Comcast Raises Prices for Peacock Streaming Service Ahead of Summer Olympics Coverage

Peacock’s subscription prices are soaring as Comcast looks for ways to profit from its streaming service. The price of the ad-supported option will jump by $2 to $7.99 a month, while the ad-free version will increase by the same amount to $13.99 per month. These changes come into effect on July 18 for new subscribers and from August 17 for existing customers. The price hike is timed to coincide with NBC’s coverage of the Summer Olympics in Paris, which begin at the end of July. Media companies have been experimenting with strategies that combine advertising revenue and price increases as a means of making streaming profitable. Peacock raised its prices last August by $1 for ad-supported subscriptions ($5.99) and $2 for those without ads ($11.99). Despite Comcast’s recent earnings report highlighting the popularity of Peacock, losses resulting from this platform continue to dent overall financial performance. The company has suggested that these red figures peaked in 2023 and anticipate narrower quarterly loss levels during subsequent quarters as demand grows with events such as sporting fixtures like NFL games or major movie releases on the service. Peacock, which launched two years ago ahead of the Tokyo Olympics (which were subsequently delayed to summer last year because of pandemic-related disruptions), has 34 million subscribers at present. The platform’s revenue rose by more than half ($1 billion) in Q1 this year compared with the corresponding period twelve months previously, driven partly by a boost in advertising revenues which have recently fallen for traditional TV networks. NBC executives forecast that Peacock will generate record levels of ad income as an expanded number of events are screened on both broadcast network NBC and exclusively via streaming service Peacock during this year’s Olympics coverage.