Peacock Review: How Good Is the NBC Streaming Service?

Peacock remains one of our go-to streaming services. While it does have its problems, the large library of on-demand content, variety of live sports, and access to NBC shows and Universal movies, makes it a good subscription to have.

Streaming Better Rating

★★★★☆

With live sports, exclusive movies, and much more, Peacock is a good subscription to have. Although we do recommend giving Peacock a try, we’d strongly recommend starting with the ad-supported Premium plan.

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Peacock originally launched back in July 2020. Although the streaming service offered a free tier back then, that’s no longer the case. Instead, new users now have to choose between two paid Premium plans, with the cheapest priced at $12.99 a month.

Note: Peacock does offer a $8.99/mo Select plan but we feel Select is far too limiting and not worth the money. Due to this, the rest of this review will primarily focus on the paid Premium tiers.

If you’re a fan of live sports then Peacock is an increasingly important subscription to have, and likely the main reason to consider paying for a subscription.

For everyone else, the decision may come down to how important access is to NBC and Bravo shows, and Universal movies.

★★★★☆

• NBC Shows
• Sports
• Originals

From $8.99/mo

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Full Peacock Review

Unsure of whether Peacock is the right streaming service for you? Here’s our full review.

Key Features – What You Need to Know

Below is an overview of some of the main features and differences between the various Peacock plans.

Experience – What It’s Like to Use Peacock

Peacock is available on a wide variety of platforms and devices, so most homes shouldn’t run into too many issues when it comes to finding an app they can use.

After opening the smart TV app, users will find themselves on a typical Home screen consisting of a featured title and a row-based design.

Similar to many other apps, Peacock’s smart TV app utilizes a left-side menu. Here, subscribers will find shortcuts to Search, Home, Movies, TV shows, Sports, Sports, My Stuff, and Channels.

Most of these sections adopt an almost identical design and layout to the Home section, with My Stuff and Channels notable exceptions.

My Stuff is simply Peacock’s take on a watch list. Here you’ll find any movies, shows, or additional content that you’ve bookmarked to watch later.

Clicking on any of the titles will open up the title page along with the option to play the title, add or remove the title from My Stuff, and the ability to browse episodes (if it is a series).

Listings also tend to come with a You May Also Like section for finding similar recommendations. An Extras section is also usually available, and home to any additional content, including trailers, interviews, podcasts, and more.

Peacock also offers the option to download titles to watch offline. However, downloads are something that’s reserved for those signed up to the most expensive Premium Plus plan.

Similar to other services, downloads are also only available on mobile devices. Speaking of which, the mobile app offers a very similar experience to the smart TV app.

Mobile app users are greeted with a bottom-bar menu consisting of Home, Live TV, Search, Downloads, and Account, as well as a top row with shortcuts to Movies, TV Shows, Sports, and My Stuff.

Here’s a closer look at the mobile app.

Overall, we found Peacock to be an easy app to navigate and use. While we haven’t ran into any major performance issues, experiences may vary, depending on the device being used.

Content – What You Can Watch on Peacock

Peacock is a pretty varied streaming service, and feels more similar to an actual live TV service than many other streaming services.

With Peacock being a Comcast service, NBCUniversal is one of the big selling points here, and this is something that’s very clearly in effect.

For example, subscribers get access to a wide library of NBC content, including popular shows like 30 Rock, Community, The Office and Law & Order. While NBC content can be found throughout the app, Peacock also includes a dedicated NBC section for streamlined access to the network and its programming.

In addition to older catalog content, Peacock subscribers also get next-day access to the latest episodes from current NBC shows, further reducing the need for a separate live TV package.

Subscribers will also find similar brand-specific sections for Bravo, Focus Features, NBC News, Telemundo, and Universal.

Similar to most other streaming services, Peacock also has its own library of exclusive content. Examples of popular Peacock Originals include:

• All Her Fault
• The Capture
• The Continental: From the World of John Wick
• The Day of the Jackal
• Killing It
• Mrs. Davis
• The Paper
• Poker Face
• Ted
• The Traitors
• Twisted Metal
• Wolf Like Me

On the movie side of things, and in addition to older catalog titles, another major selling point is access to select Universal Pictures movies soon after their theatrical run.

Thanks to its relationship with NBCUniversal, Peacock subscribers get access to many Universal Pictures movies before anyone else.

Examples of movies that were exclusive to watch on Peacock after their theatrical release include:

• Abigail
• Asteroid City
• Back to Black
• Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy
• Fast X
• Monkey Man
• Knock at the Cabin
• M3GAN
• Oppenheimer
• Renfield
• The Super Mario Bros. Movie
• Wicked: For Good

All in all, Peacock offers access to a good and varied library of content, and that’s without even taking into consideration the live channels and sports.

