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Peacock Review 2023: Cost, Plans, and More

Peacock is becoming a major player in the streaming game because it’s loaded with NBCUniversal content (and it’s cheap).

Catch Universal Pictures theatrical releases and next-day NBC, Bravo, USA streaming
Editorial rating (4.3/5)

Peacock

Price: $5.99–$11.99/mo. or $59.99–$119.99/yr.

Free trial: N/A

Library: 80,000+ hrs.

View plans
Compare to other services
Plan Price Hours of content Offline viewing Ad-free Live sports Details
Premium $5.99/mo. 80,000+ — — ✔ View Plans for Peacock
Premium Plus $11.99/mo. 80,000+ ✔ ✔ ✔ View Plans for Peacock

Data effective as of post date. Offers and availability may vary by location and are subject to change.

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Is Peacock good?

Peacock is one of the cheaper big media streamers out there—that’s a fat check in the “good” column. The $5.99 a month Premium plan (with ads) gets you access to 80,000 hours of content, including many NBC, Bravo, and Syfy favorites.

Overall, we think Peacock is a worthwhile addition to your streaming apps lineup. Also, Peacock is the only place you can stream The Office—that’s a “Threat Level Midnight”-level argument (if you’re a fan, you get it).

Pros

  • Inexpensive ad-supported tier
  • Exclusive NBCUniversal content

Cons

  • Small lineup of original content
  • Lackluster interface

Jump to:

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Peacock free trials and deals

You can save up to 17% by subscribing to either Peacock plan on an annual basis.

Peacock plans and pricing

Plan Price Hours of content Offline viewing Ad-free Live sports Details
Premium $5.99/mo. 80,000+ — — ✔ View Plans for Peacock
Premium Plus $11.99/mo. 80,000+ ✔ ✔ ✔ View Plans for Peacock

Data effective as of post date. Offers and availability may vary by location and are subject to change.

Both versions of Peacock give you access to 80,000+ hours of shows and movies. This includes current NBC broadcast series and older NBCU shows and movies, and next-day drops of broadcast episodes from NBC series and Peacock originals.

Unfortunately, if you want to ditch the annoying ads, you’ll have to pay for the more expensive Premium Plus plan, which is twice as much as the Premium plan.

Peacock vs. the competition

Service Price Editorial rating Video Streams Compatible devices Details
Peacock $5.99–$11.99/mo. or $59.99–$119.99/yr. 4.33/5 1080p, 4K 3 10+ View plans
Netflix $6.99–$22.99/mo. 4.33/5 1080p, 4K 1–4 14+ View plans
Hulu $7.99–$17.99/mo. 4.22/5 1080p, 4K 2 13+ View plans
Prime Video $8.99–$14.99/mo. or $139.00/yr. 4.19/5 1080p, 4K 3 13+ View plans
Disney+ $7.99–$13.99/mo. or $139.99/yr. 4.61/5 1080p, 4K 4 13+ View plans
HBO Max $9.99–$19.99/mo. or $99.99–$199.99/yr. 4.5/5 1080p, 4K 3 10+ View plans
Apple TV+ $6.99/mo. 3.93/5 1080p, 4K 6 7+ View plans
Paramount+ $5.99–$11.99/mo. or $59.99–$119.99/yr. 4.07/5 1080p 3 12+ View plans

Data effective as of post date. Offers and availability may vary by location and are subject to change.

Peacock’s tech specs are similar to other major on-demand streaming outlets, but it only has an ad-supported paid tier in common with Hulu and Paramount+. But, according to NBCUniversal, Peacock’s ad load is a relatively light five minutes per hour (if you believe the suits).

Shows and movies on Peacock

Peacock on-demand shows and movies

NBCUniversal’s library of TV shows and movies is deeper than you might think. It’s not just NBC shows on the TV side; it also includes content from cable channels like USA Network, Syfy, Oxygen, Bravo, E!, CNBC, MSNBC, and Universal Kids. There are even previous seasons of Paramount Network cable juggernaut Yellowstone (which Paramount+ doesn’t have).

Peacock also features some live news and sports, like Premier League soccer, the Olympics, and WWE Entertainment (pro wrestling is a sport—we’ll die on this hill).

On the movies side, Peacock draws from NBCU brands DreamWorks, Focus Features, and Universal Pictures.

