Comcast wants Xfinity subscribers to pay for Peacock. In a message on TwitterComcast-owned NBCUniversal confirmed plans to stop offering free access to Peacock Premium to Xfinity subscribers on June 26, 2023 (via Variety).
Peacock Premium, which normally costs $4.99 per month, is an ad-supported subscription that has been available to Xfinity customers at no additional cost since the service first launched in 2020. Details about the change first emerged in a post on Redditwhich an NBCUniversal representative later confirmed Variety And The Streamable.
As part of the change, Xfinity will begin offering a discounted version of Peacock to Xfinity subscribers in place of the free plan. However, it’s still unclear how much this add-on will cost, and the company didn’t immediately comment The edgerequest for comment. The company will also stop offering free Peacock Premium to new Xfinity customers starting April 3, and will only offer six-month free trials going forward.
However, it remains to be seen if this will be enough to retain all viewers who have tuned into Peacock with their Xfinity subscriptions. As an Xfinity customer who’s been getting Peacock for free for over a year now, I certainly don’t look forward to spending extra money on top of all the other streamer services I’m already subscribed to, even if it’s at a discount.
Disclosure: Comcast, owner of NBCUniversal, is also an investor in Vox Media, The edge‘s parent company.
