Back in 2020, millions of families got instant access to Peacock thanks to a free rollout to Comcast's Xfinity broadband customers. By the end of the year, Peacock was expected to have more than 30 million users. Now, in 2024, the service has about 28 million paid subscribers. But does that mean it’s not worth considering? Not at all. And our in-depth Peacock review will help you decide how it fits into your streaming portfolio.
Peacock 60-second summary
The streaming service gives people a choice between free access to 10,000+ hours of Peacock's content or full access to the entire library, either with ads or without. Peacock hopes that its hybrid approach to streaming can leverage NBC's advertising infrastructure to generate revenue in a way that other services can't.
Peacock draws on NBCUniversal's library of hit shows like The Office, Law & Order SVU, and Chicago Fire. Premium subscribers (anyone with a paid account) get next-day access to all current shows airing on NBC and Bravo. There’s also a growing slate of Peacock original TV shows, like The Resort, Bel-Air and the latest iteration of Queer as Folk, as well as classics from the 60s through 90s, like The Munsters, Murder, She Wrote, and Quantum Leap.
The movie library includes hit franchises like Harry Potter, Jurassic Park and Fast and Furious. It also gets exclusive first-pay-window streaming rights for major theatrically released films, such as Asteroid City and The Super Mario Bros. Movie.
The pros and cons of Peacock
While it’s hard to argue with free, especially when there’s a growing list of completely free services to choose from, most of Peacock's free TV content is geared toward getting you to sign up for a paid plan. And most movies are locked behind the paywall. But the ad-supported Premium plan is one of the lowest-priced options out there and serves up enough content to satisfy most TV-hungry families.
7 things Peacock gets right
- Affordable monthly subscriptions
- Large catalog of popular content
- Mix of live and on-demand content
- Live sports, including live Premier League matches
- Local news for select markets
- Exclusive first-pay-window theatrical releases
- Minimal ads with ad-supported plan
5 things Peacock need to improve
- Slow-loading, sluggish interface
- Key NBC content is missing (ex: Friends, Seinfeld)
- Browse and search functions need improvement
- Some shows don’t have past seasons
- Content hubs should be more prominent
Peacock has 2 plans to choose from
Like every traditional broadcast network, NBCUniversal sees advertising as a fundamental part of the TV business. Rather than relying on a pure subscription business model, Peacock uses a blend of advertising and subscriptions, similar to Hulu’s basic ad-supported plan.
Peacock's Premium plan is ad-supported
The ad-supported Premium plan is one of the cheapest streaming options out there and gives you total access to all of the content and features Peacock offers.
Peacock's Premium Plus plan is ad-free
Premium Plus costs twice as much as the Premium plan, but it’s still roughly the same price or cheaper compared to other streaming services. It removes the ads and lets you download select titles to watch offline. However, with the ads in the Premium plan not being overly intrusive, the downloadable content is really the big draw of the Plus plan.
Choosing an annual plan when signing up for either paid option works out to around 2 months free over the course of a year. If you follow any of NBC’s primetime shows that typically have 20+ episodes in a season – such as Chicago Med or Fire or P.D. – signing up for a year seems like a no-brainer.
Peacock has a 7-day free trial
Peacock offers a 7-day free trial for new users. Xfinity customers get Peacock Premium free of charge, so no free trial is needed. However, those Peacock users can get a free trial of Peacock Premium Plus to try out the ad-free experience.
Peacock has an impressive library of on-demand content
NBCUniversal is producing a range of episodic shows and other content exclusive to Peacock, some of which might be broadcast on NBC at a later date, such as The Resort. Check out an overview of Peacock's content library for a deep dive into these shows.
Some of the popular originals created for the platform include Poker Face, Mrs. Davis, Dr. Death, Girls5Eva and One of Us Is Lying. Psych 2: Lassie Come Home, a movie based on the popular TV series Psych, has a solid 7.3/10 rating on IMDb.
