Peacock TV was a household brand in the emerging category of streaming services. Over time, it accumulated enough unique and entertaining material to merit a position on our list of the top streaming services.
Even if Peacock is not faultless, many users no longer give the idea of canceling their subscriptions to Peacock any thought.
This Peacock review will discuss the reasons for this, including Peacock’s extensive selection of live events (including sports and pseudo-sports), sporadic SNL streaming, unique original programming, and a strong film library. Oh, and it also features live news.
We’ll also discuss Peacock’s potential for development as it aims to maintain its prominence in 2022.
What Is Peacock?
NBCUniversal offers a video streaming service called Peacock. There are both free and paid subscription tiers available. It has a lot of original stuff as well as material from NBC classics like Saturday Night Live and The Office.
The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, Punky Brewster, and Saved by the Bell were all rebooted as part of Peacock’s original content portfolio.
Sports and entertainment live streaming networks are also available.
You might be asking why NBCUniversal called it Peacock in the first place. That refers to NBC’s iconic peacock logo.
Given that many conventional television program creators now view streaming as the “next frontier,” it makes it natural that NBC would want to retain its recognizable logo while differentiating the endeavor from its regular broadcast network.
Features of Peacock TV
The home page is quite straightforward: it features a carousel of sponsored material and a Continue Watching section for unfinished items.
Sadly, you can’t take that stuff off the list (a problem that other streaming services, such as Netflix and HBO Max, have faced and fixed).
Then, to let you know that Peacock isn’t a static collection, you have a row of additional promoted products (Peacock Picks).
More rows of information that have been organized by theme may be found below that. There is a Coming Soon row at the bottom as if you have run out of content, where you may preview what will come next.
Streaming Services Compared
| Peacock | Netflix | HBO Max | Disney Plus | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Monthly price | Basic free with ads, Premium for $5, ad-free Premium Plus for $10 | Starts at $10 | $10 for basic with ads, $15 for ad-free | $8 |
| Ads | Yes | No | Yes | No |
| Top titles | The Office, 30 Rock, Bel-Air, early access to Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon | Stranger Things, Squid Game, Bridgerton, Ozark, Money Heist | Game of Thrones, Dune, Euphoria, DC titles | The Mandalorian, Loki, Encanto, Obi-Wan Kenobi |
| Mobile downloads | Yes (with the national launch in July) | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| 4K HDR available | No | Yes (on the Premium plan) | No | Yes |
| Number of streams: | 3 | 1 (2 for Standard, 4 on Premium) | 3 | 4 |
How Do I Get Peacock?
On the majority of smartphones, streaming devices, tablets, and certain smart TVs, Peacock is a free download.
While certain Peacock material may be accessed for free, some streaming service features necessitate a premium subscription.
For Peacock, NBCUniversal provides both free and paid streaming options. Three membership packages are available when you join up for the streaming service:
Peacock Free
The free service Peacock Free offers 13,000 hours of on-demand material in addition to live ad-supported stream access.
There is no need for a credit card. To sign up, all you need is an email address and password. This is a risky proposal that seeks to make commercial-based advertising the main source of income.
Peacock Premium
There are two pricing options for Peacock Premium: monthly ($4.99) and yearly ($49.99). This subscription level is free for a select group of Xfinity and Comcast users.
There is some advertising at this pricing point. In my experience, that amounted to no more than a brief mini-commercial at the start of a television show.
The subscription package provides access to live sporting events like the English Premier League along with more than 20,000 hours of programming, including all of Peacock’s original material.
Peacock Premium Plus
The top tier of the service’s subscription structure is Peacock Premium Ad-Free. You can receive all the benefits of Peacock Premium without the inconvenience of advertising for $9.99 per month or $99.99 per year.
You may upgrade to this without paying the full amount if you already receive the Premium service for free. According to NBC, “any client can purchase the ad-free experience directly for $9.99 per month,” or “Premium users can upgrade to an ad-free experience for an extra $5.00 per month.”
Discounts and Free Trials
There is a seven-day free trial period for Peacock.
Additionally, it occasionally provides discounted subscription prices. These are transient and promotional.
As an illustration, NBCUniversal provided a 40% discount on yearly memberships as part of a pre-launch promotion.
Due to this, Premium’s price was reduced from $49.99 to $29.99, and Premium Ad-price free’s from $99.99 to $79.99.
