Tag Archives: Universal

Comcast and Roku accede to including Peacock on their platform

Streaming is where it is at these days, and Peacock made a big move getting past their difficulties with Roku and landing on the platform.

Peacock
Peacock

News came this week with articles such as this: https://www.theverge.com/2020/9/18/21445982/peacock-roku-streaming-comcast-nbcuniversal-negotiations-apps

This is a huge step for the streaming service, but is it worth it? To see our take, refer to this past article:

Peacock open for business

Still no word on Amazon Fire. Those talks, no doubt, are still ablaze.

Like all streamers, this is a work in motion and slowly finding its feet. I plan to continue watching some classic monster movies here as the big P continues to find out who it is. At least, they didn’t just name themselves Universal+….I’ll just leave that as it is.

Comcast and Roku accede to including Peacock on their platform

Peacock open for business

I have a column about Universal and I actually debated if I should cover this. Well, I think I have to. NBC/Universal’s streaming service, Peacock, is now open for business.

Did you know? I think they made it pretty evident on YouTube with ads displacing the political ads for a week, but otherwise, I think this has been kind of quiet. The service has been open to some cable company customers for a while now, but upon launch, Peacock is not yet available on Roku or Amazon Fire streaming platforms.

Peacock
Peacock

But, on the positive side, it is free. Mostly.

Universal decided to go the ad route. They have paid options, to be sure, but for the most part, it is a free service best I can see with ads. The ads aren’t too bad yet, but YouTube wasn’t bad at first, either. So hold on with that judgment.

Peacock Home Page Screen Grab
Peacock Home Page Screen Grab

Actually, hold on is the best advice in general. We don’t know what they are going to do with the Olympics yet. I’m sure that will be at least partially behind the paywall options. Will they show the Olympics live as well as the tape delayed packages we are used to?

How about movies? Will something like Trolls World Tour premiere on here from time to time? Or am I right at looking this over and seeing it primarily as a TV service?

I mean, their big event promotion hasn’t even happened yet, when they get The Office to return to their shores. They paid a pretty penny to wrestle it back from Netflix, so the impact of that one show could turn a big tide.

They are pushing Brave, New World as their big Sci Fi offering, which hits me as an odd choice. I mean, this is the home of Universal monsters. I am surprised a Horror Hosted Universal Monsters “channel” or choice is available to match their impressive deep dive on the classic horror movies.

We will need to wait and see, but if you are interested NOW, check it out at Peacock. Heck, it can’t be worse than that HBO thingy they flopped around in the boat the last couple of weeks.

Peacock open for business