NBCUniversal has decided to increase the price of Peacock subscriptions starting this summer, only a year after its last price increase, Variety reported.
The price hike will come into effect for new subscriptions before the start of the 2024 Olympics in Paris.
Will the price increase make Peacock's colors brighter?
Starting mid-July, Peacock Premium (with ads) will increase by $2 to $7.99 monthly and Peacock Premium Plus (mostly ad-free) will also go up by $2 to $13.99 monthly. Peacock Premium's yearly price will increase to $79.99 from $59.99 and Premium Plus will go up to $139.99 from $119.99 annually.
The price increase will take effect beginning July 18 for new Peacock subscribers and for existing customers on their next billing date on or after Aug. 17.
Peacock Premium Plus has ad-free content and allows subscribers to download episodes as well as access to live local NBC channels. NCBU stated that a “small amount of programming” will still have ads on some Peacock channels, events as well as certain shows and movies due to streaming rights.
As of the end of Q1 2024, Peacock (a US-only service) had 34 million subscribers. This is fewer compared to Netflix and Disney+ subscribers. However, that number is still 55% up year-over-year and a net gain of 3 million subs in the first quarter. Its average revenue per customer in the quarter was $10 monthly.
Comcast president Michael Cavanagh said on the company's earnings call last week, “Looking ahead, our content offering provides such great value proposition that we should have some real pricing power over time.”
NFL's streaming-exclusive Wild Card Games
He added that the service's streaming-only Chiefs vs. Dolphins NFL Wild Card Game on Jan. 13 helped Peacock add and then retain “even more new Peacock subscribers than we expected.”
This price increase shows that NBCU is refocusing on making its direct-to-streaming business profitable. This is after the network introduced a cheaper and even a free, ad-supported option when Peacock was launched in 2020 in order to attract subscribers. However, last year NBCU stopped offering the free service for new subscribers and ceased the free Peacock Premium bundle for Comcast's Xfinity customers.
NBCU advertises that Peacock has a yearly lineup of almost 100,000 programming hours. These include exclusive streaming windows on Universal Pictures movies, next-day NBC and Bravo shows' episodes, Peacock originals as well as over 8,000 hours of live sports.
In Q1 2024, the streaming service had its most-streamed film to date, Christopher Nolan's Academy Award-winning movie Oppenheimer, its most-streamed original comedy series Ted and most-streamed original unscripted series The Traitors.
For the 2024 Paris Summer Olympic Games, the network said that it will provide more streaming content than it has before, which means 5,000 hours of coverage. This will include Peacock Live Actions and Peacock Discovery Multiview, as well as the Gold Zone whip-around show and Watch With Alex Cooper interactive watch parties. The Olympics will run from July 26 to Aug. 11.
Peacock's recent originals include Apples Never Fall, Poker Face, Bel-Air, Based on a True Story, The Best Man: The Final Chapters and Twisted Metal. Debuting this year are Those About to Die, Fight Night, Hysteria and Day of the Jackal. There will be new seasons of existing shows such as Bel-Air and Love Island USA. Joining these are titles from Universal Filmed Entertainment like The Fall Guy, Illumination's Despicable Me 4 and Twisters, after they run in the theaters.
For the 2024 NFL season, Peacock will exclusively stream on Sept. 6 the Friday night opening game between the Philadelphia Eagles and Green Bay Packers live from São Paulo, Brazil. The streaming platform will also offer exclusive content such as Premier League soccer, WWE events, Big Ten football as well as basketball, golf, rugby, cycling, motorsports and more.
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