Peacock gave mystery fans a big reason to celebrate last week, thanks to the director’s debut. Rian Johnson’s first critically acclaimed series Poker face starring Natasha Lyonne as a casual detective who skips a twist, a twist stellar crime The streaming service offered an entirely different kind of mystery on Jan. 31, when it became clear that the all-free subscription tier is no longer available to potential new Peacock customers.
Currently, anyone trying to get a peacock subscription it will only be rewarded two options (opens in a new tab): The standard Premium tier for $4.99/month and the Premium Plus tier for $9.99/month. So for anyone looking to check what saved by the bellThe reboot was like before it was canceled so it will unfairly cost you, preppie.
Note, this is specifically the case for those who are not current customers. Those who are already registered through the free tier needn’t worry about its disappearance for now, according to Le Diffusable.
Long before its launch, NBCUniversal was quick to promote Peacock with strong references to the fact that, like few other premium platforms, it offered edgy audiences a free tier to experience some of its original comedy and drama, as well as its extended version. . licensed content library. Sure, it was as much to please advertisers as it was to fans of The Office and 30 Rock, but nothing tickles one’s ear quite like the word “free,” especially since the prices of those streaming services have skyrocketed everywhere. with 2022 seeing price hikes on Netflix and others, with HBO Max offering its first hike in January 2023. So it’s not completely off the charts all things considered, but it might not be all that bad.
Because removing Peacock’s free tier is probably great for paying customers
Having fully established himself in the streaming service battleground following his pandemic-heavy debut, Peacock has slowly begun to focus his marketing efforts more on his paid tiers while trying to address the genre’s creative issues. original programming that people actively want. pay. More recent successes, such as the reality show. traitorsthe bizarre comedy just ended Paul T. Goldman, The station, beautiful airand others point to a growing sign along these lines, and dropping the free tier is a good sign that Peacock’s executives are now focused (and perhaps desperate) on crafting more remarkable shows that keep viewers pumped week after week.
Of course, everyone’s mileage will vary when it comes to programming quality, of course, but the hard data isn’t that subjective. NBCUniversal’s efforts in 2022 resulted in Peacock doubling its total subscriber base, with more than 5 million of the more than 20 million customers registered in the last three months of the year, which is pretty significant for the platform as it continues to expand. . This time window included previews of television shows. Pitch Perfect: bumpers in Berlin And The Godfather: The Final Chaptersas well as the acclaimed true crime drama a family friendplus monthly WWE pay-per-views and more.
Assuming the powers that be find a correlation between subscriber count and streaming traffic, we can only hope that the studio puts more effort into creating more of what’s most popular. It may never produce Netflix-level content (especially not internationally), but I’m sure everyone from producers to customers would love to see more weekly releases to keep increasing their viewing minutes.
Sure, there’s a debt-ridden elephant in the room, in the form of Comcast’s latest earnings report. While Peacock has already achieved the goals it hoped to achieve by 2025, at least in terms of monthly active users, the company is projected to suffer financial losses reaching $3 billion in 2023, with no clear indicators of proximity (or distance ). arrive. achieve another initial goal of achieving profitability by 2024.
So there’s no denying that Peacock’s abandonment of the free tier has to do with the concept of “don’t give away free content when billions of dollars in debt is knocking on the door.” But since the best way to get money from people is to give them more to spend on it, I think the platform will start generating a wider range of top-rated content in the future. Until you cancel shows before they air or reverse the order of series, as happened with Julie Plec and Kevin Williamson’s new horror project.
While you wait to see how that pans out, head over to our 2023 TV premieres schedule to see what’s coming next.
Source: Cinemablend