Peacock upped its reboot game with new versions of Quantum Leap, Battlestar Galactica, Queer as Folk, Punky Brewster and Saved by the Bell. Granted, the latter 2 of those shows were both canceled after a single season.
In another interesting development, after 57 years on NBC, The Days of Our Lives moved from network television to its exclusive new home on Peacock – with a paid plan. The daytime soap opera is one of the longest-running scripted TV shows in the world and its move to streaming exemplifies the change in how people watch television.
Peacock has 3rd-party content licensing deals
While some of NBC’s biggest TV shows ever – namely Seinfeld and Friends – are absent from the platform, Peacock has licensing deals for 3rd-party content as well. The most noteworthy of these is a deal with Paramount to stream its movies and TV shows. It makes Peacock the exclusive streamer of previous seasons of Yellowstone, one of Paramount’s biggest shows – making them not even available on Paramount+. Peacock is also the exclusive streaming service for all Bravo network programming.
However, hits like Seinfeld and Friends are not on Peacock because NBCUniversal also licenses its shows to others. This can lead to past seasons of shows being removed before you’ve had a chance to watch them, such as Law & Order: Organized Crime.
Peacock channels offer a mix of news, sports and entertainment
In addition to the original NBC broadcast network, there are several NBC-branded cable channels. NBC News produces content on CNBC and MSNBC as well as the NBC News Now digital platform. The NBC Sports Group broadcasts sports content on NBC, NBC Sports, and the NBC regional sports channels.
NBCUniversal also operates several other cable channels. Entertainment and lifestyle channels include Bravo, E!, Oxygen, Syfy, Universal Kids and the USA Network. Other sports channels include the Golf Channel and the Olympic Channel.
Through Telemundo, NBCUniversal produces a full range of Spanish-language content. This includes news, entertainment and lifestyle content on the Telemundo, Universo and TeleXitos channels. Spanish-language sports content is available through Telemundo Deportes.
What's streaming live on Peacock?
To get an idea of what kind of linear programming is available, Flixed created a channel guide for Peacock. Free to access from any browser, our guide lets you see what's on right now as well as what’s coming over the next 7 days. It’s also a handy tool for current Peacock subscribers wanting to see what else is on without leaving the fullscreen streaming experience.
What movies are in Peacock’s on-demand library?
Peacock does not include every movie ever produced by NBCUniversal’s studios. Instead, the streaming service rotates titles in and out of the content library to keep it fresh for subscribers.
Founded in 1912, Universal Pictures has more than a century of movie-making experience to contribute to Peacock. Of course, you won’t be watching Universal’s silent movies and only a few titles from before the 1950s appear in Peacock’s catalog. However, you will find major motion pictures from across the second half of the 20th Century and into the 21st like Harry Potter franchise.
With 110 years of movies in its library, it would be nice to be able to search and browse by year or decade. But there’s no such option.
Peacock’s interface is good, but not great
Peacock's interface changes slightly depending on your device – for example, it opens to the “Home” tab on Fire TV but the “Featured” tab in browsers – but navigation is basically the same across platforms. The main navigation has a toggle for its 2 main sections – Channels for live TV and Browse for on-demand content. The Browse menu has 6 options: Home/Featured, Movies, TV Shows, Sports, WWE and My Stuff. There’s also a search option that isn’t part of the main menu in browsers.
What is search like on Peacock?
Peacock’s search function is in need of an overhaul. For a brief while earlier this year, the platform let you search by director or actor, but that appears to have been removed. The only options currently listed are to search by title, live event or genre.
As noted above, there’s no way to search by year or even browse by decade. Furthermore, a genre search for “action” garnered just 40 results, which seems rather low considering the size of the library Peacock is supposed to have.
What is Peacock’s channel guide like?
The Channels section provides a traditional “linear” TV experience with continually-running channels. NBC Now Live and Sky News are both live streams from the news networks. Other channels are curated around special interests or shows like Saturday Night Live, Jimmy Fallon and reality TV.
