NBCUniversal is hiking the price of Peacock for the second time in two years, tacking $2 onto the cost of the streaming service this summer, around the time of the Paris Olympics.Beginning in July, the monthly price for Peacock Premium will increase to $7.99. Premium Plus, which offers limited advertising, download capability and live local programming, will now be $13.99. Annual plans will go up to $79.99 for Premium and $139.99 for Premium Plus.The change will take effect starting July 18 for new customers, and for existing subscribers at their next billing date on or after August 17. The timing is similar to that of a 2023 hike, which was the first since Peacock’s launch in 2020. The Summer Olympics in Paris are slated to run from July 26 to August 11.The pricing change comes just days after NBCU parent Comcast offered the latest snapshot of Peacock’s financials. In a quarterly earnings report last Thursday, the company said Peacock narrowed its losses and took in more than $1.1 billion in revenue.While Peacock has been gaining steadily, its tally of 34 million subscribers lags behind the scale of other major services in the market. With Wall Street laser-focused on profitability in streaming, NBCU is aiming to use pricing as a lever to help it achieve break-even. It has plenty of company in that strategy, as the entire cohort of new rivals to Netflix has rolled out increases over the past year or two. Netflix itself has done likewise, but also is heavily promoting its $7-a-month subscription tier with advertising, which will be the market’s cheapest after Peacock’s latest increase.Comcast President Mike Cavanagh, who oversees NBCU, said Peacock is “seeing traction” with its mix of live sports and entertainment. The service saw record viewership for an NFL playoff game last January and also launched two of its most successful originals ever, in Traitors Season 2 and Ted. The Summer Olympics in Paris this July will be another major sports milestone, and pay-1 movies like Oppenheimer and family hits like Kung Fu Panda 4 are also helping with retention, execs say.Encouraged by the success of the NFL Wild Card playoff game, which was acquired as a one-off outside of NBCU’s overall NFL rights deal, the company secured rights to a game to be played Friday, September 6. The game between the Philadelphia Eagles and Green Bay Packers, will be part of the league’s opening week and will be played in São Paulo, Brazil. NFL games accounted for 93 of the top 100 programming titles on the TV schedule in 2023, so it seems as sure a bet as there is in streaming.
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