Comcast's Peacock Will Cost $4.99 a Month With Ads, $9.99 Without--Update
January 16 2020 - 5:26PM
Dow Jones News
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 Lillian.Rizzo@wsj.com and Joe Flint at
joe.flint@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
January 16, 2020 18:11 ET (23:11 GMT)
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