious film.

That’s a really solid lineup. Where can I download the app to watch?
Peacock will be available to download across a variety of devices and smart TVs including the Apple App Store and Google Android Store, Microsoft Xbox, Sony Playstation 4 (starting July 20), LG and Vizio smart TVs, and streaming on peacocktv.com

Much like HBO Max, however, Peacock is not available on Roku or Amazon Fire Sticks as of this writing. NBCUniversal declared they are “in talks with other distribution partners and look[s] forward to bridging Peacock to all popular streaming platforms” in a statement provided to Complex.

You can sign up for the service via this link.

Well, thanks for explaining another streaming service to me.
Happy to help. Anything else you need?

Nope. I’m going to watch every Fast and Furious movie over again.
#JusticeforHan. And save me a Corona!

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