Shows on Peacock (partial list):

  • The Office
  • Parks and Recreation
  • 30 Rock
  • Friday Night Lights
  • Saturday Night Live
  • Battlestar Galactica
  • Law & Order franchise
  • Downton Abbey
  • Below Deck
  • Southern Charm
  • Yellowstone
  • House
  • Cheers
  • Frasier
  • Parenthood
  • Psych
  • Saved by the Bell
  • The Bad Girls Club
  • Snapped
  • All current NBC series

Movies on Peacock (partial list):

  • Cocaine Bear
  • Die Hard franchise
  • Friday franchise
  • Bridesmaids
  • Pretty Woman
  • The Goonies
  • Sex and the City
  • The Green Mile
  • The Hangover
  • Trolls World Tour
  • Despicable Me
  • Harry Potter franchise
  • Robin Hood
  • The Cat in the Hat
  • Meet the Parents
  • Neighbors
  • Point Break
  • Twister
  • How to Train Your Dragon
  • Monster vs. Aliens

Peacock original shows and movies

Peacock has a growing number of exclusive originals up its feathered sleeve, like Poker Face (a Rian Johnson/Natasha Lyonne comedy mystery), Paul T. Goldman (a true-crime show that isn’t what it seems), and Pitch Perfect: Bumper in Berlin (a Pitch Perfect spinoff with Adam Devine).

While Peacock is great for comedy, there are also some heavy dramas, like Last Light, Dr. Death, and Bel-Air. It’s still a small lineup, but Peacock continues to expand with originals like Girls5eva, We Are Lady Parts, and the critically-acclaimed Amber Ruffin Show.

Peacock originals
(partial list):

  • Poker Face
  • A.P. Bio
  • Saved by the Bell
  • Paul T. Goldman
  • Killing It
  • Brave New World
  • The Capture
  • Intelligence
  • Downton Abbey: A New Era
  • Girls5Eva
  • Rutherford Falls
  • We Are Lady Parts
  • The Amber Ruffin Show
  • Departure
  • The Girl in the Woods
  • Dr. Death
  • One of Us is Lying
  • Angelyne

WWE on Peacock

Peacock dedicates a whole in-app tab to its exclusive WWE content, separate from the sports section. In addition to live events, Peacock also carries episodes of Friday Night SmackDown and WWE originals like Steve Austin: The Broken Skull Sessions and Table for 3. We outline more of the service’s wrestling coverage in our WWE on Peacock guide.

Premier League on Peacock

Peacock offers an impressive array of live English Premier League games. In fact, almost half of all Premier League games are exclusive to Peacock, so you’ll miss out otherwise. Regardless of whether a game is a Peacock exclusive, though, you can watch any game on demand for up to 30 days after the airdate.

For more information on how to watch top-flight soccer from across the pond, check out our Premier League on Peacock page.

In addition to exclusive WWE and English Premier League content, Peacock has Major League Baseball and National Football League coverage. For more information, head to our MLB on Peacock and NFL Sunday Night Football pages.

Peacock specs and features

NBCUniversal video apps, like those for NBC and Syfy, have always been fresh and functional—Peacock is no exception. There aren’t many bells and whistles, but it works well enough.

Multiple streams

Service Streams Upgrades Offline downloads
Peacock 3 None Yes (Premium Plus plan only)

Three simultaneous streams is the unspoken streaming standard, and so it is with Peacock.

You can also set up different user profiles on Peacock (with an actual peacock avatar) and create a dedicated “kids mode” account too.

Supported devices

Device Peacock
Amazon Fire Cube, Stick, TV ✔
Android phones, tablets ✔
Android TV ✔
Apple TV (4th gen.) ✔
Apple TV 4K ✔
Chromecast, Chromecast with Google TV ✔
Echo Show ✔
iPhone, iPad ✔
LG TVs (select models) ✔
Nintendo Switch —
NVIDIA SHIELD Pro TV ✔
PC, Mac web browsers ✔
PlayStation 4, 5 ✔
Roku Ultra, Express, Premiere, Stick, TV ✔
Samsung TVs (select models) ✔
TiVo Stream ✔
Wii —
Xbox One, Xbox Series S, Xbox Series X ✔
Xfinity X1 ✔

Data effective as of post date.

Peacock’s available on most devices but not anything in the Nintendo family. No Peacock for you, gamers.

Video and audio quality

Rectangles, tabs, and channels—oh my! For a largely on-demand service, Peacock’s interface looks a lot like a cable TV setup.

Peacock Browsing T V Channels
Peacock's home screen

In addition to the usual along-the-top tabs—which include a YouTube-like “Trending” section—there’s a tab for a grid of live “channels,” which are mostly just endless loops of shows. But you can find some legit cable networks here, like Hallmark Channel and REELZ. Otherwise, Peacock features channels dedicated to NBC News, The Tonight Show, Saturday Night Live, and ‘80s classics, among dozens of others.

