Variety: Peacock Hiking Prices for Second Time in Two Years

Story from Variety:

NBCUniversal is looking to wring more money out of Peacock subscribers, with the streamer set to raise prices this summer — one year after its last fee hike — going into effect for new customers ahead of the 2024 Olympics.

Beginning in mid-July, the price for Peacock Premium (with ads) will increase by $2 to $7.99 per month and Peacock Premium Plus (mostly ad-free) is also going up by $2 to $13.99 per month. Peacock Premium’s annual price will increase from $59.99 to $79.99, while Premium Plus is going from $119.99 to $139.99 per year.

The new prices will be effective starting July 18 for new Peacock customers and for existing subscribers with their next billing date on or after Aug. 17.

The Peacock Premium Plus tier provides ad-free content, the ability to download episodes and live local NBC channels. Due to streaming rights, per NBCU, a “small amount of programming” still contains ads on some Peacock channels, events, and a few shows and movies.

As of the end of the first quarter of 2024, the U.S.-only Peacock service had 34 million subscribers, fewer than rival streamers like Netflix and Disney+. That was up 55% year-over-year and a net gain of 3 million Peacock subs in Q1; average revenue per subscriber in the quarter was $10/month.

“Looking ahead, our content offering provides such great value proposition that we should have some real pricing power over time,” Comcast president Michael Cavanagh said on the earnings call last week. Cavanagh said Peacock’s streaming-only NFL Wild Card game between the Chiefs and Dolphins on Jan. 13 resulted in the service adding and then retaining “even more new Peacock subscribers than we expected.”

The Peacock price increases demonstrate that NBCU -- after introducing low-price and even a free, ad-supported tier when the product launched in 2020 to attract consumers -- has refocused on making the direct-to-streaming business profitable. The company last year shut down Peacock’s free tier for new users and stopped bundling Peacock Premium for free for Comcast’s Xfinity customers.

NBCU touts Peacock's annual lineup of nearly 100,000 programming hours. That includes exclusive streaming windows on Universal movies, next-day NBC and Bravo episodes, Peacock originals, and more than 8,000 hours of live sports. In the first quarter of 2024, Peacock had its most-streamed movie to date -- Oscar-winner "Oppenheimer" -- as well as its most-streamed original comedy, "Ted," and most-streamed original unscripted series, "The Traitors."

This summer for the 2024 Paris Olympic Games, NBCU has boasted that it will deliver more streaming content than ever, with 5,000 hours of coverage. That will include features like Peacock Live Actions and Peacock Discovery Multiview, along with programming like the "Gold Zone" whip-around show and "Watch With Alex Cooper" interactive watch parties. The Olympics are scheduled to run July 26-Aug. 11, 2024.

Recent Peacock originals include series like "Apples Never Fall," "Poker Face," "Bel-Air," "Based on a True Story," "The Best Man: The Final Chapters" and "Twisted Metal." Upcoming titles to premiere this year include "Those About to Die," "Fight Night," "Hysteria" and "Day of the Jackal,"; new seasons of return shows like "Bel-Air" and "Love Island USA" as well as titles from Universal Filmed Entertainment including "The Fall Guy," Illumination’s "Despicable Me 4" and "Twisters," following their theatrical runs.

In addition, for the 2024 NFL season, Peacock will exclusively stream the Friday night opening game on Sept. 6 between the Philadelphia Eagles and Green Bay Packers live from São Paulo, Brazil. Other exclusive sports content on the streamer includes Premier League soccer, WWE events, Big Ten football and basketball, golf, rugby, cycling, motorsports events and more.