Peacock struts its stuff in US

The Office is listed as “coming soon” to Peacock

Media giant NBCUniversal (NBCU)’s SVoD service Peacock launches in the US today, featuring a free tier offering over 13,000 hours of programming and two paid-for versions.

The direct-to-consumer service, which had been due to launch in April, features a collection of live and on-demand programming from NBCUniversal and third parties. It joins an intensely competitive SVoD market in the US.

The paid-for versions, which cost US$4.99 per month with less than five minutes of advertising per hour or US$9.99 with no ads, holds more than 20,000 hours of content from a host of networks and studios.

These include NBC, Bravo, USA Network, Syfy, Oxygen, E!, Universal Kids, A&E, ABC, CBS, The CW, Fox, History, Nickelodeon, Showtime, DreamWorks, Illumination, ViacomCBS, Paramount, Lionsgate, Warner Bros and Blumhouse.

The US version of The Office, described by NBCU as the most streamed series of all time, is not available on Peacock at launch but is listed among the titles “coming soon” to the service. The US rights to the show cost the company a reported US$500m.

Peacock will also feature a slate of exclusive originals, including Departure, AP Bio, Five Bedrooms and Hitmen, alongside a hefty movie catalogue of new and library titles including Trolls World Tour and You Should Have Left, with Croods 2, Boss Baby 2 and Spirit to come in 2021.

Other originals include Brave New World, The Capture, Intelligence, Psych 2: Lassie Come Home, DreamWorks Where’s Waldo?, DreamWorks Cleopatra In Space and Curious George.

Peacock has also ordered titles including Angelyne, Rutherford Falls, Battlestar Galactica, Punky Brewster, Dr Death, Housewives Mash-up, Saved By the Bell, Five Bedrooms, Lady Parts, Girls5Eva, Who Wrote That, Kids Tonight Show, The Amber Ruffin Show, Armas De Mujer and Caso Cerrado for the service.

Peacock’s live sporting events – key differentiators from rivals like Netflix – include golf competitions the US Open Championship and US Open Women’s Championship, the Tour de France, La Vuelta, Premier League, Ryder Cup and the Tokyo and Beijing Olympics and Paralympics.

The service will be available on PlayStation 4 systems from July 20 as part of a distribution deal agreed with Sony Interactive Entertainment this week.

“This is a historic moment for our company as we proudly introduce Peacock to consumers nationwide – a groundbreaking vision that was brought to life by an incredible team of people from across Comcast, NBCUniversal and Sky,” said Matt Strauss, chairman of Peacock.

“From current, classic and original movies and shows, to live news, sports, curated channels and trending content from around the world, Peacock is the only free, premium ad-supported streaming service that brings together everything consumers love about television and streaming – all in one place.”

Both free and premium tiers of Peacock feature current shows from NBC, news, sports and pop culture highlights, and dozens of genre channels including live news from NBC News Now and Sky News.

It also holds exclusive curated channels featuring clips from shows such as The Office, Saturday Night Live, The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, Late Night With Seth Meyers and exclusive genre channels including CNBC Make It, Today All Day, American Greed, 80s Mixtape, True Crime, Kiss Me Deadly, Peacock Reality, Out of This World, Caso Cerrado and I Love Jenni.