NBCU’s addition to the streaming wars has potential
What is Peacock?
Peacock is NBCUniversal’s new streaming service, which has been available to select Comcast subscribers since April 15, 2020, and has a launch date of July 15, 2020, for all users and will have three tiers: free, a $4.99 premium tier with ads and a $9.99 premium tier with no ads. Comcast subscribers will have access to the $4.99 tier at no extra cost and can pay $5 for no ads.
Interface/usability
The app has an appealing layout and is simple to use. The app is divided clearly into sections for on-demand streaming, which is separated into TV and movie sections, live channels and trending videos. The app makes it simple to pick up where one left off with a continue watching list and provides a watch later feature to save titles of interest.
The service currently lacks an option to have multiple user profiles for one account and while browsing shows there’s no quick-add option; one has to click to the show’s profile to add it to the watchlist, which may be a little inconvenient if you’re just browsing to add all the shows you’re interested in.
Streaming
The streaming experience was also nice. True to reports, there were less than five minutes of ads in the hour. Ad breaks were no longer than 60 seconds, with most being 30 seconds long and the same ads weren’t played repeatedly.
While streaming the show it played without any issues and had high-quality video and sound. While streaming the show it played without any issues and had high-quality video and sound. One issue, which is common when watching TV is that the ads are often much louder than the content.
Content
As expected for a new service, there isn’t as large a library of content as other options. However, with the large catalog NBCU has access to, the future premium experience for Peacock could provide a lot of classic and recent content, along with the planned Peacock Originals.
Peacock currently has some older shows including all seasons “Monk” and “Psych,” along with classic films.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, production for Peacock Originals has been delayed, though there will be a few released on the July 15 launch, including “Psych 2: Lassie Come Home” movie.
Conclusion
Peacock is a well-made streaming service and its free tier offers the potential for users to add this service to supplement their other TV and movie options. At a lower cost than most other streaming services users can double the amount of content they have access to, with an innovative ad experience that may please consumers who have grown to dislike traditional television.
With free premium access for Comcast subscribers Peacock offers another library of content and for non-Comcast subscribers the free tier will offer about half the content as the premium tiers.
Peacock may prove to be a worthy addition to streaming wars once more content is added.
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