• NBCUniversal’s SVOD Service Peacock Will Debut in Spring

    NBCUniversal’s SVOD service will be known as “Peacock” and will launch in April with over 15,000 hours of content. As expected, classic shows like “The Office” and “Parks and Recreation” will be exclusively on Peacock, along with “30 Rock,” “Cheers,” “Frasier,” “Will and Grace” and numerous others.

    Peacock will be available both ad-supported and ad-free, though NBCUniversal didn’t announce any pricing just yet (Peacock will be included at no charge for Xfinity subscribers). SVOD pricing has been under pressure since Disney announced initial Disney+ pricing at $6.99/month, with Apple TV+ following at $4.99/month. HBOMax is likely to be at the high end around $14.99/month.

    While classic comedies will be the anchor draw for Peacock, it will also include original dramas such as a reboot of “Battlestar Galactica” (Sam Esmail), “Dr. Death” (Alec Baldwin, Jamie Dornan, Christian Slater) and “Brave New World” (Demi Moore). Original comedies will include “Rutherford Falls” (Mike Schur), “Straight Talk,” (Rashida Jones and Jada Pinkett Smith) and others. There will be about 20 movies at launch including classics like “Jaws,” “Field of Dreams” and “Back to the Future” with unnamed movies from Universal Pictures to debut on Peacock.

    Peacock will also include over 3,000 hours of Spanish language programming from Telemundo.

    (One classic NBC comedy “Seinfeld” won’t be on Peacock, as Netflix just announced yesterday it won the rights when the show’s current deal with Hulu concludes)

    Overall Peacock looks like another strong entrant in the intensifying SVOD battleground. With all the new services coming to market offering compelling original and classic programming, the biggest looming question is just how many SVOD services is an average person going to subscribe to. Another question is what impact will all of these new SVOD services have on cord-cutting, which hit a record of over 1.5 million in Q2 ’19.