NBCUNIVERSAL's "Peacock" streaming service is free forever with paid plans for more shows and no ads starting at $5/month

[michaelsoft]

 

Quote

Yes, Peacock is really free! No credit card required. You just need an email address and password to sign-up to access thousands of hours of great entertainment instantly. Once you're signed up, you can start watching Peacock right away. No strings attached. No expiring trial period. It's just free.

 

Quote

Q: Are there other plans?

A:

Yes, in addition to Peacock, our free plan, we also have Peacock Premium and Peacock Premium Plus.

You can upgrade to Peacock Premium for $4.99/month to unlock even more content, and then to Peacock Premium Plus for an additional $5.00/month to watch without ads.*

*Please note: due to streaming rights, a small amount of programming will still contain ads (Peacock channels, events and a limited number of shows and movies).

Find out more about Peacock Premium.

 

 

Sources

https://www.peacocktv.com/plans/premium-monthly

https://www.peacocktv.com/

[RadiatingLight]

I still can't understand why their marketing department decided that peacock was a good name

Nobody even knows that their logo is supposed to be peacock feathers, or whatever.

[michaelsoft]

7 minutes ago, NZgamer said:

poop 0/10

Unlike our sponsor, Private Internet Access! PIA can mask your location so it looks like you are in a different country! And with PIA's New Mace feature, you can block malware from entering your device! The first 200 people who use code LINUS at checkout can get 20% off!

Edited July 19, 2020 by michaelsoft
grammar

[ColdPressCoconutOil]

1 hour ago, NZgamer said:

poop 0/10

same here in india

 

*casually opens vpn*   *ooh sneaky*

*binges brooklyn nine nine*

[realpetertdm]

On 7/19/2020 at 2:06 PM, NZgamer said:

poop 0/10

this happens every time to me it fucking sucks to live in asia

 

I need to use a VPN to even LOOK at the website

[minibois]

So much for the 'universal' in NBC uNiVeRsaL!

/s

[RejZoR]

On 7/19/2020 at 7:06 AM, NZgamer said:

poop 0/10

Imagine my shock when I got the same message. All these companies doing this crap and then endlessly whining over piracy should just die and disappear... Like Spotify which does the same crap. And I'm from Central Europoe, not from Republic of frigging Kongo (not that I have anything against them, just ranting).

[WereCat]

unavailable in EU as well

[Bombastinator]

On 7/19/2020 at 12:06 AM, RadiatingLight said:

I still can't understand why their marketing department decided that peacock was a good name

Nobody even knows that their logo is supposed to be peacock feathers, or whatever.

Some do.  It might not be Even somewhat common though.  One would assume they did some sort of study for that. Study might have been garbage.

[Bombastinator]

16 minutes ago, RejZoR said:

Imagine my shock when I got the same message. All these companies doing this crap and then endlessly whining over piracy should just die and disappear... Like Spotify which does the same crap. And I'm from Central Europoe, not from Republic of frigging Kongo (not that I have anything against them, just ranting).

NBC is an American tv network.  Could be regionalism.  Not many networks from Central Europe release stuff in the US either.  Netflix went global but it took years.  It’s early days.

[MageTank]

16 minutes ago, RejZoR said:

Imagine my shock when I got the same message. All these companies doing this crap and then endlessly whining over piracy should just die and disappear... Like Spotify which does the same crap. And I'm from Central Europoe, not from Republic of frigging Kongo (not that I have anything against them, just ranting).

"All these companies" have very little control over distribution rights and licensing agreements. If you have a local service provider in your country with exclusive rights to distribute the same content, they are legally bound to not offer you the service. It's possible they could offer you a terrible watered down version of the service with a ton of content gutted to avoid any legal issues with distributing specific content, but that would probably do more harm than good when word of mouth spreads that their free service is basically worthless because it has no content. That, and they'd also need to weigh the cost in operating in those parts of the world to determine if it's even worth doing so.

 

This is nothing new, and is exactly why Netflix offers different content to different parts of the world. As easy as it is to blame the streaming services, they are not the ones in charge of who gets streaming rights in which regions.

[Donut417]

On 7/19/2020 at 1:06 AM, NZgamer said:

poop 0/10

Not surprised. NBC is one of the US major TV networks. They probably won’t offer it outside the US. Plus much of the Universal content is probably licensed to other distributors any way out side the US. This makes it difficult. This is why many titles were missing from Disney + in the early days. 

[RejZoR]

14 minutes ago, MageTank said:

"All these companies" have very little control over distribution rights and licensing agreements. If you have a local service provider in your country with exclusive rights to distribute the same content, they are legally bound to not offer you the service. It's possible they could offer you a terrible watered down version of the service with a ton of content gutted to avoid any legal issues with distributing specific content, but that would probably do more harm than good when word of mouth spreads that their free service is basically worthless because it has no content. That, and they'd also need to weigh the cost in operating in those parts of the world to determine if it's even worth doing so.

