NBC Universal is now the owner of a fresh in-house streaming service. Acting as a competitor to Netflix, Amazon Prime & perhaps more appropriately HBO Max, Paramount+, and CBS All Access the service unlike the aforementioned offers both a premium and free subscription option. While a handful of content is locked behind premium, the free offerings aren’t too shabby. 

Peacock is a 2020 over-the-top streaming service it is owned and operated by NBC Universal. It is currently available in free and premium ad & premium ad free subscriptions priced at $4.99 & $9.99 respectively. Annual premium tiers are offered at $50 and $100 respectively. 

Editor’s Note: This review is based upon the three different subscription tiers currently offered by Peacock. Peacock was reviewed on an iPhone SE 2nd Gen, Windows laptop, and Playstation 4.

As everyone and their grandma is coming up with their own in-house streaming services to get a piece of the pie originally baked by Netflix it was only a matter of time before a Hollywood giant like NBC Universal got onboard. With streaming becoming ever more competitive and lucrative it is a bit surprising that NBC and Comcast hadn’t gotten on with their own service much sooner, especially after HBO Max was announced years prior to its initial launch. I will say that NBC Universal offering a free tier instead of forcing people to sign up out of the gate is a brilliant strategy. But if they want to entice people into sticking around they might want to offer a bit more on the originals side for free viewers.

THE GOOD: Peacock was launched in April 2020 for a preview to Xfinity users before opening up to the public just three months later. While I can’t speak from the perspective of the Xfinity customers that were lucky enough to experience the early build of the service as a public customer I can honestly say that so far, I’m impressed with what I’ve seen from Peacock. As I probably mentioned in my HBO Max review Peacock is a fresh service so some hiccups are always expected. But unless those technical issues are embarrassingly bad the content library will always be the big selling point for these things. 

So what exactly is offered from NBC Universal’s extensive, endless tape library? Quite a bit actually. From the free tier there’s a ton of options for starters next day access to premiere NBCU shows become available with no extra cost or cable provider needed. Live news and sports can also be accessed from the free tier, free users also have access to currently aired seasons regardless of whether they just aired weeks or months ago. Though some content is locked to premium due to being made a Peacock exclusive. This is a bit of a raw deal for fans of AP Bio which stars Glen Howerton as it suffers from this fate. Though in fairness, AP Bio was moved to Peacock because the series was revived for it after initially being cancelled following it’s second season. 

In regards to the premium offerings of Peacock there’s the aforementioned AP Bio season three and it’s upcoming fourth season. For wrestling fans there’s also WWE content available from it’s run of documentaries. Speaking of, starting March 18, 2021 WWE Network will be absorbed into Peacock meaning the entire WWE library will become available in addition to premiere episodes of NXT, NXT UK, and 205 Live at no additional cost to premium subscribers. Peacock also has classic and modern films & TV shows like the original Jurassic Park trilogy, Everybody Hates Chris, Trolls World Tour, Superstore, and the original Saved by the Bell. Original to Peacock include a remake of Saved by the Bell, Curious George (which is apparently still on the air), a reboot of Punky Brewster coming in February, and other shows. 

THE BAD: It should be noted that this could possibly be pinned down to internet speed/amount of devices connected, but I have experienced some issues with the UI. For example, something so simple as starting from where I left off on an episode just flat out refused to work for me on Peacock. This was regardless of whether I was taking advantage of the premium or free options. Not everyone is going to have the same problem(s) as me at least I hope to God, but that’s a pretty dependent feature to just not work. There’s also a bit of heavy lag when browsing throughout the UI, most of this was on my laptop and PS4 so I’m going to give the service the benefit of the doubt by placing the blame on speed or lack thereof. While Peacock has one of the strongest free content libraries I’ve probably ever seen from a premium service I do think they could do a bit more to entice subs. For example, why not offer a season or half of a season for an original of the would be customer’s choice? Maybe offer select content from premium channels outside of first episodes? These are just some thoughts the fact that Peacock offers an annual ad tier at $50 is probably more than enough to satisfy people into signing up. 

Another thing hurting Peacock is the fact that many key NBCU properties such as The Office will be leaving the service due to NBCU signing those properties off to other services for a limited window exclusivity. There’s also a lack of major user profile features that kind of limits control for personal preferences. I’m more than sure these issues will be wrinkled out over time, but it’s something that’s definitely going to be a turn off for several potential customers. 

OVERALL THOUGHTS: While still fairly young Peacock is making some smart moves to take aim at it’s competition. The free tier is way more impressive than it was expected to be though it admittedly has room to be even better which says a lot about Peacock’s potential. While the original content is nice I think Peacock might have a harder time making it a selling point compared to other streamers. There’s also some UI issues that need to be worked on depending on the device, but again this could be put down to speed. Some strong NBCU properties like The Office are also leaving the service soon due to previous deals which could be an unfortunate deal breaker for would be Peacock subscribers. Even with all of it’s issues Peacock has a strong future just simply based on it’s free offerings alone, but it’s variety heavy library does a solid job of helping it stand out from other streaming services. Otaku Dome gives Peacock a 78 out of 100.