The programming guide works like a cable interface where you scroll up and down to find other channels. The interface only lets you see what programs are on next and you can’t pause or record the programs.
What is Peacock’s browse function like?
The Browse button is the gateway to Peacock’s on-demand catalog. As mentioned above, it is divided into 6 sections: Home (or Featured), Movies, TV Shows, Sports, WWE and My Stuff.
All of the categories are structured in the same way. There’s a carousel of featured content at the top and specially-curated lists below. The last list contains all of the content in that category. If you scroll to the left of any list, you get an option to see everything. This is most useful when looking at the full content list.
Each category includes curated collections of content on Peacock. For example, TV Shows has a “Teenage Dreams & Nightmares” collection that includes Peacock originals like Vampire Academy, One Of Us Is Lying, and The Girl in the Woods. And Sports has “The Film Room” collection which includes popular sports flicks like Happy Gilmore, Friday Night Lights and The Blind Side.
Browse the TV Shows library on Peacock
The TV Shows category includes 340+ programs produced by NBC and its various cable channels. Featured shows include Chicago Fire, New Amsterdam, The Voice and more.
The list of science fiction shows includes the reboot of Battlestar Galactica, Heroes and the original Seaquest DSV as well as currently-airing shows like Manifest. However, NBC is clearly much stronger at comedy than sci-fi, and you’ll find an extensive selection of old and new shows, including 11 seasons each of Cheers and Frasier, as well as Peacock originals like Girls5Eva and The Amber Ruffin Show.
Browse the Movies library on Peacock
In Movies, you’ll find 900+ titles from Universal dating back to the 1930s. Peacock has integrated movie ratings from Rotten Tomatoes to help you choose which films to watch. However, you won’t find every movie Universal has made since Peacock rotates titles in and out of its library.
Some of the classic films in the Peacock collection include a dozen Alfred Hitchcock movies from 1942’s Saboteur to the 1972 film Frenzy. The 2 oldest films currently on the platform, Frankenstein and Dracula, are both from 1931 but they're set to rotate off Peacock later this week. 2-Headed Shark Attack, starring Carmen Electra, is a classic of a different sort but goes to show that there’s probably something for everyone.
Browse the Kids content library on Peacock
You can create up to 6 profiles in your Peacock account with the option to make any number of them a kid profile, which opens into a kid-friendly content hub. Kids programming includes family-friendly movies and TV shows. You’ll find classic and modern animations like Woody Woodpecker, Curious George and Baby Einstein.
There’s also a good selection of Dreamworks animated films, such as The Croods, Madagascar and Shrek, and it’s the only place to stream Dreamworks’ latest feature, The Bad Guys.
Live-action kids shows include reality programs like American Ninja Warrior Junior and Get Out of My Room.
Browse Sports on Peacock
The content you’ll find in the Sports section is another area that's improved a lot since launch. Like other categories, you'll find carousels of content, starting with Live & Upcoming broadcasts. Below that you'll find Latest Events, Highlights & News conveniently separated by sport, followed by Top Sports Stories.
After those, you'll find Featured Channels and live events for everything from soccer to horse racing to baseball. There are also content hubs for leagues and sports, such as MLB, USGA, Premier League and many more.
Browse Latino content on Peacock
When it launched Peacock had a Latino category in the top navigation menu. It’s since been removed, but the content is still there. There is now a Telemundo content hub that can be accessed from the "Featured Brands" carousel – which is unfortunately buried 15 carousels deep on the Featured/Home screen. Other Latino content can be found through search.
Latino content includes popular shows from NBCUniversal-owned Telemundo such as the reality show Larrymania. Telemundo’s dramas include 100 Días para Enamoramos, La Doña and Preso No. 1.
Telemundo’s sports and news operations also contribute content to the Peacock library. You’ll find clips of recent news reports in collections featuring news, sports, and entertainment.
Navigating the Account screen on Peacock
The Account section is accessed through your profile icon, then selecting “Account”. It lets you change a handful of settings in the Peacock app. Since security and parental control features, as well as subscriptions, are applied globally across all devices, you’ll have to log into the Peacock website to change those.
