Breaking: Peacock Announces First Price Increase Since Launch; Change Effective Immediately for New Customers
A lot has changed for NBCUniversal’s premium streaming service over the past year. Once considered the runt of the streaming industry, Peacock has seen a dramatic rise in subscribers, as well as prestige in 2023, and the service’s pricing plans have seen a tremendous amount of change as well. While still the smallest of the major American services, Peacock announced on Monday that it would be increasing the prices on both of its subscription plans.
Beginning Monday night, Peacock will begin informing subscribers that the service will be raising the price of its ad-supported Premium tier by $1 per month to $5.99, while the ad-free Premium Plus plan will increase by $2 monthly to come to $11.99. The change will go into effect immediately for new subscribers, and beginning on Thursday, Aug. 17 for current customers. The annual plans for the individual plans will increase as well moving from $49.99 for Premium and $99.99 for Premium Plus to $59.99 and $119.99 per year respectively.
In an email to current customers, Peacock also noted that those currently utilizing a deal from Comcast or an outside partner to receive the ad-free Premium Plus plan at a discount would also see an increase.
“Note that if you are on an offer and upgraded to Premium Plus for $5/mo., your price for the Premium Plus Add-On will increase to $6/mo. effective on your next billing date on or after August 17,” the email said.
The change in price was inevitable as the economics and expectations across the streaming industry have changed in the three years of Peacock’s existence. While raw subscriber totals were once considered the only important metric, now that the masses have adopted streaming, attention has turned to revenue and profit.
However, to continue to attract new users and to keep them subscribed for longer, NBCUniversal and Peacock have settled on a content strategy that appears to be working. The company noted that this price increase will allow it to continue those programming investments.
“[The change] allows Peacock to continue to invest in the best user experience and the highest-quality content while remaining competitive in the marketplace,” NBCU said in its price-increase announcement. “Peacock’s content offering is one of the most complete in the market, providing customers with unmatched value. ”
While price increases have become commonplace across the streaming industry, this announcement marks the first time that Peacock has upped its rates since launching just over three years ago, nearly to the day. When the service debuted on July 15, 2020, the service had three different pricing tiers. The existing Premium plan was $4.99 and Premium Plus was $9.99, but they were joined by a free plan that allowed viewers to use the service to watch over 7,500 hours of movies and shows. The Streamable broke the news earlier this year that the platform had eliminated the free option for new subscribers.
When Peacock debuted three years ago, NBCU’s parent company Comcast made the service available for free to Xfinity cable and/or internet subscribers, however — like the free, ad-supported tier — that no-cost option was eliminated in the first quarter of 2023.
Comcast made Peacock available for free in multiple forms at launch as part of a strategy to help get the platform into as many homes as quickly as possible. NBCU executives had always maintained that the unique approach to launching a streaming service would eventually lead to a sustainable — and profitable — business venture. While it was slow going at first, the streamer has seen tremendous growth since the beginning of last year going from 9 million paid subscribers to 22 million. While that is still markedly smaller than many of its biggest competitors, the service is beginning to gain traction in terms of its original content, in addition to simply being the home for specific linear programming and WWE premium events.
So far in 2023, Peacock has been the home of two buzzy prestige TV series in the Natasha Lyonne-led mystery series “Poker Face” and the genre-busting limited series “Mrs. Davis.” As the company noted, the price increase will be used, at least in part, to invest in content. In addition to bulking up its original offerings, Peacock is also the streaming home of the Women’s World Cup — which starts this week — Sunday Night Football, an exclusive NFL regular season game as well as an exclusive NFL Wild Card Playoff Game, Premier League soccer, Big Ten football beginning this fall, and every single event of the 2024 Summer Olympics.
Since launch, Peacock has added over 80,000 hours of content, including becoming the streaming home of Universal movies, next-day NBC and Bravo episodes, the Reelz cable channel and the Hallmark family of networks, and daily mornings news broadcasts from CNBC and MSNBC.
Despite increasing its prices, Peacock is still one of the cheapest streaming services on the domestic market. For comparison, Paramount+ offers the same $5.99 and $11.99 options, while Apple TV+ has only one option at $6.99 per month. The other major streamers have increasingly higher totals. While Netflix has a $6.99 ad-supported tier, its highest-priced ad-free plan comes in at $19.99 monthly. Disney+ ranges from $7.99 to $10.99, Hulu comes in at $7.99 or $14.99, and Max offers plans ranging from $9.99 to $19.99. Prime Video costs $8.99 per month as a standalone service or $14.99 as part of Amazon Prime.
Many onlookers dismissed NBCUniversal’s early streaming efforts as Peacock seemingly fumbled its launch, unable to gain traction with its initial content offerings. However, as the company has clawed back some of its most valuable linear properties from Hulu and made smart, strategic partnerships while also increasing its live sports programming, the service appears to have turned a corner. While there might be an initial hesitance to accept a price increase — especially from customers who had previously been getting the service for free — the execs behind Peacock have proven that their plan is beginning to show returns and should be set up for even more future success.
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,” and “The Office,” as well as original hits like “Poker Face” and “Bel-Air.” You can also watch live sports including NFL, MLB, WWE, Olympics, Premier League, NASCAR, French Open, College Football and Basketball, and PGA Tour. Premium Plus subscribers can stream their local NBC feed in all 210 markets.