Live TV – FAST and Local NBC on Peacock

With Peacock being a Comcast and NBCUniversal-owned service, it shouldn’t come as too much of a surprise that there is a good amount of live TV on offer.

For the most part, this won’t be the typical live TV experience that pay-TV subscribers are used to. Instead, Peacock primarily offers a live experience made up of free, ad-supported streaming television (FAST) channels.

Examples of some of the FAST channels available to stream live on Peacock include:

• Bounce
• Dateline 24/7
• Drama TV
• Family Feud
• Hit Blockbuster Movies
• ION
• Law & Order
• NBC News Now
• The Office
• Peacock Kids
• Reelz: On Patrol Live
• The Real Housewives
• Scripps News
• Today: All Day
• Select NBC New channels

In addition to these FAST channels, those signed up to the Premium Plus plan also get access to their local NBC station, unlocking access to NBC Primetime, local news, and weather programming.

As Peacock only offers access to a subscriber’s local station, the exact NBC channel will depend on the location of their streaming device and will change if their location changes.

Also, in situations where a local NBC station is unavailable, Premium Plus subscribers are served with an NBC national feed instead.

For homes that currently don’t have access to their local NBC channel, this alone is likely to be a big incentive to upgrade to the more expensive ad-free plan.

Peacock Sports – Live, FAST and On Demand

Peacock has invested heavily in live sports and is becoming an increasingly important subscription for sports fans.

Basically, almost all of the live sports typically broadcast on the NBC family of channels are also available to watch on Peacock.

This includes Premier League, NFL, Big 12, Big Ten football, Olympic Games, MLB, NBA, Notre Dame Football, NASCAR, and more.

For fans of any of these sports, a Peacock subscription is almost certainly going to be a necessity, and probably even more so than a live TV plan with access to the NBC family of channels.

In addition to live sports, replays, and additional programming, Peacock also provides access to a variety of FAST sports channels through the live TV section of the app and website.

Example of some of the sports-centered FAST channels available to stream on Peacock include:

• NFL channel
• Premier league
• Sports Now
• T2 Live Tennis
• Telemundo Deportes Ahora
• Team USA

For those signed up to the Premium Plus plan, again there’s NBC.

Since late 2022, Peacock has been providing its ad-free subscribers with access to their local NBC station, and this provides those subscribers with additional live sports not currently available to standard Premium subscribers.

Cost – How Much You’ll Pay for Peacock

Peacock is no longer as cheap as it once was. While a $8.99/mo Select plan is technically available, this is a highly limited plan, and one we do not recommend signing up to it.

Instead, the cheapest subscription worth considering is the Premium plan, priced at $12.99 a month (or $129.99 a year). Even then, Peacock is far from cheap, with its ad-supported Premium tier one of the more expensive around.

When factoring in the library of content, and the additional live channels, Peacock’s ad-supported Premium plan does offer value overall. However, it is hard to escape the fact that $13 a month for an ad-supported plan is a high price to pay for Peacock.

At $19.99 a month, the ad-free Premium Plus plan is even harder to justify. Having said that, it is still priced competitively when compared to the cheapest ad-free plans from other streaming services.

Where the Premium Plus plan does add additional value is in a subscriber’s local NBC station. If you currently don’t have access to your local NBC channel, and along with the removal of ads, this makes the $19.99/mo cost a little more acceptable.

If, however, you don’t really want NBC, the only other reasons to upgrade to Premium Plus is the (mostly) ad-free viewing experience and the ability to download on mobile devices.

It is worth noting that there are various promotions and sales offered throughout the year, and taking advantage of one of these deals can greatly help to save on the cost of the standard Premium plan.

Is Peacock Worth It? – What We Really Think

We like Peacock, and we do feel that a subscription is worth paying for. However, and this is a big however, the cost is an issue with Peacock, and one that’s going to continue to be an issue in the future.

The price of the cheapest Premium tier has already surpassed $13/mo and that’s only going to get worse as time goes on and as more price increases roll through.

For some homes, the cost of a Premium subscription just might not be worth it.

Unless you really need access to your local NBC station then we would suggest checking out the ad-supported Premium plan first.

At $7 a month cheaper than the Premium Plus tier, we find the $12.99/mo standard Premium plan to be a much better deal overall, and this is the subscription tier we typically stick with each year.

Even though the standard Premium plan is a ‘with ads’ plan, we haven’t found the ads to be too frequent or too intrusive, and especially when watching movies.

Of course, if you don’t mind paying the full price for Premium Plus, then you will get ad-free access to the on-demand library, as well as your local live NBC station, and the ability to download titles on mobile devices.

★★★★☆

• NBC Shows
• Sports
• Originals

From $8.99/mo

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