Peacock Review: New Movies, Noteworthy Originals and Live Sports Will Keep It in Your Rotation

7.8/ 10
SCORE

Peacock

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Pros

• Quality original series and recent theatrical releases
• Lots of options for fans of NBC and Bravo
• Live sports like WWE, the Olympics and NBA in the fall

Cons

• No longer offers Hallmark programming
• Less comprehensive library compared to rivals like Netflix
• No downloads, local NBC station unless you’re on the more expensive tier

With roughly 41 million subscribers, NBCUniversal streaming service Peacock has found more and more fans since its 2020 launch. After adding buzzy series like The Day of the Jackal and box office hits like Wicked, it’s leveling up its new and original content. However, the service no longer offers Hallmark programming and raised prices in both 2023 and 2024.

Peacock, though not as large as some of its rivals, looks similar to Netflix, Hulu, Disney Plus and Max, with a simple tiled interface lined with famous network shows.

You’ll find shows, movies, live sports and always-on channels, with standouts including Poker Face, The Office and Modern Family. If you upgrade to Peacock’s Premium Plus tier, you get downloads, your local live NBC station and fewer commercials in addition to the perks of the Premium tier.

An ad-supported Peacock Premium subscription costs $8 per month or $80 per year and gives you access to thousands of hours of content. That includes films straight from theaters, Peacock originals, always-on channels and series like The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, Law and Order: SVU and Saturday Night Live. You’ll also get next-day access to new episodes of current NBC shows.

Peacock once offered a free tier for new subscribers, but now that option is only available for some existing customers who want to downgrade their account from a paid, premium version. For those who have had the free tier, there is a catch. Popular shows like The Traitors and Poker Face only offer one episode on the tier, with the rest behind the Premium paywall. And some shows, like Parks and Recreation and The Office, are entirely off-limits unless you upgrade.

Peacock’s live sports offering is a strength, and you can watch with a standard Premium subscription. It has NFL Sunday Night Football, the US Open, WWE wrestling, the Premier League, the Olympics and, starting in the fall of 2025, live NBA games.

Whether you’re willing to pay $8 to $14 a month when you already have the other major streaming services will depend on how much you want to watch content like The Office, Days of Our Lives, Yellowstone and live sports.

Read more: 11 of the Best Peacock Shows to Stream Now

How many ads does Peacock have?

I tested out the streamer’s $8 per month ad-supported tier, Peacock Premium. It’s also worth mentioning that subscribers to Peacock’s $14 per month ad-free Premium Plus tier will still see commercials on «a small amount of programming, Peacock channels, live events and a few TV shows and movies,» according to Peacock.

I watched an episode of the most current season of Love Island USA on a laptop, and the ads were tolerable. You can view how many commercial breaks will appear in the progress bar, and I counted five outside of a 15-second ad roll before the episode started. Breaks lasted between 60 and 90 seconds, and in total, I watched about 6 minutes of ads over the course of the hour-long episode.

Next, I watched a season 2 episode of Poker Face, another show currently airing. This time, I viewed the episode on a TV using a Roku streaming device. I noticed a key difference when watching on a TV vs. a laptop — poster-like ads on-screen when I pressed pause. Otherwise, the ad load didn’t differ much. Including an ad roll before the episode, I saw six ad breaks for a total of 6 minutes and 15 seconds of commercials over the 48-minute murder mystery installment.

My experience with ads during movies went a bit differently. Instead of scattering commercials throughout Wolf Man, Peacock front-loaded the horror flick with 2 minutes and 35 seconds of ads. After the pre-movie block of commercials, I could enjoy the rest of the film on my laptop without interruptions.

Familiar navigation (for the most part)

Peacock’s homepage is similar to what you might see from other streaming services. There’s a big carousel of «hero» tiles at the top and rows of thumbnails below, labeled Peacock Picks, Continue Watching, Peacock Originals, Family Movie Night and so on. You can view Top 10 lists for shows and movies or choose to see content from a specific brand like Bravo or Universal Pictures. You can also seamlessly search for specific titles, but if you type in «originals,» it won’t spit out a list of Peacock Originals.

