I don’t know about you, but I have maximized my ability to worry about late party streaming services. New releases premiered at a breakneck pace in the past year, leaving us with a dizzying number of subscription streaming options, many of which, to be honest, aren’t worth any amount of money. But with its streaming service Peacock, NBCUniversal has created the Netflix rival that others have tried (and failed) to produce.
Peacock is a binge-friendly and easy-to-use service that offers a free tier with plenty of high-quality content, plus higher tiers, one of which is a totally ad-free option. One of the best things about the new service is the fact that it leaves the overall user experience. The free tier offers about half of the 20,000 hours of content that premium users will get for $ 5 (ad-supported) or $ 10 (ad-free), respectively. All three levels will have access to the current seasons of the NBCUniversal series, as well as live sports and news channels.
The key difference between free and premium is access to next-day episodes from current seasons and originals (the free tier will get new episodes after a week’s delay and will only have access to original previews). The free tier is where NBCUniversal will likely see most of its subscribers, assuming they don’t mind the ads, at least initially, given the number of services we’re already subscribed to.
I’ll be the first to admit that I was wary of another media conglomerate streaming service before the Peacock launch, given the other 12,000 we now have to choose from. However, after a couple of days with the service, I was ready to pay the $ 10 premium tier, having seen only a few of the Peacock originals; I loved the content selection and really enjoyed the ad-free viewing. Ads are, to be fair, relatively limited. A spokesperson said the ads add up to no more than five minutes per hour at both the free premium and ad levels.
G / O Media may receive a commission
But let’s go to the content. Peacock is a binge lover’s paradise. Many of the titles that were previously among the most broadcast series on rival services before Peacock’s launch, including shows like Law and order: SVU, Parks and Recreation, We are-they are now exclusively at Peacock. (Down the line, Brooklyn nine nine and The office will also be exclusive to peacock). These are old shows, of course, but dominated streaming services like Hulu and Netflix when they were still licensed. Now, these shows will live on the NBCUniversal service along with their considerable catalog of series, movies, sports and later originals, which will include a True housewives spin-off, a limited series on the famous neurosurgeon Dr. Death, and a Battlestar Galactica restart.
The service will feature nine originals at today’s launch, which will air all at once, though a spokesperson told Gizmodo that that could change series by series. I haven’t finished them yet on launch day, but I enjoyed what I saw from the sci-fi articulation Brave New World, partly simply because it was beautiful to watch (that’s one of the reasons I also enjoyed Hulu Developers) Comments for Peacock Originals to have state mixedSo your mileage may vary if newer shows rank high on your streaming priority checklist. Personally? I prefer a good combination of quality content with a little bit of everything, and if that sounds like you, you’ll probably enjoy Peacock as much as I do.
Like Disney, which launched its own successful service last year, NBCUniversal has an incredible amount of accumulated content that forms the foundation of its service. That was not the case, for example, with Apple TV + or Quibi. Television is really where Peacock shines, although his selection of films also has his gems. I found myself lingering in its Documentary and Cult Corner sections, as well as its designated Hitchcock hub. But there really is something for everyone here, which makes their free tier quite compelling (if for no other reason than the first twelve seasons of the original) Unsolved mysteries With the real crime, Daddy Robert Stack are available, you’re welcome.)
I also had zero trouble finding a way to toggle between on-demand, live and continuous TV, and tab browsing – something that can’t be said for many other streaming platforms! More episodes of a series can be found directly from the watch face, with an easy-to-navigate menu of a season’s episodes and their synopses that appear directly to the right of the season list. This felt much more intuitive on Apple TV than a service like Hulu, which, while stylistically much more eye-catching, uses a line navigation design that can be frustrating to use. Similarly, Peacock was very easy to use on a phone, due to its simple and straightforward design.
Peacock also slips some of the best streaming features from other services on its own: Peacock Picks (featured content), continues to watch, and soon, all sections will appear at the top of the Browse tab, making the highly requested tools of Other streaming services are available to Peacock users directly from the door. It also supports TV streaming, which is never a bad feature to offer right away. Its trending section hadn’t figured out its purpose on launch day yet, but it may work with more time and user feedback.
But when some coveted tools became available, other notable features were missing at launch. Offline downloads are not supported, for example, although a spokesperson told Gizmodo that they are on the product’s roadmap. The same also applies to multiple user profiles and the lack of support for 4K and UHD streaming, the latter of which is not necessarily a deciding factor, but is not ideal considering that it is offered by most of the others. important transmission services.
There is also the issue of support. Peacock is available on Apple and Android devices, as well as Xbox, Vizio and LG smart TVs and PS4 shortly after launch (starting the week of July 20). But the service is not available to Amazon or Roku users, which was also a huge annoyance for eager cable cutters when HBO Max released in May without support for these platforms. That’s a sizable chunk of users who won’t have access to the service at launch, and the companies seemed no closer to reaching a resolution as of Wednesday. (A spokesperson would only say that NBCUniversal was in talks with other distribution partners.)
Still, it’s impossible to beat Peacock’s price of exactly zero dollars at its entry level, and I’d say it’s one of the most attractive services to launch this year. Basically, it gets some of the best parts of the tried and true streaming titans and ties them together to create a surprisingly successful stream Frankenstein I wasn’t expecting to love Peacock, but I do, maybe even enough to finally kick my Netflix subscription off.
READ ME
- Peacock is home to the entire massive NBCUniversal catalog, plus some live TV shows and sports, as well as originals.
- It’s very cheap, free for your entry level, and $ 5 a month to get the originals. You can pay $ 10 a month to be completely ad-free.
- The originals seem to get mixed reviews, but the backlog of fan favorites just makes the service a bargain for next to nothing.
- The service is still missing some coveted features at launch, such as offline downloads, 4K and UHD streaming, and multi-user accounts, though a spokesperson said they are on the product roadmap.
.