 

This is nothing new, and is exactly why Netflix offers different content to different parts of the world. As easy as it is to blame the streaming services, they are not the ones in charge of who gets streaming rights in which regions.

Yes they do. They ALL need to stop being stuck in the past century. That's what they can do. All this regional nonsense and licensing bullcrap needs to die. In all honesty I couldn't care less what their problems are with licensing and regions. That is none of my concern as a consumer and it should be in their best interest to get rid of it or update it. It's on them to solve this crap and be in touch with modern times. Why could gaming industry step up this thing, but movie industry can't? There is very little region locked or limited games, but for movies and video content it's all locked and restricted. It's absurd and idiotic.

[Bombastinator]

10 minutes ago, RejZoR said:

Yes they do. They ALL need to stop being stuck in the past century. That's what they can do. All this regional nonsense and licensing bullcrap needs to die. In all honesty I couldn't care less what their problems are with licensing and regions. That is none of my concern as a consumer and it should be in their best interest to get rid of it or update it. It's on them to solve this crap and be in touch with modern times. Why could gaming industry step up this thing, but movie industry can't? There is very little region locked or limited games, but for movies and video content it's all locked and restricted. It's absurd and idiotic.

It’s definitely not how the world works anymore with the internet being (mostly) international. There are a few exceptions in Asia.  

[MageTank]

1 hour ago, RejZoR said:

Yes they do. They ALL need to stop being stuck in the past century. That's what they can do. All this regional nonsense and licensing bullcrap needs to die. In all honesty I couldn't care less what their problems are with licensing and regions. That is none of my concern as a consumer and it should be in their best interest to get rid of it or update it. It's on them to solve this crap and be in touch with modern times. Why could gaming industry step up this thing, but movie industry can't? There is very little region locked or limited games, but for movies and video content it's all locked and restricted. It's absurd and idiotic.

Then vote with your wallet and refuse to consume their content. If you resort to piracy, they'll just use piracy as the excuse that they are making less money, and blame piracy as the problem, not their inability (or refusal) to adapt to modern technological ecosystems. Everyone likes to complain about a system being broken, but are the first to bypass the system entirely instead of putting in the effort required to help fix it. We always take the easy way out and it never pays off in the long run. You want them to change the system as a whole? Don't consume the content until something changes, period. This also means don't pirate the content because that shows you are clearly interested in consuming it, and you give them that extra bit of fuel to blame piracy. We can't have it both ways.

 

EDIT: Oh, and it's still very much a thing in video games. You've touched upon region locks (albeit, glossing over it as "very little"), but there are entire genre's with regional blocks in place, MMO's being the largest and easiest example of this. There are different companies with different regional publishing rights to MMO's. Let's use one of my classic favorites as an example: Perfect World. There was a publisher for NA, Malaysia, China, Russia, and most recently, France. Prior to the launch of Perfect World International, you could play on the PW Malay-Eng servers from within the US, but after PWI launched, they announced the shutdown of the Malaysian English server and barred US players from connecting. This was not the only MMO to do it either, as you can go back to older MMO's like Silkroad Online, or newer MMO's like Age of Wulin/Wushu and their respective international servers.

 

There are entire digital store fronts with digital product keys that will not activate outside of specific regions. I bought a humble bundle 12 game bundle pack and one of the Castlevania games was ineligible for redemption despite buying the pack in the US through a US storefront. It might not be on as large a scale as movie/television distribution licensing (let's face it, the TV/movie industry has been around decades longer than the gaming industry), but it still exists in just as aggressive of a form. This is completely ignoring platform/marketplace exclusivity that is currently plaguing the gaming industry as a whole, which one could argue is similar to Disney/Netflix exclusivity on streaming titles, but I'll leave that argument for another time.

[Lurick]

And the service is dead to me. They locked out Roku and Amazon devices from even using it.

[MageTank]

7 minutes ago, Lurick said:

And the service is dead to me. They locked out Roku and Amazon devices from even using it.

Their device compatibility list is all kinds of odd. They support LG TV's and Xbox consoles, but not Samsung TV's or Playstation consoles? Seems like they are leaving a lot of potential consumers up for grabs here.

[Donut417]

49 minutes ago, Lurick said:

And the service is dead to me. They locked out Roku and Amazon devices from even using it.

Heard they are in talks with Amazon and Roku, won’t be long before it’s available. 
 

The fact is I only watch one NBC show and it’s on broadcast TV..... So no point. Plus NBC is owned by Comcast and I refuse to give those bastards any more then we pay for internet. 

[RejZoR]

@MageTank

 

"Then vote with your wallet and refuse to consume their content."

 

And how am I suppose to do that on an entirely unavailable content?

