How many ads do you actually see when you watch Peacock?
How many ads do you actually see when you watch Peacock?
NBCUniversal’s streaming service promises a light ad experience. Does it deliver?
I’ve said it before, but it’s still true: Peacock has a highly intriguing content lineup for a streamer its size. The service carries originals, shows pulled from the golden age of NBC comedy, Universal movies, and a huge selection of live sports from the NFL, top college conferences, and the English Premier League.
If you’re thinking about adding Peacock for yourself but you’re not sure if the ad experience is onerous enough to upgrade to an ad-free subscription for $14 per month, keep reading. I tested the $8-per-month ad-supported plan of Peacock to see what the ad experience is really like.
How many commercials do you see on Peacock?
How many ads do you see on original Peacock programming?
Devotees of this column know that I always test a 30-minute show and a 60-minute series for each category in these user tests. I used “The Girl in the Woods” as a 30-minute Peacock original test subject, and “Love Island Games” for the 60-minute series.
I noticed a theme that continued through the balance of this test: longer content gets more ads on Peacock. This is more or less the standard for other streamers too, but Peacock was the first streamer on which I noticed half-hour shows occasionally had 15-second breaks all the way up to 90 seconds, while hourlong shows had a minimum break length of 30 seconds. Both lengths of Peacock original had an ad break before the stream began, and 30-minute shows had three breaks per episode, for a total of three to five minutes of ads. Sixty-minute shows had four or five breaks during playback, for a total of five to seven minutes per episode.
How many ads are shown on licensed Peacock shows?
Peacock doesn’t have a huge selection of licensed TV shows since its stock of former NBC titles is so large. I turned on a few episodes of “The Office” to test half-hour shows, and the experience was pretty much the same as it was on Peacock originals: ad breaks were 15 to 90 seconds in length, and I saw three breaks per episode consistently.
“Yellowstone” ad breaks were a little more variable, but this can be chalked up to different episode lengths. Episodes closer to 60 minutes in length offered around five breaks each for five to seven minutes of ads, while those that stretched to 90 minutes or so had up to eight ad breaks, totaling around 10 minutes of commercials.
How many ads are shown with original Peacock movies?
I flipped on the Peacock original movie “Meet Cute” with Pete Davidson and Kaley Cuoco for this test, and double-checked the results with the Melissa McCarthy vehicle “Genie.” In both instances, I saw the same result: one three-minute commercial break at the beginning of the movie and another right in the middle of the film, adding up to around six minutes of ads per film.
How many ads come with licensed Peacock movies?
Intriguingly, fewer than come with originals. I tried “The Amazing Spider-Man” and “The Amazing Spider-Man 2” here, and in both cases, the ad experience was exactly the same. There was a pre-roll ad break of around three minutes, but unlike with Peacock originals, there was no break during playback. Other licensed movies on the streamer might also come with a mid-playback break, but these two didn’t.
Does Peacock show ads during kids content?
Yes and no. Movies like the “Harry Potter” and “Shrek” that are intended to appeal to all age groups had a pre-roll ad break around a minute in length, but when I turned on a show for younger kids like “Love, Diana,” I didn’t see a single commercial.
Final thoughts
The Peacock ad experience was middle-of-the-road when considering other streamers I’ve tried so far. Netflix had fewer ads, but both Hulu and Paramount+ had more. All in all, the ad experience on Peacock wasn’t that awful. I saw a good variety of commercials, including plenty that advertised other NBC and Peacock shows and movies.
If you’re considering adding Peacock, I’d say the commercial experience is bearable enough to save money by going with Peacock Premium. Grab your subscription for only $8 per month now.
Peacock
Peacock is a subscription video streaming service from NBCUniversal that includes original shows, blockbuster movies, and classic television series. Peacock is home to “Yellowstone,” “The Office,” and original hits like “Poker Face” and “Bel-Air.” You can also watch live sports and NBC programming, including the NFL, MLB, WWE, the Olympics, the Premier League, NASCAR, the French Open, college football and basketball, and the PGA Tour. Premium Plus subscribers can stream their local NBC feed in all 210 markets.