NBC's Peacock Streaming Service Launches Wednesday

Peacock is going to be one of the biggest new streaming services of 2020, and it launches for everyone in the US this week on 15 July. Far beyond the NBC app found on smartphones and tablets now, Peacock will offer video on demand in the same vein as Netflix, Hulu and Amazon Prime Video, but with a focus on content from NBC.

According to techradar.com, the big difference, though, is that Peacock has a free tier featuring over 7,500 hours of content, alongside more traditional paid tiers that unlock a lot more to watch.

What else, exactly, does NBC have to offer that Netflix doesn’t? When it launches on Wednesday, July 15, Peacock will include talk shows like The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon and Late Night with Seth Meyers that will debut up to three hours earlier on Peacock than on cable TV, plus beloved shows like Yellowstone and 30 Rock. That's alongside a suite of original shows like Brave New World. In the future, Peacock is bringing viewers reboots of BSG, Saved by the Bell and Punky Brewster, too.

And in 2021, things really get interesting when The Office leaves Netflix after years and arrives exclusively on Peacock, which is a huge win for the platform.

NBC is releasing Peacock with three pricing tiers - here's the monthly cost for each, and what each gets you:

• Peacock Free: The free service, will have a limited content library (read: only an episode or two of each new series) and a fraction of the content available on the higher tiers. It will also have ads that play while watching content. In total, NBC says there will be around 7,500 hours of content on Free at launch. Debut shows will get their new episodes a day after the other tiers.
• Peacock Premium with ads ($4.99): Peacock Premium is the $5-per-month plan that unlocks pretty much everything in the catalog but still comes with ads, but they're limited to five minutes per hour of streaming. In total, NBC says there will be close to 15,000 hours of content to watch on Premium at launch. Late Night with Seth Meyers and The Tonight Show can be watched a few hours early. Android and Android TV users will get complementary access to Premium until October 15, 2020.
• Peacock Premium without ads ($9.99): If you want to upgrade to ad-free, that’s what will cost you $9.99 per month, unless you're an Xfinity subscriber, at which point you’ll only be charged $4.99 per month for the premium, ad-free service.