Our budgets are rejoicing!
Like the days of Hulu past, NBCUniversal will officially offer its upcoming streaming service, Peacock, as an ad-supported, free platform.
There will be a tiered subscription setup in which users can choose between Peacock Free and Peacock Premium. The free service includes more than 7,500 hours of content — but it does have a few holdbacks.
To watch all of the Peacock originals, get next-day access to episodes of current broadcast series, and see expanded sports content, you’ll need Peacock Premium. Millions of Comcast and Cox subscribers will get the premium service bundled with their cable for free, but those who’ve cut the cord or have a different cable provider can get it for $4.99 per month.
Both the free and premium subscriptions include ads, but subscribers can pay an additional $5 per month to go ad-free.
NBCUniversal also finally announced some launch dates for the service, which will have everything from Parks and Recreation and SNL to a Saved by the Bell reboot. Early-bird access to the platform will start on April 15 for Xfinity X1 and Flex customers. Then, on July 15, Peacock opens to all customers — just in time for the Tokyo Olympics, which will be available to watch on Peacock.
To check out more of the content to come (and to watch a very interesting promo video featuring a peacock playing the piano), visit peacocktv.com.
Photo: NBCUniversal