How Much Is Peacock? Is It Worth It?

Plan	Price	Features
Peacock	Free	Access to certain NBC and Universal programming with limited advertisements.
Premium	$4.99/month	Access to more than 80,000 hours of TV shows, movies and more, more than 50 always-on channels, with limited ads.
Plus	$9.99/month	Everything included in Premium plus no advertisements and the ability to download and watch certain titles while offline.

What Is Peacock?

Peacock is a streaming service that is owned by the NBC network. Accordingly, this is the place to watch many of the network’s most popular series, with some notable exceptions.

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What really makes Peacock “worth it” for many subscribers is the fact that it has a free tier. True, you’ll be stuck with commercials and you won’t have access to the full library, but there still are many hours of entertainment.

Perhaps you have not heard much about Peacock before. That’s understandable with the sheer number of streaming services that are available now. This one is owned by NBCUniversal, which is, in turn, owned by Comcast.

Peacock offers a fairly varied bundle of entertainment that includes NBC network shows as well as original series, plenty of movies that you’ve heard of and even some live sports events such as WWE programming.

With Peacock, there are three subscription tiers. The free version is a great deal for anyone, and the Premium and Plus tiers won’t put too big of a hole in your budget either. However, it is disappointing that you don’t avoid commercials until you reach the Plus subscription. It’s also important to mention that the Premium plan is a bit restrictive since you can’t even download titles to view when you don’t have a connection.

At all subscription levels, you might notice an absence of programming that you’d expect on an NBC streaming service. Namely, you won’t be able to watch Friends, Scrubs or Seinfeld here.

Peacock has only been available since July of 2020. It seems reasonable to expect that its offerings will change with time, but it just does not have the versatility of other platforms such as Disney Plus, Hulu, Netflix and HBO Max.

Still, if you are looking for a service to supplement other free streaming services like the Roku Channel, Tubi and Pluto TV, Peacock may do well for you.

How Much Does Peacock Cost?

If you are on a really restrictive budget, then Peacock could be a great deal for your household. That’s because you can watch more than 40,000 hours of programming without paying a dime. You do have to watch some commercials, but there are nowhere near as many as you would see on a traditional television network.

Of course, if you want access to double the amount of entertainment plus the ability to view Peacock’s original series, you’ll have to upgrade to one of the paid plans. The less expensive of these is the Premium subscription. Currently, it costs $4.99 per month, though the company does occasionally run deals where you can get a discount for a few months. At this tier, you will still be watching commercials, but you’ll have access to the entire Peacock catalog.

Peacock’s all access membership is called Plus. It will cost you $9.99 per month. For this price, you’ll be able to stream the entire catalog ad-free. Additionally, you’ll gain the ability to download certain titles so that you can watch them offline.

What Devices Work with Peacock?

Peacock is widely supported by devices and platforms. These include web browsers such as Firefox 88+, Chrome 75+, Safari 12+ and MS Edge 80+.

Mobile and tablet devices that are running Android 6.0 or above or iOS 14 or above also can be used to stream the content on Peacock.

Roku devices and Fire TV play Peacock, and so do Chromecast, Apple TV and smart TVs from LG and Samsung. Stream with your PlayStation 4 or 5 or your Xbox One, Xbox Series X or Xbox Series S.

Various Xfinity devices and Cox Cable set top boxes also are compatible with Peacock.

What Can You Watch on Peacock?

Peacock features mainly on-demand content, and you will probably find many familiar titles here. These include The Office, Parks and Recreation, 30 Rock, Friday Night Lights, Cheers, Saturday Night Live, Frasier, The King of Queens and Heroes. Currently running shows are represented too. This is Us, Law & Order: SVU, Chicago Fire, Superstore and The Titan Games all are represented.

If you are a free subscriber, you typically will have to wait more than one week after new episodes debut before you can watch them on Peacock. However, viewers with paid subscriptions are granted same-day access to many new episodes.