You have several settings you can change on the Peacock site. You can turn off Peacock’s email notifications, although you’ll still get emails about your account. Enhanced security, which is off by default, requires you to confirm your identity before changing personal information. Finally, you can create a PIN to activate Peacock’s parental control system.
What is Peacock’s stream quality like?
Even though it takes a long time to load and its menu is a bit laggy, Peacock's streaming quality is consistently good with no noticeable degradation in image quality or dropped frames.
Every once in a while, the stream pauses for buffering when a show is first starting or resuming, but not really enough to greatly impact the viewing experience.
What video and audio formats does Peacock support?
Peacock currently supports 4K Ultra HD resolution on Apple TV and Roku devices. On other devices content streams at HD (1080p) quality. Select content is available to stream in Dolby Digital surround sound.
Older on-demand content may only be available in HD, regardless of your device. Live streams from NBC’s news and sports operations will come across in either 720p or 1080p HD resolution.
Peacock can be watched on a wide range of devices
When Peacock launched its preview to Xfinity broadband subscribers, it was only available on the cable provider's proprietary streaming box. Once the streaming service launched nationwide, however, it was able to roll out apps to the most popular streaming platforms.
- Computer: All major web browsers
- Streaming: Android TV, Apple TV, Chromecast, NVIDIA Shield, Roku
- Smart TVs and Blu-ray players: Android TV, Hisense, LG, Samsung, Vizio
- Mobile: Android, iOS, Fire Tablets
- Gaming: PlayStation and Xbox
- Cable set-top boxes: Cox, Xfinity
How many screens can you watch Peacock on?
You can stream Peacock on up to 3 devices at the same time.
Does Peacock have offline viewing?
Peacock lets you download select titles to watch offline in the mobile app, but you’ll need the Premium Plus plan to do so.
How is Peacock customer support?
Peacock's support site has a detailed Help Center with answers to most general questions. If you can’t resolve your issue using the articles in the knowledge base, you can contact Peacock’s support staff directly through online chat.
However, the website’s chat app first makes you talk to a chatbot for a few minutes, forcing you to click through a bunch of options until you eventually get connected to a human. And when you’re trying to solve a problem, it can be rather frustrating.
Peacock does not offer telephone support.
How to cancel your Peacock subscription
People who subscribe to Peacock directly can cancel their Peacock subscriptions by logging into the Peacock website. The Plans & Payments section of the My Account screen has an option for canceling the current plan.
If you subscribe through an app on iOS, Android, Roku or Fire TV, then you will need to cancel your subscription through that app store.
Does Peacock have a refund policy?
You won’t get a refund when you cancel your Peacock subscription. Your access will continue until the end of the current billing period.
How to watch Bravo on Peacock
You can watch select Bravo shows with the free plan as soon as you sign up. However, if you want to watch everything Bravo has to offer on Peacock, you need to at least get the Premium Plan for 5 bucks a month.
Both paid plans let you watch every episode of all the Bravo shows available on Peacock. You just need to decide whether you want to watch them with ads or without.
Bravo’s new shows, such as Kandi & The Gang, Love Match Atlanta and The Real Housewives of Dubai, which just premiered June 1, are already available on Peacock. And, of course, so are its biggest and longest-running shows.
Watch The Real Housewives on Peacock
The popular Real Housewives franchise has been nominated for and won numerous awards, including the Critics' Choice Television Awards, People’s Choice Awards, and MTV Awards. The entire franchise boasts over 50 series across US-based, international, and spin-off shows.
