NBCUniversal raises price of Peacock streaming service

Peacock subscribers will soon face a higher price for their memberships to the streaming service from Comcast Corporation subsidiary NBCUniversal.

The cost increase has already started applying to people newly subscribing to Peacock, with existing subscribers slated to become subject to it Aug. 17, according to a media alert from NBCUniversal. Prior to this, the prices for Peacock had previously remained flat since its 2020 rollout.

Notification to subscribers began Monday evening. 

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Under the hike, Peacock’s premium plan will come with a $5.99 per month price tag, rising $1 from its previous cost. That new price — and the one for its other tier — are already reflected on the streaming service’s website. 

Peacock is now charging $11.99 per month for its premium plus subscription. The $2 increase in the monthly fee for its largely ad-free option was slightly larger than the one implemented for premium. 

Upping its subscription prices will help it “continue to invest in the best user experience and the highest-quality content while remaining competitive in the marketplace,” according to the streaming service.

Peacock said its wide-ranging catalog of content has expanded by over 80,000 hours since 2020. 

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Comcast Corp reported in late April that the total number of Peacock subscribers had came in at about 22 million. The subscriber count for the streaming service had previously been over 20 million at the end of 2022.

On the company’s first-quarter earnings call, CFO Jason Armstrong said Peacock’s latest subscriber count “marked another terrific milestone on our path to scaling the service.”

The streaming service’s revenue for the quarter hit $685 million; in the same period, it posted an EBITDA loss of $704 million, according to Armstrong. The CFO told analysts and investors at the time Comcast “continue[s] to expect Peacock losses for the year to be around $3 billion, which we believe will be peak losses for Peacock, and then begin to steadily improve.”

Earlier in the call, Comcast Corporation President Michael Cavanaugh has said the company was investing in Peacock, adding that the “results we are seeing give us confidence that we are on the right path for Peacock to break even and grow from there.”

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Streaming competitors previously cited similar reasoning to Peacock as they announced their own services would start costing more.