Peacock claims it has more than 20,000 hours of programming. Starting with on-demand content, Peacock is home to 30 Rock, Cheers, Frasier, Friday Night Lights, Heroes, The King of Queens, The Office, and Parks and Recreation, as well as other currently running NBC shows like Chicago Fire and Law & Order: SVU. Subscribers can watch those episodes on the same day that the programs air.
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Peacock has some original shows, too, and their quality has steadily grown. The list of originals includes A.P. Bio, a comedy about a Harvard professor moving back to Ohio to work as a high school teacher; Brave New World, a utopian drama based on the popular book; Intelligence, a comedy series about government intelligence agencies; a Saved by the Bell remake; and Save Me, a drama about a father’s quest to find his missing daughter. Peacock also lists crime-thriller The Capture, as an original, though it has already existed on BBC for a full season. Arguably its buzziest recent shows include the gritty Bel-Air reboot, reality dating show Love Island, the bizarre true crime doc Paul T. Goldman, and Poker Face from mystery master Rian Johnson.
It has longer-form originals, too. Anthony, a fictionalized account of what Anthony Walker’s future might have been had he not been murdered in an unprovoked racist attack; In Deep with Ryan Lochte, which explores the Olympian’s scandals and career; a sequel to the original Psych movie called Psych 2: Lassie Come Home; and Speedways, a documentary on racing tracks narrated by Dale Earnhardt Jr. Plus, there are new family friendly cartoons, including Cleopatra in Space, Curious George, and Where’s Waldo?.
Producing high-quality original shows is no easy task. Although Netflix and Prime Video seem to launch new shows every other week, Hulu and Paramount+ struggle to match those releases’ pace and track record. Apple TV+ still lags behind the competition in terms of the number of original series it offers.
NBCUniversal’s parent company, Comcast, owns several movie studios, including DreamWorks Animation, Focus Features, Illumination, and Universal Pictures. You’ll find The Super Mario Bros. Movie here. However, many movies have disappeared since our initial Peacock review.
The Bourne, Jurassic Park, and Matrix flicks are currently available to all subscribers, but in the past, some of those films were restricted to higher tiers. Likewise, some Harry Potter films are available to everyone, but later series entries require higher-level accounts. Popular movies on the service include Being John Malkovich, Bridesmaids, Children of Men, Frost/Nixon, Inside Man, October Sky, The Hurt Locker, and Traffic. Many of the classic movies that were available on Peacock when it launched are now gone. Other movie streaming services, including Criterion Channel and Mubi, offer a far broader lineup of classic, indie, and international films.
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Peacock’s biggest opportunity for differentiation is its content from the broadcast NBC channels. For instance, you get episodes from top NBC shows such as Dateline, Meet the Press, NBC Nightly News, and Today. You can also watch comedy, news, sports, and entertainment clips and highlights from across NBCUniversal’s channels, which are very similar to the clips-based channels on Pluto TV and Xumo. A few channels, including NBC News Now and Sky News, run throughout the day, so you can stay caught up on the headlines. Others are dedicated to specific NBC shows, such as Saturday Night Live or Late Night with Seth Myers.
