Peacock Is Removing Its Free Tier: What This Means for Existing Subscribers
Reading Time: 2 minutesPeacock’s free tier isn’t available anymore, but what does this mean for current free members?
Having grown to around 20 million paying subscribers in Q4 of 2022, Peacock is an up-and-coming streaming service with a lot of promise. While Peacock stood out because of its free plan, some users noticed that the service no longer offers this option for new users.
But why has NBCUniversal removed Peacock’s free subscription option, and what does this mean for users already enjoying the service for free?
Why Is NBCUniversal Removing Peacock’s Free Subscription Tier?
While Peacock’s free membership cost the user nothing, NBCUniversal still generates revenue through ads played on the platform. Despite this, the streaming service has been operating at a loss since its 2020 launch.
As reported by CNBC, this loss is quite significant, and it’s expected to peak at $3 billion in 2023, according to Michael Cavanagh, the president of NBCUniversal’s parent company, Comcast. With Peacock’s paying subscriber pool doubling between 2021 and 2022, the recent removal of free memberships may suggest that Comcast is confident that it can now recoup these losses.
It’s worth noting that the streaming subscription market is in a state of relative infancy at the moment. Services like Peacock have to experiment to find the best business models for their content, which means that change is a regular occurrence. But what does this mean for existing free users on the platform?
Will Existing Peacock Subscribers Lose Their Free Membership?
It’s hard to say exactly what the future holds for existing free members on the Peacock streaming platform. At the time of writing, those who already have free accounts can continue viewing limited content for free. Likewise, those with existing premium plans can also downgrade to the free version of Peacock.
Back in 2016, Hulu was another popular free streaming service that went through a similar transition. Free accounts were once an important part of the platform, but they were removed in 2016 in favor of paid subscriptions.
Much like with Peacock, free users were able to keep their free membership, but this didn’t last forever. In 2023, Hulu offers free trials for new users, but fully free memberships are a thing of the past. Something similar might happen with Peaock, or Comcast and NBCUniversal may take a different approach to Peacock’s existing free users.
Subscription Costs for New Peacock Customers
Even without a free tier, Peacock is still one of the best streaming services available. And whether you have an existing Peacock account or not, the best content on this platform is available with premium memberships.
Two plans are available; an ad-supported Premium plan for $4.99/month and an ad-free Premium Plus plan for $9.99/month. Both plans come with live TV and more than 80,000 hours of content.
The End of Free Peacock Memberships
While it’s always sad to lose free content, there are plenty of other websites online that can give you your free media fix. YouTube is a great example, but you can find streaming services in all shapes and sizes in 2023.
Reference: https://www.makeuseof.com/peacock-removing-free-tier-what-it-means-subscribers/
Ref: makeuseof
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