HOLLYWOOD (CNS) - The Peacock streaming service becomes widely available today, offering viewers entertainment, news and sports programming from NBCUniversal, Comcast and the British pay service Sky.
Peacock has a free tier, which includes commercials, a premium tier with commercials costing $4.99 month and a commercial-free tier for $9.99 per month. Both tiers with commercials will have no more than five minutes of advertising per hour.
Peacock is available on Apple devices including iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, Apple TV 4K and Apple TV HD; Google platforms and devices including Android, Android TV devices, Chromecast and Chromecast built-in devices; Microsoft's Xbox One family of devices, including Xbox One S and Xbox One X; and VIZIO SmartCast televisions and LG Smart televisions.
Comcast's eligible Xfinity X1 and Flex customers, as well as eligible Cox Contour customers, will receive Peacock Premium at no additional cost. Peacock will be available on Sony PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 4 Pro beginning the week of July 20.
Peacock launched April 15 for Xfinity Flex and X1 subscribers.
Peacock's more than 13,000 hours of content on its free tier include episodes of NBC programs one week after they air; such past series as “The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson,'' “Columbo,'' “The Rockford Files,'' “The Carol Burnett Show,'' “Murder, She Wrote,'' “30 Rock,'' “Downton Abbey,'' “Hunter,'' “Leave It To Beaver,'' “The Munsters,'' “Punky Brewster'' and “Saved by the Bell''; and the films “Jurassic Park,'' “The Matrix,'' “Psycho,'' “The Birds'' and “The Sting.''
Four exclusive soccer games from England's Premiere League will be streamed Wednesday. Other live sporting events available on the free tier include select events from the Tokyo and Beijing Olympics; an NFL wild card playoff game and golf's U.S. Open and U.S. Women's Open.
Peacock will include more than 30 curated channels Wednesday including ones devoted to “Saturday Night Live,'' “The Office,'' “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon,'' “Late Night With Seth Meyers,'' “Today'' and CNBC.
There will 75 curated channels by the end of the year.
Peacock Premium subscribers will have access to all 20,000 hours of programming on the platform, including its original series, all library series including ”Cheers,'' “Frasier,'' “Everybody Loves Raymond,'' “Two and a Half Men,'' “King of Queens,'' “George Lopez,'' “Law & Order,'' “Law & Order: SVU'' and the entire movie collection which includes and “Shrek.''
The premium tier will also provide earlier access to programming, including “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon'' and “Late Night With Seth Meyers'' at 5 p.m. Pacific Time when they return to in-studio production; and next-day access to current NBC and Telemundo prime-time, daytime and news shows.
Peacock Premium's sports programming includes more than 175 exclusive Premier League games for the 2020-2021 season; cycling's Tour De France along with more than 100 hours of WWE content coming in August.
The Peacock Originals debuting Wednesday are:
-- “Intelligence'' a workplace comedy set in the United Kingdom's Government Communications Headquarters starring “Friends'' alumnus David Schwimmer as a pompous maverick National Security Agency agent who joins the team and enlists an inept and tactless computer analyst (Nick Mohammed, the series' creator) in a power grab that threatens to disrupt the team's ability to combat cyber terrorism;
-- “Brave New World,'' based on Aldous Huxley's novel about a utopian society that has achieved peace and stability through the prohibition of monogamy, privacy, money, family, and history. It stars Harry Lloyd and Jessica Brown Findlay as residents of New London who embark on a vacation to the Savage Lands, where they become embroiled in a harrowing and violent rebellion and are rescued by John the Savage (Alden Ehrenreich), who escapes with them back to New London, where his arrival in the New World soon threatens to disrupt its utopian harmony.
-- “The Capture,'' a conspiracy thriller about the world of fake news and intelligence services starring Callum Turner as a soldier returning to free life with his daughter and his conviction for a murder in Afghanistan was overturned due to flawed video evidence. The cast also includes Ron Perlman and Famke Janssen;
-- “Psych 2: Lassie Come Home,'' a full-length movie spinoff of the 2006-14 USA Network detective comedy-drama “Psych,'' about Santa Barbara Police Department Chief Carlton “Lassie" Lassiter (Timothy Omundson) being ambushed on the job and beginning to see impossible happenings around his recovery clinic, with Shawn (James Roday) and Gus (Dule Hill) returning from San Francisco to be at Lassiter's side and secretly untangle the twisted case;
-- “In Deep with Ryan Lochte,'' a sports documentary about 12-time Olympic swimming medalist Ryan Lochte's attempt to qualify for the Olympics at age 35;
-- “Lost Speedways,'' a look at great racing cathedrals of the past created and hosted by retired stock car racing star Dale Earnhardt Jr.;
-- “Curious George,'' new episodes of the animated series aimed at preschool viewers that aired on PBS Kids from 2006-15, based on the series of books. It incorporates early concepts in math, science, technology and engineering and encourages children to use their imagination and expand their investigations of the world;
-- “DreamWorks' Where's Waldo,'' the second season of the animated series about the international travel missions of 12-year-old Waldo and his best friend Wenda. The 20-episode first season aired on Universal Kids in 2019;
-- “DreamWorks' Cleopatra in Space,'' described by Peacock as “a comedic adventure focusing on the untold story of'' the Egyptian queen's teenage years as she is transported 30,000 years into the future to an Egyptian-themed planet that is ruled by talking cats and where she discovers she is the prophesied savior of the future world.
Future Peacock Originals include reboots of “Saved by the Bell,'' “Punky Brewster'' and “Battlestar Galactica'' and a third season of the comedy “A.P. Bio'' which aired on NBC from 2018-19.