Devices Supported by Peacock TV
You may use the following gadgets to access Peacock content:
- Flex Xfinity
- Fire TV by Amazon (added June 2021)
- Google TV
- The X-series cable boxes from ComcastChromecast by Google
- TV from LG
- Xbox One, Apple, Android, and Vizio Smart TV mobile and tablet devices
- Mac and Windows-based PCs
- Here you may discover the most recent details about Peacock-compatible gadgets.
- Contour Box or Stream Player from Cox
- iPhone iPad Roku (added in September 2020)
Peacock TV Channels
Peacock’s Channels section, which mimics traditional cable with a succession of linear and occasionally live sets of networks and compiled programming, is one of its most distinctive features.
A lot of the other content is collections of previously aired programs (such as Below Deck, In It To Win It, and Todd Chrisley-based content), providing another chance to “explore” the Peacock archive.
You start with NBC News Now, a channel for MSNBC’s daily news and NBC Sports. The live news is comparable to what Paramount Plus offers with CBS News, and the remaining stuff feels like an improved version of what you get with Pluto TV occasionally.
Unfortunately, I’ve discovered that even on some of the better streaming devices, it may be challenging to browse and explore the Channels area (including the Apple TV 4K). It’s not often easy to go from the live content to the grid-based guide.
For instance, the SNL Channel once switched from an Eddie Murphy skit from the 1980s to one with Adam Driver in a Del Taco tryout while I was watching. A little while afterward, Alec Baldwin’s Schwetty Balls skit started playing.
Peacock offers a smart strategy to steer clear of those late-in-the-show duds by not running complete episodes of SNL. However, I wish the sketches were scheduled rather than shown at random.
Pausing, fast-forwarding, and rewinding are not yet supported by these “live” channels, although Comcast plans to add these, along with playlists and the ability to jump forward or back between shows within a channel.
TV Shows and Movies on Peacock TV
You will find exactly what you anticipate in each of these sections: Peacock’s most recent publications are highlighted above in collections of items with a similar theme. There are sections for A-Z at the very bottom. This circumstance is only “typical,” neither good nor negative.
Just like Paramount Plus, I would have preferred if Peacock had displayed the A-Z portions in a grid rather than a row. It takes a while to get through a row of four tiles that contains all of the shows and movies available through a service.
For a while, Peacock’s power was largely derived from its holdings of particular NBC library pillars. It has 30 Rock, Parks and Recreation, Cheers, The Office, and a lot of Law & Order (also on Netflix right now). Peacock occasionally broadcasts live SNL programs, but this doesn’t usually happen.
However, if you look around, there are many things you would not often identify with NBC. They are Downton Abbey, the Fox medical drama House starring Hugh Laurie, Monk on the USA Network, and Modern Family on ABC.
Additionally, Peacock has several shows that are genuinely sought-after, including Yellowstone. For whatever reason, Yellowstone, a series that airs on the Paramount Network, requires Peacock rather than Paramount Plus.
In addition, Peacock offers popular reality TV shows like Real Housewives, Bad Girls Club, and others.
Peacock has been receiving fresh episodes of shows including This Is Us, New Amsterdam, Grand Crew, Keenan, and Young Rock just before they premiere.
Regarding exclusive originals, frequently the main factor in consumers choosing to subscribe to services, Peacock has produced some popular programs, like Girls5Eva (which persuaded a TG staff member to pay for Peacock) and the most recent Saved By The Bell revival.
However, Peacock is lacking in major new hits and is still searching for its Ted Lasso or, to a lesser extent, its Stranger Things.
Peacock Review: Movies
The movies library at Peacock has a depth that seems to be constantly expanding. I can already see a ton of movies I want to see when I open the app, like Snowpiercer, Winter’s Bone (starring Jennifer Lawrence), The Replacements (starring Keanu Reeves), the iconic action film Bad Boys II, Good Will Hunting, Goodfellas, and Lost in Translation.
Peacock is also aware of the financial potential of movie collections. The Matrix and Harry Potter movies are included (save for Resurrections).
Additionally, it has a few Scream movies and the Fifty Shades of Grey and Karate Kid flicks, which are strange to see next to one another.
The Bottom Line
Peacock is a requirement for certain people because of its enormous library of major TV series, including Law & Order and The Office, and its exclusivity agreement with WWE. Similar to how Marvel, Disney, and Pixar content may be found on Disney Plus.
This Peacock review demonstrates that, despite the service’s youth, it is attempting to fill itself with essential streaming TV and other content.
But even though Peacock has yet to score a huge success, its catalog is attractive thanks to its cheaper than Netflix price, vault, and live programming (to at least some, if not many).