Peacock Channel Selection
Peacock channels

There’s not much of a learning curve with Peacock’s interface, as it’s light on features and options—which is good or bad, depending on your level of tech tolerance. On a purely aesthetic note, we’re not sold on the choice of yellow highlighting. With so many colors on a peacock, why go with the most obnoxious one?

Peacock’s audio is standard 2.0 stereo, though some shows and movies stream in Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound—like megabudget action flicks, where it sounds and feels like you’re right in the middle of whatever disaster The Rock is battling against.

Peacock mobile app

Like most streaming services, Peacock offers a mobile app on the Apple App Store and Google Play Store. This app functions mostly the same as its in-browser counterpart, although the interface is adjusted to fit a smaller screen.

The app is extra handy if you pay for Peacock Premium Plus—that extra bit of cash gives you the ability to download content for offline viewing, just in case you want to get your SNL fix on the go.

The Peacock app icon. A white letter P and a row of rainbow-colored dots.
The Peacock app home screen on an iPad. There are three rows visible: My Stuff, Paramount Picks, and Just Added.
The Peacock app home screen on iPad.

The biggest drawback of the mobile app is that you can’t take screenshots like you can on a computer. As is becoming common with other streaming apps like Netflix, HBOMax, and Disney+, the content just becomes a black rectangle upon screenshotting and only the UI remains.

This decision only makes it harder for shows to gain traction since so many shows and movies thrive on word-of-mouth advertising and social media buzz. There’s no easier way to share content than just taking a screenshot, and restricting that feature only discourages organic discussions.

The Peacock app live TV page on iPad. The bottom half of the screen displays a cable-TV-like guide, and a channel called "Out of this World" is airing an episode of Ancient Aliens. The top half of the screen is black because the app does not allow screenshots.
The live TV or "Channels" section of the Peacock app on iPad.

Final take: Is Peacock worth it?

While the hype level for Peacock is nowhere near that of Disney+ or HBO Max, it still has plenty to offer. It’s more in-line with Paramount+: nice to have, but probably not absolutely essential (though Battlestar Galactica and The Office fans may strongly disagree).

But, for the price, Peacock’s Premium plan is worth checking out; it offers thousands of viewing diversions, many that you can’t get anywhere else. It won’t be your sole source of entertainment (at least not yet, though the originals are getting better all the time), but Peacock is a solid addition to your app lineup.

Besides, you’re more than a little curious about what the Psych guys are up to now, right?

Get Peacock

Peacock FAQ

Is Peacock free?

No, Peacock no longer offers its free, ad-supported tier.

How much does Peacock cost?

There are two levels to Peacock, and both are comparable to other on-demand streaming services like Paramount+ and Discovery+.

  • Peacock Premium (with ads): A $5.99/mo. ad-supported tier with access to all of Peacock’s library (80,000+ hours of content), including next-day streams of current NBC series, older NBCUniversal shows and movies, and Peacock original content.
  • Peacock Premium Plus (no ads): A $11.99/mo. ad-free tier with access to all of Peacock’s library (80,000+ hours of content), including next-day streams of current NBC series, older NBCUniversal shows and movies, and Peacock original content.

Does Peacock stream live TV?

Yes, Peacock streams live news programs from NBC News, Sky News, MSNBC, and CNBC, as well as live sports coverage from competitions like the Premier League, the PGA Tour, and WWE Entertainment. You can also stream networks like Hallmark Channel and REELZ across Peacock’s premium plans, while Premium Plus subscribers can access a 24/7 local NBC channel feed.

Does Peacock stream local channels?

Like Paramount+, which live streams CBS local channels in most markets, Peacock carries NBC local affiliate stations in several areas. If your region is excluded, we suggest subscribing to a live TV streaming service or buying a digital over-the-air antenna.

Can I watch live sports on Peacock?

Yes, Peacock Premium and Premium Plus subscribers get access to many live and on-demand sports. The streaming service hosts Sunday Night Football, Premier League soccer, the Olympics, the IndyCar Series, and WWE Entertainment. It even carries marquee events like the Kentucky Derby, the Indy 500, the Tour de France, and the Ryder Cup.

Methodology

Our experts employed hundreds of hours of hands-on testing with Peacock, rating the streaming service on bang for your buck, reliability, features, and customer satisfaction. Then we matched up Peacock with other on-demand streaming services head to head to give a clearer picture of its strengths and weaknesses. For more information on our methodology, check out our How We Rank page.

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