Comcast's Peacock Will Cost $4.99 a Month With Ads, $9.99 Without--Update

By Lillian Rizzo and Joe Flint 

Comcast. Corp.'s NBCUniversal unveiled a multitiered pricing strategy for its new Peacock streaming service, including free and subscription options, as the media giant looks to undercut rivals and set its offering apart in a crowded field.

Peacock will cost $4.99 a month with commercials and $9.99 for an ad-free version. The new service will be available April 15 for Comcast customers and July 15 for everyone else, NBCUniversal said Thursday.

Peacock's Premium tier will have some 15,000 hours of programming, including originals featuring stars such as Alec Baldwin and Demi Moore, NBC broadcast series and reruns of "The Office" and "Parks and Recreation." A free version with ads will have a slimmer offering of content and only have select episodes of original programming.

Customers of Comcast and cable operator Cox Communications Inc. will be able to access the ad-supported Premium option at no charge -- amounting to some 24 million potential users -- and can upgrade to the ad-free option for $5 a month if they choose. Comcast said it would look for more opportunities to bundle its service with partners and make it available free of charge. The company is targeting between 30 million and 35 million active accounts by 2024.

Comcast will be playing catch up in the streaming fight. In November, Walt Disney Co. launched Disney+ for $6.99 a month, while Apple Inc. launched its own $4.99 a month offering with a smaller selection of programs. That added to the existing options in a market that includes industry leader Netflix Inc., Hulu, Amazon.com Inc.'s Prime Video and CBS All Access. AT&T Inc.'s HBO Max, priced at $14.99 a month, is expected to launch in May.

The challenge for Comcast, the nation's largest cable operator, is to make a mark in the streaming world without accelerating the decline of the traditional TV business. The company's strategy differs from many of the other big players in streaming, because it is looking to support its business heavily through advertising and cut deals with traditional cable providers to make the service available free.

"The ad-supported business has been a proven business for decades," said NBCUniversal Chairman Steve Burke at a Peacock investor presentation Thursday. The company, he added, needs its own streaming service because "in effect we're leaving money on the table when our [content] is on platforms we can't monetize."

While Mr. Burke has directed the birth of Peacock, he won't be around for its adolescence. This month Mr. Burke turned over chief executive duties at NBCUniversal to Universal Pictures chief Jeff Shell. Mr. Burke will step down as chairman after NBC's coverage of the 2020 Summer Olympics.

Comcast has lost pay-TV subscribers for 10 consecutive quarters, and Peacock is an opportunity for the company to hold on to TV viewers as its business becomes more and more reliant on broadband.

Inundated with streaming options, consumers may have to decide which streaming services they need the most. A survey in November by The Wall Street Journal and the Harris Poll found that Americans are willing to spend an average of $44 monthly on streaming video and subscribe to an average of 3.6 services.

Peacock is betting on a mix of old and new content to woo subscribers, along with some live sports and news. It will also have streaming channels offering content by genre and niche for viewer convenience. Matt Strauss, the Comcast executive overseeing Peacock, likened the offering to playlists on music subscription service Spotify.

Original programming will include a reboot of "Battlestar Galactica," "Dr. Death," a drama starring Alec Baldwin and Christian Slater, and "Brave New World" starring Demi Moore, which is based on the Aldous Huxley novel. Tina Fey is producing a comedy for Peacock called "Girls5Eva" about a 1990s girls group that reunites in a last-ditch effort to become stars.

Peacock is also making new episodes of "Punky Brewster" and "Saved by the Bell," which were hit shows in the 1980s and 1990s, respectively.

NBCUniversal also signed a deal with comedian Kevin Hart for an interview show called "Hart to Heart," and "Tonight Show" host Jimmy Fallon is producing a version of that show for kids and starring kids.

Peacock has also acquired content from other studios as well for its service. It bought exclusive streaming rights from AT&T's Warner Bros. for the popular sitcom "Two and a Half Men," and struck a deal for the Kevin Costner drama "Yellowstone," which is made by ViacomCBS Inc.'s Paramount Television Studios.

Episodes of "The Office" will be available on Peacock starting in 2021. The show, which initially ran on NBC, attracted a whole new generation of fans on Netflix where it is their most popular show.

Fans of "The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon" and "Late Night with Seth Meyer" won't have to stay up late as Peacock will stream the shows in the early evening, hours before they air on NBC.

Sports on Peacock will include Olympics coverage, which NBCUniversal has the rights to into the next decade, Premier League soccer and golf's Ryder Cup. The NFL, which NBCUniversal has rights for, won't be on Peacock.

Write to Lillian Rizzo at [e-mail] and Joe Flint at [e-mail]

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

January 16, 2020 18:11 ET (23:11 GMT)

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