“Peacock”, the streaming service from NBCUniversal that launched in the US last year and offers shows like The Office (US), Law & Order, Kardashians and many more, is coming to the UK later in 2021.
The streaming service, which is owned by Comcast (the same company that owns Sky), will be available for free to Sky Q and NOW (formerly NOW TV) customers, with adverts.
Peacock launched on July 15, 2020, with a big library of shows from the archives of NBC.
It also commissioned a few original shows, including Brave New World (which has since been cancelled), and an upcoming Battlestar Galactica reboot from Mr Robot creator, Sam Esmail.
In addition to TV shows, Peacock also offers films from the vaults of Universal Pictures, Focus Features, DreamWorks Animation, Illumination and more.
In the US, Peacock offers three subscription tiers – Free with Adverts, Premium and Premium Plus.
Only some of the content is available on the free tier, while the paid Premium tier offers more content (but still with adverts). The Premium Plus tier (which costs $9.99/month in the US), offers all of the content – with no adverts.
Since its debut, Peacock managed to gather 54 million sign-ups (across all tiers) in the US, with 20 million active users in the last quarter, with its most popular programme being Dr Death, a crime miniseries starring Joshua Jackson.
Peacock Is Coming To Sky and NOW
Today, Comcast announced that Peacock will be coming to the UK later this year, and will be available at no extra cost to customers of both Sky (with Sky Q) and its streaming service, NOW.
Peacock will also be free to Sky customers in Ireland, Germany, Italy, Austria, and Switzerland.
In the US, Peacock had a similar arrangement with Xfinity, another Comcast-owned broadband and pay-TV provider.
This marks Peacock’s first international expansion – for now, it is geo-blocked and is only available to users in the US (though some were able to watch it by using a VPN).
In the UK, Peacock – with adverts – will be bundled as part of NOW’s Entertainment membership (which currently costs £9.99), and as part of Sky’s entertainment bundles.
Unlike the US, there will be no additional paid tiers – so apparently you won’t be able to get the content without adverts (as is the case on NOW, with the NOW Boost addon).
Peacock UK will offer a wide array of content, including Rutherford Falls, the Saved by the Bell reboot, Equalizer, Young Rock, Kardashians, Suits, Downton Abbey and more.
Since some of these titles are already available on Sky and NOW in the UK, it’s unclear whether they will be “transferred” over to Peacock, or remain where they are now. We’re told more details about specific titles will be announced closer to launch.
Dana Strong, Group Chief Executive Officer of Sky, said: “Peacock will be a great addition for Sky customers with over 7,000 hours of content at no additional cost.
“This exceptional value add is another example of the great ways we are innovating to bring more benefits to our customers from the synergies across Sky, NBCUniversal, and Comcast Cable.”
As with any streaming service, Peacock’s content library will most likely be different than the one in the US, since some programmes were already sold to other TV channels/services in the UK.
At launch, we understand Peacock won’t be available as an independent streaming service/app in the UK (so people won’t be able to subscribe to it independently of Sky/NOW), but that option may be considered in the future.
We should get it as an app and then we can pay for it like usa do adding to our subscription is just not fair
What about the full catalogue of content we are missing out on due to paying the tiers I want the full catalogue of content like the usa two and a half men king of queens we are not going to get to watch them are we it’s just going to be like what we already have the usa get all the best content 😭🇺🇸🤔