[Bombastinator]

22 minutes ago, RejZoR said:

@MageTank

 

"Then vote with your wallet and refuse to consume their content."

 

And how am I suppose to do that on an entirely unavailable content?

Sounds like you’re already doing it then.

[Kisai]

7 minutes ago, RejZoR said:

@MageTank

 

"Then vote with your wallet and refuse to consume their content."

 

And how am I suppose to do that on an entirely unavailable content?

This is exactly how the piracy argument goes.

a) Program/Title is only available in geoblock region

b) Someone inside that region decides that's stupid, copies it and passes it to someone outside the licence area, since there is no licence in that area, the argument stands that they aren't breaking any laws, only the person who made the copy has.

c) Person outside the geoblock region then eventually just shares it with anyone who wants it, eventually leading to widespread piracy.

 

Like it's as if nobody learned from Game of Thrones or The Walking Dead (both which are high on piracy lists due to their origins on HBO and AMC, which aren't available outside the US, and those shows are shown on different channels or only available as VOD outside the US)

 

Game of Thrones in Canada is only available if you pay for the extortionate cable package that includes HBO Canada, which is not HBO America. You only get HBO if you pay for the Netflix competitor Crave at $20/mo on top of paying $40 for the base package of 39 channels that include Canadian channels CBC, CTV, Global, with American channels ABC, CBS, NBC, and FOX from the nearest American city (which will be either Seattle or Detroit.) The rest is basically rubbish faith and multi-lingual services that nobody watches or isn't even aware of. They put all their marketing into trying to sell you Crave/HBO. I don't think I've ever seen any other channel advertised on any Canadian network.

 

Now, just to make things clear, AMC is available as a individual channel, but HBO is not. You are basically forced into paying $60/mo (the basic tv package and a premium package) just to get one channel, and even then you might only care about the VOD portion, which isn't very good. You are better off dropping the TV service entirely and watching the AMC content on Netflix, when it's available on Netflix (in which "The Walking Dead" is available, but not it's spin offs.)

 

If you want cartoon channels, you have to pay for four separate packages, because they're split across Canadian, American and Disney packages plus Adult swim is over in another package entirely. 

 

Which I must point out one final thing. You have to pay for a $80+ internet package on top. So you can not even get HBO for less than $140mo (80 for internet, 40 for basic, and 20 for premium service.) Did I mention that the only 4K/UHD channel is Netflix?

 

[NumLock21]

On 7/19/2020 at 1:06 AM, RadiatingLight said:

I still can't understand why their marketing department decided that peacock was a good name

Nobody even knows that their logo is supposed to be peacock feathers, or whatever.

How can people not know it's a peacock. I even knew it back when I was like 5.

[MageTank]

38 minutes ago, RejZoR said:

@MageTank

 

"Then vote with your wallet and refuse to consume their content."

 

And how am I suppose to do that on an entirely unavailable content?

 

15 minutes ago, Bombastinator said:

Sounds like you’re already doing it then.

Yup. If the content isn't available in your area through any distributor (extremely unlikely, but I'll give you the benefit of the doubt), then don't just go pirate it thinking it will prove a point. These companies are ran by old out of touch business men that refuse to acknowledge their own failures. If you pirate the content they are licensed to sell, they'll use your piracy as an excuse to maintain the status quo, because it's not their mistakes causing a loss in revenue, it's those dastardly pirates and their refusal to pay.

 

I get it, it sucks when content you want to consume isn't available in your area, even if you are willing to pay to consume it. That doesn't entitle you to simply pirate it online because "Oh well, I tried to pay for it". Reach out to the license holders and let them know people in your geographical area have an active interest in the content. Will anything come of it? Probably not, but it's better than contributing to the problem at large while complaining that nothing is changing.

[BuckGup]

On 7/19/2020 at 12:06 AM, RadiatingLight said:

I still can't understand why their marketing department decided that peacock was a good name

Nobody even knows that their logo is supposed to be peacock feathers, or whatever.

Pea is better than poop. All I'm sayin

[Derangel]

4 hours ago, RejZoR said:

Yes they do. They ALL need to stop being stuck in the past century. That's what they can do. All this regional nonsense and licensing bullcrap needs to die. In all honesty I couldn't care less what their problems are with licensing and regions. That is none of my concern as a consumer and it should be in their best interest to get rid of it or update it. It's on them to solve this crap and be in touch with modern times. Why could gaming industry step up this thing, but movie industry can't? There is very little region locked or limited games, but for movies and video content it's all locked and restricted. It's absurd and idiotic.

In most cases the fault does not lay with the content producer, but with the licensing and distribution laws and regulations in various territories. For example, you will often see movies get distributed by different companies in different regions because the license owner cannot release the movie in that region themselves and require another company to do it for them. The reasons why vary from region to region, but the end result is that it isn't always the fault of the license holder. This happens all the time with TV shows and even games as well.