Since Comcast’s streaming service launched, it has been free to Comcast Xfinity Video customers and Comcast’s Xfinity Internet customers with Flex. Now according to an internal Comcast presentation posted on Reddit, that will end this Summer.
According to that document Starting April 3rd new Comcast customers will not get Peacock Premium for free.
Update: NBCUniversal has confirmed to Cord Cutters News that after April 3rd new customers will be able to get a 6 month free trial of Peacock. After that free trial, new customers will be billed for Peacock unless they cancel.
Comcast says customers who currently have free Peacock Premium now will lose it on June 26th, 2023. After that, if you still want to have access, you will need to pay.
Notifications about this change will start rolling out on February 13th, 2023.
From a source at NBCUniversal: “As part of Peacock’s growth strategy, we are shifting our focus to the Premium offering, which is more reflective of the brand and the unique experience we can bring subscribers.” Our source went on to say, “focusing on the Premium tier allows Peacock to create the best experience for a majority of viewers, remain competitive in the marketplace and deliver unique content across all genres.”
This comes as Comcast recently stopped offering a free version of Peacock to non-Comcast customers. In the past, you could get a stripped-down version of Peacock for free. Now you must pay for Premium.
According to the most recent numbers, Peacock has 20 million paying customers with 30 million total active users, including its free accounts. That compares to 46 million subscribers to Paramount+, 73.7 million Disney+ subscribers, and 39.4 million Hulu subscribers.
To help grow Peacocks, NBC has recently been moving some shows from NBC to Peacock, including the long-running ‘Days of Our Lives’ show. NBCUniversal hopes this will drive more subscribers to Peacock.
Now though, it seems no one will be able to use Peacock without paying soon.