If you sign up with a free account, you’ll have access to quite a bit of programming, but be prepared to hit roadblocks along the way. In some cases, entire series are restricted to paid accounts. It’s also possible to find that the first couple of seasons of a popular show are available for free, but if you want to watch the rest, you’ll have to upgrade to a paid subscription.

Not every television show on Peacock was originally made for or aired on NBC. Examples of these include Everybody Loves Raymond, Monk, Battlestar Galactica, Downtown Abbey, Psych, Charmed, Warehouse 13, Real Husbands of Hollywood, Project Blue Book, Eureka, The Affair, Ray Donovan, Undercover Boss and The Game.

Peacock is beginning to produce original programming, but there isn’t a great deal of it yet. Some of the most popular of these are Bel-Air, which is a prequel to Will Smith’s The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, and a pair of Bravo reality shows, The Real Housewives: Ultimate Girls Trip and The Real Housewives of Miami.

Other originals include a sitcom called A.P. Bio, a utopian drama entitled Brave New World and a comedy called Intelligence that’s centered around government intelligence agencies.

While a few of these shows may have promise, they cannot really compete with the amount and quality of original programming on services like Netflix, Prime and HBO Max.

You’ll find a good range of movies here too, though the lineup changes regularly. Entries from series such as Jurassic Park, Harry Potter, Bourne and the Matrix frequently are available. Some of the more popular movies streaming on the network include Traffic, The Hurt Locker, Children of Men, Being John Malkovich, Inside Man, Bridesmaids and October Sky.

How Can You View Your Peacock Account?

It’s usually best to use your laptop or PC when you want to look at or make changes to your Peacock account. Having a keyboard is not overrated when you need to do some serious typing.

Go to the www.peacocktv.com website. Click on the icon at the top right-hand side of your screen. This will take you to a different screen where you can either choose a profile or click on a tile at the top right-hand side of the screen that says “Account.”

Clicking on “Account” takes you to a screen where you can view Plans & Payment, Settings and Devices.

Under Plans & Payment, you’ll see the name of your current plan and how much it costs you. Just below this is an opportunity to sign up for a higher tier of membership if you do not already have a Plus subscription.

Below this, you’ll see a Link Provider option. Peacock has teamed up with Xfinity, Cox and Spectrum to give subscribers access to Peacock Premium for free. Click on your cable company to link your cable account to Peacock.

Below this you will be shown your current payment method and find an opportunity to update this method.

Then, you can see your upcoming payments or view your payment history.

Click on “Settings” at the top of the account screen to see and change your email and password. You also can turn email notifications on or off here and change your preferences for enhanced security, parental controls and the appearance of subtitles.

Go back to the top of the screen again to click on “Devices” to see all devices on which you have signed in to your Peacock account. You can conveniently sign out of all devices from here and add names to any devices.

How Do You Cancel Your Account?

Cancelling is a cinch. In fact, if you have a free account, there’s no need to cancel. If you’d like to downgrade from a paid subscription, just sign into your account on your web browser. Navigate to Plans & Payments, and click on Change Plan. Click on Peacock Free at the end of the current billing cycle to prevent another month being charged.

How Do You Contact Customer Support?

If you find yourself needing assistance while viewing or configuring Peacock, just go to the Help link at the bottom of the home page. A search bar at the top of the screen lets you type in any topic. The homepage of the Help Center also has many easy links that will help you find exactly what you’re looking for.

If this doesn’t answer your questions, then click on the yellow icon at the bottom right-hand corner of the Help Center screen. This will start a live chat with a customer service representative.

Is Peacock Worth It?

Peacock definitely does not have the diversity of Netflix, Hulu, Disney Plus and the like. Moreover, their original programming is still struggling to find its footing.

Still, there is a lot of quality content on Peacock, and much of it can be viewed for free. Many consider it to be among the best free streaming services around, and chances are good that you’ll see some of your favorite new and old favorites if you browse through the catalog.

It would be nice if there were no ads at both of the paid tiers, but Peacock seems to keep the commercials to a minimum. Paying $9.99 a month for this service over the long run may be overkill for many, but some people will find plenty here to keep them engaged at the free tier.