You can find more than a dozen installments of Bravo’s flagship franchise available to stream now on Peacock, including:
- The Real Housewives of Atlanta
- The Real Housewives of Dallas
- The Real Housewives of Dubai
- The Real Housewives of Miami
- The Real Housewives of New Jersey
- The Real Housewives of New York City
- The Real Housewives of Orange County
- The Real Housewives of Potomac
- The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City
- The Real Housewives: Ultimate Girls Trip
- Bethenny Ever After
- Bethenny Getting Married
- Vanderpump Rules
If The Real Housewives aren’t enough, more of Bravo’s socialite series are also available on Peacock, including Ladies of London, Married to Medicine and Southern Charm.
Other popular Bravo shows on Peacock
If you’ve got a more competitive spirit, Peacock also has 2 long-running Bravo competition shows. You’ll find all 19 seasons of Top Chef as well as the latest 3 seasons of Project Runway.
For talk shows, Peacock has Bravo’s Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen. And if scripted content is what you’re after, Peacock has all 3 seasons of the sitcom Odd Mom Out.
Boat-lovers will be pleased to know that Peacock’s library includes Below Deck and its 3 spin-offs, Below Deck Down Under, Below Deck Mediterranean and Below Deck Sailing Yacht.
And for those of you who love Bravo’s real estate shows, Peacock has 11 seasons of Flipping Out. It’s also got the Million Dollar Listing franchise – including 126 episodes of Million Dollar Listing: Los Angeles and 97 episodes of Million Dollar Listing: New York available to watch for free.
For those Bravo reality shows that are more about balancing relationships, work, and family, Peacock has Family Karma, Shahs of Sunset, and Summer House.
How soon are new episodes of Bravo shows on Peacock?
Peacock used to stream Bravo shows, but they were on a delay. But that began to change on May 2, 2022, when select Bravo titles became available for next-day viewing on Peacock. That means you can stream them the day after they first air on cable TV.
The first slate of shows included The Real Housewives of Atlanta as well as Top Chef, and Below Deck Sailing Yacht. Full episodes of all the past seasons for those shows were also made available to stream.
Next-day availability is rolling out in stages for Bravo’s various shows, but starting this September, every single Bravo series will be available to stream on Peacock the very next day.
In addition to next-day viewing, Peacock’s on-demand library will have recently completed seasons in their entirety. That means Premium and Premium Plus subscribers can watch every episode of their favorite Bravo shows regardless of when they aired.
Where else can I stream Bravo shows?
Bravo’s shows have been available on other platforms, but that’s about to change. Starting this September, Peacock will be the exclusive streaming service for all Bravo shows. That means that unless you’re watching Bravo live, you won’t be able to stream them anywhere else – not the next day, next month, or next year.
Final thoughts on Peacock’s streaming service
Choosing a streaming service used to be simple but the proliferation of streaming services has made the decision much more difficult. And Peacock's good enough to make the choice even harder.
The NBCUniversal catalog contains so many popular shows and movies that it’s hard to ignore what Peacock offers. Combine that catalog with low-cost subscription plans and you have a very compelling choice for a family streamer. However, all of those $5-$10 streaming services can quickly add up.
Looked at in isolation, Peacock is a great streaming service. But you really need to want the content Peacock offers to make a full commitment. You might be better off placing Peacock in rotation with services like Disney+ and Paramount+. Watch the new content, cancel the subscription and then resubscribe when there’s enough new content to watch again.
Douglas Wright • Author
Douglas Wright is a freelance writer based in Japan. A former web designer and technical writer, he left beautiful Vancouver for bustling Tokyo, where he spent a decade recruiting for software and high-tech firms. No longer commuting through the world’s busiest train station, he writes fiction and a wide range of formats for clients around the world. When he gets AFK, he’s either outdoors with his two boys, streaming a show with his wife, or reading a book over a French-pressed, hand-ground coffee.
Kelsey Reynolds • Editor
Kelsey is a content strategist based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. She holds a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing from the University of Minnesota. Kelsey was drawn to working at Flixed because the team was so open, motivated, and curious. She most enjoys thinking about how to blend programmatic and editorial content to answer readers’ questions as completely and efficiently as possible. When she’s not at her computer, Kelsey can usually be found working in her garden or walking her two dogs in the park.
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