Peacock (streaming service)

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 shows 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. Nationwide release was July 15, 2020. By October, Peacock had reached more than 22 million signups. By January 2021, Peacock had over 33 million signups. By April, Peaock reached 42 million signups.
History.
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 Prime Video and joined the service once their exclusive streaming rights to rival streaming services expire, with "Parks and Recreation" joining in October 2020 and "The Office" joining in January 2021.
Peacock soft launched for Xfinity cable and broadband customers on April 15, 2020, before launching nationally on July 15, 2020. By January 28, 2021, Peacock had amassed a total of 33 million subscribers. The exact total of paying subscribers remains unknown. On April 29, Peacock reached a subscriber count of 42 million.
Distribution.
Peacock has three tiers of service: Free, Premium, and Premium Plus. The Free tier has a subset of the content of the upper two tiers and targets its users with advertising. The middle tier, Peacock Premium, has the advertising as well but provides the full library of content. In both ad-supported tiers, commercials are limited to five minutes per hour. The upper tier, Peacock Premium Plus, provides the full library without ads. Peacock Free is available at no charge to all U.S. Internet users. Peacock Premium is available as a monthly subscription but also is included in some services from TV service providers including Xfinity and Cox. Subscribers to Peacock Premium, whether subscribing directly or receiving service through a provider, can upgrade to the ad-free service, Peacock Premium Plus, for an additional monthly cost.
On May 6, 2020, a distribution deal with Apple made Peacock available on iOS devices and Apple TV upon launch and Peacock content listed in the Apple TV app with the ability to subscribe to Peacock Premium as an in-app purchase. 
On July 20, 2020, the service became available on PlayStation 4.
In June 2020, Canadian broadcaster Corus Entertainment acquired exclusive Canadian broadcast rights to Peacock original programming.
On September 18, 2020, NBCUniversal and Roku reached an agreement to add Peacock to Roku's devices in the United States, narrowly avoiding a blackout of NBCUniversal's TV Everywhere apps due to a dispute over revenue sharing and advertising inventory assignment. On September 21, Peacock officially launched on Roku.
Content.
The service is drawn primarily from the NBCUniversal library, including subsidiaries such as Universal Pictures and Universal Television. It is suggested to include at least 15,000 hours of content on-launch without a subscription, and an additional 5,000 hours of content for Premium subscribers. Current episodes of NBC series will become available on Peacock the day after their premiere for Premium subscribers; non-subscribers will receive them on a week's delay. 
Peacock also offers a lineup of around 25 curated digital linear channels, including long-form and digital-originated programming content from NBCUniversal's broadcast and cable properties (such as "Today All Day", a digital extension of NBC's morning show "Today)," as well as third-party content providers. They are designed to emulate a traditional broadcast programming experience (similar to services such as Pluto TV and Xumo, the latter of which was purchased by NBCUniversal parent Comcast in February 2020).
On January 26, 2020, NBC announced plans to stream "The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon" and "Late Night with Seth Meyers" at 8:00 and 9:00 p.m. ET, respectively, ahead of their television premieres on NBC. The decision, however, was criticized by many of NBC's affiliate groups out of concern that the "pre-airs" of both late-night talk shows on Peacock would cannibalize viewership for the shows on local NBC stations.
Third-party content.
Lionsgate licenses library content for Peacock, as part of a larger agreement by Comcast to renew its carriage of Starz. In turn, NBCUniversal will license content for StarzPlay in the U.S. and internationally. On January 16, 2020, Peacock acquired the streaming rights to the Warner Bros. Television series "Two and a Half Men" and "George Lopez", the Paramount Network series "Yellowstone", as well as "The Matrix" films. In February 2020, A&E Networks licensed some titles from the A&E and History libraries to Peacock.
On July 1, 2020, ViacomCBS non-exclusively licensed some of its television series and films to Peacock, such as "The Affair", "Everybody Hates Chris", "Ray Donovan", and "Undercover Boss" among others. The service will also hold rights to several Paramount Pictures films under a limited exclusivity window from 2021 to 2023.
On July 14, 2020, the service acquired the Canadian drama "Departure" for a U.S. premiere.
On July 17, 2020, Cinedigm licensed over a dozen films and three streaming channels for Peacock's launch, with hundreds of other films and television episodes to follow.
WWE content.
On January 25, 2021, NBCUniversal, which already televised WWE's weekly programs, "Raw" and "NXT" on USA Network, acquired the exclusive U.S. distribution rights to the WWE Network streaming service beginning March 18, 2021. WWE content is carried within a branded channel on Peacock, which includes a selection of WWE Network content on Peacock's free tier, and the full WWE Network library for Peacock Premium subscribers, including its original programming, archive content, and all WWE pay-per-view and WWE Network-exclusive events live and on-demand. WWE is committing to produce a "signature documentary" for the service annually beginning in 2022. The standalone WWE Network service for existing U.S. subscribers was shut down on April 4, 2021.
In May 2021, Peacock announced that it had ordered "WWE Evil", a documentary series created, produced, and narrated by John Cena that will chronicle WWE's most prominent antagonists.
Sports programming.
Peacock serves as an overflow outlet for NBC Sports programming. After the planned discontinuation of NBCSN by the end of 2021, Peacock and USA Network are expected to subsume its programming.
As part of NBC's coverage, Peacock Premium carries 175 Premier League soccer matches not on linear television per-season, along with on-demand replays of all matches. This offering replaced the separate "Premier League Pass" service offered via NBC Sports Gold. As part of the service's national launch, all matches played on July 15, 2020 were carried exclusively by Peacock for free. 
Peacock will participate in NBC's coverage of the Olympics beginning with the 2020 Summer Olympics; it will carry a "Tokyo Now" channel with rolling coverage via several studio shows, including the whiparound program "Tokyo Tonight", "Tokyo Live" (a morning program with event and medal ceremony coverage), the recap show "Tokyo Gold", and "On Her Turf at the Olympics" (which will feature news and highlights focusing on women at the Olympics).
As part of NBC's renewal of its rights to the NFL's "Sunday Night Football", Peacock will simulcast all of NBC's games, and carry one exclusive game per-season from 2023 through 2028. Peacock will also add a channel featuring content and programming from the NFL Films library.
Other NBC Sports Gold services have since been subsumed by Peacock Premium, including Figure Skating Pass, Rugby Pass, Snow Pass, motorcross, speed skating, and IndyCar Pass. 
News programming.
NBC News's digital streaming channel NBC News Now, and Sky News—a British news channel owned by Comcast subsidiary Sky Group, are carried on Peacock's free tier. NBC News and Sky News had also planned to collaborate on an international news channel for Peacock known as NBC Sky World News, but the proposed service was scrapped in August 2020.
In October 2020 (during the leadup to the 2020 presidential election), NBC News launched a new channel on Peacock known as The Choice, which shows new original news and opinion programs. At launch, these included "The Majority Report" with Sam Seder, "The Mehdi Hasan Show," and "Zerlina". 
In January 2021, Peacock premiered "The Overview", a new weekly series hosted by Gadi Schwartz.