Peacock

Peacock is an American over-the-top video streaming service owned and operated by the Television and Streaming division of NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast. Named after the NBC logo, the service launched on July 15, 2020. The service primarily features series and film content from NBCUniversal studios and other third-party content providers, including television series, films, news, and sports programming. The service is available in a free ad-supported version with limited content, while premium tiers include a larger content library and access to additional NBC Sports and WWE Network content.

Early availability for Xfinity Flex customers began on April 15, 2020, with X1 customers receiving the preview by May 1. Peacock launched nationally on July 15, 2020; as of August 2021, the service had reached at least 54 million signups. Peacock was given a soft launch on the Sky and NOW platforms in the UK and Ireland on November 16, 2021, free to all customers. On January 25, 2022, Peacock further expanded in Sky territories, soft launching in Austria and Germany. In January 2022, the service reached 24.5 million monthly active accounts and 9 million paid subscribers.

As of April 2022, the service has reached 28 million monthly active accounts and 13 million paid subscribers, an increase of 40% from the previous quarter. It also reported a 25% increase in engagement year-over-year.

History
After the failure of Seeso in 2017, On January 14, 2019, NBCUniversal created NBCUniversal Direct-to-Consumer and Digital Enterprises under chairman Bonnie Hammer. This included the launch of an over-the-top streaming service, named "Peacock" and made available in April 2020. This move also included new original programming, NBCU property reboots, while NBC series The Office and Parks and Recreation were taken off rival streaming services Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon Prime Video and joined the service once their exclusive streaming rights to rival streaming services expired, with Parks and Recreation joining in October 2020 and The Office joining in January 2021.

By January 28, 2021, Peacock had amassed a total of 33 million subscribers. On April 29, Peacock reached a subscriber count of 42 million. On June 23, it was revealed that Peacock had around 10 million premium subscribers as of May 2021.

On November 16, 2021, the Comcast subsidiary Sky Group, launched the Peacock service in the UK and Ireland, making it available free of charge to Sky TV and NOW customers.

Distribution
Peacock has three tiers of service: Free, Premium, and Premium Plus. The Premium tier is a subscription-based service which includes Peacock's full library of content, while the Free tier contains a subset of its content. The Free and Premium tiers are advertising-supported, with commercials limited to five minutes per hour. Peacock Premium is included in some services from television service providers, such as Cox and Xfinity. Subscribers to Peacock Premium, whether subscribing directly or receiving service through a provider, can upgrade to the ad-free Premium Plus tier for an additional monthly cost.

Peacock soft launched for Xfinity cable and broadband customers on April 15, 2020, before launching nationally in the United States on July 15, 2020.

On May 6, 2020, a distribution deal with Apple made Peacock available on iOS devices and Apple TV on-launch. Peacock content is also available within the Apple TV app, and the Premium service is available as an in-app subscription.

On July 20, 2020, Peacock launched an app for PlayStation 4.

On September 21, 2020, Peacock became available on Roku. The company's September 18 agreement for the service narrowly averted a blackout of NBCUniversal's TV Everywhere apps on Roku devices, due to a dispute over revenue sharing and advertising inventory assignment.

On June 8, 2021, Peacock launched an app for Samsung smart TVs.

On June 24, 2021, Peacock launched an app for Amazon Fire TV and Amazon Fire tablets, such as Fire HD.