If you’re looking for a colorful dose of excellent entertainment, NBCUniversal’s Peacock TV is an attractive streaming service offering great on-demand content. Even following a recent hike of the Peacock price is wildly affordable. There’s something for everyone, from film buffs to sports nuts and fans of TV dramas, plus 24/7 news and televised events like the Super Bowl to bring everyone together.
But before even considering the Peacock price, there’s a free tier that lets you stream a hefty portion of its content at absolutely zero cost, a fact that helps Peacock stand out in today’s crowded VOD market. And, if you want full access, its two paid tiers are brimming with so much quality content that, for the competitive Peacock price, it still gives Max, Netflix, and Paramount Plus a run for their money.
Below we’ll detail how the Peacock price matches up some of the best streaming service heavyweights, so you can decide if a subscription is the right move for you, and any money-saving sign-up deals currently available.
What Peacock prices and plans are available?
Following a recent price hike in July 2023, the NBC’s streaming service offers three different tiers which you can find below:
| Plan | Monthly | Annual | Ads? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Peacock Free | - | - | Yes |
| Premium | $5.99 | $59.99 | Yes |
| Premium Plus | $11.99 | $119.99 | No |
Peacock TV Free is exactly what it says. No credit card details or Peacock TV coupon codes required, just sign-up to stream a pared-back library of film and TV content - an incredible 40,000 hours of it.
Premium provides complete access to the Peacock library. That’s 80,000 hours of movies and TV goodness, including every season of Peacock Original shows like The Traitors, Bel-Air, and the Saved by the Bell reboot. Also watch new episodes of NBC shows the day after broadcast, stream live sports (such as exclusive Premier League matches). The only caveat? It’s an ad-supported plan, which means up to five minutes of commercials every hour.
Premium Plus lets you ditch the annoying ads on everything except live channels and a handful of films and TV shows. You get everything that Premium offers, but with the benefit of watching select content offline on your mobile.
What are the current Peacock deals and free trial availability?
You can currently save 17% off the monthly Peacock price over a year with the annual Premium and Premium Plus plans. Looked at another way, paying annually effectively bags you 12 months for the price of 10, allowing you to stream some of the hottest shows, movies, and live sports.
Unfortunately, the Peacock free trial is no longer available to new subscribers. However, you can still sample a fantastic selection of what Peacock can offer with their ad-supported Free plan, and then decide from there if you'd like to go Premium.
How does the Peacock price compare to Paramount Plus?
Paramount Plus delivers almost identical offerings to the Peacock price plans, with a $5.99 Essential plan and $11.99 Premium plan. The former provides access to programmes from its cable TV networks (including CBS, Comedy Central, Showtime and BET), films from the Paramount Pictures archive, and live sports and news coverage through CBS-affiliated channels.
Meanwhile the pricier $11.99 plan throws in a live stream of your local CBS station, and, like Peacock’s top-tier option, lets you download shows to watch offline. It also combines its on-demand content with Showtime's own catalog of orignals.
The existence of the Free tier on Peacock does give it a bit of an edge. But with almost identical price points and equally diversified offerings, whether you’re Team Peacock or Team Paramount, it will largely depend on your televisual preferences, because both have enviable content archives.
Peacock is the home of Frasier and its planned reboot, comedies 30 Rock and The Office, the entire Harry Potter film series, on top of exclusive WWE and Premier League coverage. Meanwhile, Paramount Plus can boast original series like 1883: A Yellowstone Origin Story, Halo, and multiple Star Trek shows, in addition to RuPaul’s Drag Race, South Park and SpongeBob SquarePants, plus live Champions League matches.
How does the Peacock price compare to Max?
HBO Max is one of the more rarefied streaming services, and boy, does it have the price tag to prove it! With the merger of Warner Bros and Dicovery, HBO Max rebranded to just 'Max' and offers three different Max price points. Its ‘With Ads’ plan is almost twice the Premium Peacock price, coming in at $9.99 a month, while the ‘Ad-Free’ option is a budget-busting $15.99. Now, if you want 4K streams you'll need to stretch to its 'Ultimate Ad-Free' plan, costing $19.99 a month.
All plans have the same 13,000 hours of premium content, with the only difference between them being the ability to stream offline, and how many simultaneous streams you can have at any one time. And the aforementioned 4K resolution for its priciest plan.
Unlike Peacock, HBO Max doesn’t offer digital linear channels or provide more than a smattering of sports programming (e.g. Game Theory with Bomani Jones). But thanks to its wealth of quality programming, it can easily justify the higher fee, including big hits like Euphoria and Succession, and titles from the Warner Brothers archive.
Plus, DC Entertainment fans are in for a treat, because The Batman and Shazam! Fury of the Gods will stream exclusively on HBO Max 45 days after their theatrical run.
Peacock vs Amazon Prime Video: which is better?
Amazon Prime Video has a range of subscription options available to suit your circumstances and entertainment needs. Stream an estimated 20,000 movies and 2,100 TV series...and that's Prime trumping Peacock, at least in terms of quantity.
Popular titles here include Scrubs, Suits, Fleabag, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Poldark, Dexter, and American Horror Story, in addition to Amazon Original series like Tales from the Loop, dark superhero drama The Boys, and in September, the mega-budget Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power.
For $14.99 a month ($139.99 a year), an Amazon Prime subscription includes free delivery, ad-free music streaming, Prime Gaming, Prime Reading, exclusive deals on your groceries, and loads more.
When you start to add Amazon Channels, however – bundles of content from various TV and film studios – things quickly start to get expensive. So, while sports coverage is included with the Peacock price of $5.99 or $11.99 for Premium Plus, it’ll cost extra to get your fix of soccer, basketball, boxing, or baseball through Prime. An NBA League Pass, for example, will double your bill to $29.98 per month.
