NBC’s upcoming streaming service, Peacock, might be free with ads

Netflix and Apple TV+ are already out. Disney+ and HBO Max are around the corner. NBC has a streaming service in the hopper, too: Peacock, easily the best named of these contenders. But will it have enough content to compete, and will cost too much to justify yet another subscription price?

According to CNBC, NBC may have solved the second problem. Apparently the company is considering just making the service free to watch, but with commercials…you know, like regular TV.

I think this is pretty smart. There are so many services competing or about to be competing for our attention, so any new one needs a way to stand out. I’m betting people will be thankful to not have to pay another subscription fee to watch reruns of The Office and Cheers and whatever original content NBC dreams up (we know they’ll have original shows from The Good Place creator Mike Schur and Saturday Night Live creator Lorne Michaels, but details remain scarce). And it’s not like our forebears didn’t muddle through commercials for decades. It can’t be that bad, can it?

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If people like, they could pay a fee to get access to Peacock ad free. It’s all very similar to something Hulu has tried. And remember: this is just something the NBC people are considering. It may not happen, but any opportunity they have to stand out, I think they should take.

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h/t The A.V. Club