Peacock’s price is skyrocketing.
Peacock subscription prices, Comcastresponse to the streaming wars, will escalate by $2 this summer. The price adjustment is a way for Comcast’s NBCUniversal to capitalize on the Paris Summer Olympics, which will air on NBC’s television networks and streaming platform.
The ad-supported Peacock option will escalate by $2 to $7.99 per month, and the ad-free offer will escalate by the same amount to $13.99 per month. The annual price for Peacock with ads will be $79.99, while the ad-free version will cost $139.99 per year.
The price for up-to-date subscribers will escalate from July 18, while existing customers will be covered by the up-to-date price on August 17 or later. The Summer Olympics start at the end of July.
Media companies, like most, are looking for ways to escalate the profitability of streaming lose money on a venture. Advertising, like price increases, played a key part of this strategy.
This price escalate is Peacock’s fault second last year. Since August of last year, the price of Peacock with ads has increased from $1 to $5.99, and without ads has increased from $2 to $11.99 per month.
While Comcast’s parent company touted Peacock as a vivid spot on a recent earnings call, losses from the streamer weighed on earnings. Losses are said to have peaked in 2023 and executives expect them to narrow in the coming quarters.
Peacock offers a wide range of live sports content, from the NFL to the Premier League, and often sees subscriber growth spike during major events like the Olympics.
The streaming service launched in 2020 ahead of the Tokyo Summer Olympics, which were postponed to 2021 due to the pandemic. Peacock currently has 34 million subscribers.
Enormous sporting events often attract more customers. Executives said last week that Peacock’s exclusive first-quarter NFL Wild Card game helped attract and then retain more customers than expected.
The streamer also recently benefited from being the first exclusive home for Universal Pictures’ beloved and Oscar-winning hit “Oppenheimer.”
Peacock’s revenue rose 54% to $1.1 billion in the first quarter compared to the same period last year. This was partly due to growth in advertising revenues, which have recently been lower than those of established television networks.
Last week, executives said the Summer Olympics are expected to generate record advertising revenues as more events will be broadcast on the NBC network rather than just on Peacock.
Disclosure: Comcast is the parent company of NBCUniversal and CNBC.
