Peacock streaming service soft-launches for Comcast customers

NBCUniversal begins the rollout of its streaming service, Peacock, just to Comcast Xfinity subscribers at first. Yahoo Finance's Brian Sozzi, Alexis Christoforous, and Dan Roberts discuss.

Video Transcript

BRIAN SOZZI: I want to get right to our Dan Roberts who is closely following the launch of Peacock. Dan, I almost forgot about this.

DAN ROBERTS: Exactly right, Brian. I think a lot of people almost forgot. Besides, we just saw the launch of Quibi. I mean, the streaming services are coming out rapid fire.

Now, what's interesting about Peacock today, it's really just a soft launch. It's launching today for existing Comcast Xfinity customers. So this was always the plan. This hasn't been moved up. Although, a number of critics out there, or you could say supporters, onlookers in the industry, think that Peacock should move up the full launch date. As of now, NBC is still saying it plans its full launch for July.

Now, of course, that was initially pegged to the Olympics. That was going to be the big get for Peacock. No Olympics now, the Olympics are in a year.

Now Peacock will still have sports when sports come back, like the NFL, because NBC has rights there. But, for now, no sports, so I think there's a pretty good argument for Peacock's launch to be moved up. But, today, it's just existing Comcast Xfinity and Flex customers who can get it.

And I think there is a lot to offer. And now the problem is, are there going to be people who sign up for Comcast now to get Peacock? I highly doubt that. This is a time when more people are cutting the cord than, I guess, retying the cord. But it's a nice give for existing Comcast customers. There's a big library of shows on here.

Now, of course, the big thing everyone wants to know about is "The Office." "The Office" isn't going to be on this thing until January 2021. But there are a lot of well-known NBC shows.

You know, there's-- there's "Parenthood." There's old shows like "Coach." There's "30 Rock." There's "Parks and Rec," "Friday Night Lights," a terrific high school football show.

So there is a lot on the platform. And I think that this soft launch for Comcast customers gives NBC a chance to test the waters and see how people react to it.

ALEXIS CHRISTOFOROUS: What about "Friends," Dan? I didn't hear you talk about "Friends." What's going on there? Because we know Netflix doesn't have the "Friends" sitcom anymore.

DAN ROBERTS: That's right. Yes, "Friends" is going to be on this thing. And, look, NBC spent a lot of money to get back its own show. And, by the way, I'm not necessarily so-- so bullish that, you know, just because "Friends" was a big show on Netflix, there are going to be people who sign up for Peacock just to watch "Friends." But, yes, "Friends" is on this thing, going to be on this thing at July launch.

I think, overall, you know, there has to be more than one or two shows to get people to sign up for this. I mean, yes, there's a contrarian argument because Hulu, Amazon Prime, Netflix, each of those things kind of made their name on one, huge, must-watch show. You know, for Hulu, it was "Handmaid's Tale." For Amazon Prime, it had "Transparent," and now it has "Marvelous Mrs. Maisel."

But, in NBC's case, I think people forget-- and I'm a skeptic too about Peacock. But people forget just how strong the kind of NBC IP library is. I mentioned the shows. There's a lot of movies to-- "ET" and some other Spielberg movies. There's going to be a lot of movies that launch.

And then, eventually, there will be Peacock originals. Although, man, because of coronavirus, they cannot film that stuff right now. So it's going to be a longer time before it has the original shows.

BRIAN SOZZI: Dan, I'm already lost. How much does Peacock cost?

DAN ROBERTS: So the ad-supported version is about $6, which puts it comparable to Hulu. Now an interesting wrinkle with that is that there are some NBC shows that are on Peacock at launch that will also still be on Hulu for a while, like "Parks and Rec," because Hulu has a deal to have those shows until 2024. So, for a while, they'll be in two places, which I think is not great for Peacock. It kind of hurts Peacock.

But, again, I think the biggest thing that hurts Peacock right now is the lack of sports and the delay of the Olympics. Now, right now, the Comcast Xfinity people can get a premium version for free, but, eventually, when it launches to everyone, you can pay about $6 for ad-supported, or you can pay I think $9.99 for no ads.

And, again, I think it's a time when people might be willing to add a new streaming service. The problem is, if NBC waits until July, coronavirus quarantine might be over by then. So I think, if NBC is smart, hurry up. Put it out sooner.