Note that Peacock does have kids profiles with movie options like Shrek 1 through Shrek 3, Despicable Me 1 through Despicable Me 3 and the 2025 animated flick Dog Man. Parents can limit the content accessible on these profiles by selecting from one of three maturity ratings: Little Kids (TV-Y), Older Kids (TV-Y7, TV-G, G) and Family (TV-PG, PG). It’s important to note that kids may see child-friendly content on their profile that they can’t watch because of their pre-set range. If they try, they will get blocked and see a message that says «this content exceeds the maturity ratings limit set for this profile.» Parents also have the option of setting a PIN to keep kids from switching to their adult profile.

Browsing deep into NBC’s back catalog

Peacock is a trove for fans of NBC and Bravo shows, offering comedies like 30 Rock and Parks and Recreation, reality series like Real Housewives and Below Deck and Law and Order spin-offs. Peacock has also become a destination for buzzy originals like The Day of the Jackal and the popular dating show Love Island USA. Poker Face and Ted are other originals that have earned multiple seasons.

Some shows you might associate with NBC, like Friends, Seinfeld and Frasier aren’t on Peacock, and don’t seem to be coming any time soon. Series may be incomplete — for example, you’ll only find nine out of 24 total seasons of Law and Order.

In the Movies category, you’ll find hundreds of titles, organized by genre, franchise and new additions for the month. The platform regularly streams recent theatrical releases like Nosferatu, Conclave and The Wild Robot — a perk for people who prefer to wait to watch films at home. But unless they’re originals, you shouldn’t count on titles to stick around on Peacock forever — the latter two of those movies are now on Prime Video and Netflix.

Peacock is currently home to Oscar best picture winner Oppenheimer and the conversation-dominating Wicked. In October 2023, Five Nights at Freddy’s had a same-day premiere on Peacock. Peacock’s original shows outnumber its original movies, but you can still find some options such as Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy.

Peacock helpfully displays Rotten Tomatoes ratings, both showing the critics’ score and the audience score. Movie thumbnails may include a red-tomato, «fresh» rating but don’t display a score if the movie is rated «rotten.» You can see the score for any movie with a Rotten Tomatoes rating, alongside the audience score, after selecting it.

‘Channels’ mixes live TV and on-demand

The Channels section of the app looks kind of like a cable box grid guide, but instead of various networks and cable channels, you get themed channels around Peacock’s programming. For example, you can tune into re-runs of The Office or Vanderpump Rules on loop. Other channels include Best of WWE, Dateline 24/7, Game Show Central and Spanish-language content from Telemundo. If you want to replicate the experience of channel surfing and watching whatever’s on, this feature may be worth a try, but you should prepare to see some ads, even if you have Premium Plus.

A big appeal to the Channels section will likely be its live sports and news programs, which offer a decent selection of live NBC programming. These include NBC News Now, Sky News, NBC channels for major cities like New York and Los Angeles and NBC Sports Now.  If you pay for Premium Plus, you will be able to watch your live local NBC station. However, unlike live TV streaming platforms such as YouTube TV or Hulu with Live TV, there’s no option to record programming to a DVR.

Should you get Peacock? 

If you like NBC, Bravo, Universal Pictures movies or need a new original show to stream, why not try it out? If the ads bug you, you can upgrade, and if you want to pay less, you can find deals depending on your internet, phone or cable provider. Some cable customers can get it for free.

You may view Peacock as less of a must-have streamer compared to rivals like Netflix or Hulu, but it may still be worth getting for its price point and attractive content offering. If you don’t mind watching a few ads, it’s a fun place to explore movies and a big mix of TV shows, and keep up with current NBC shows, reality TV, news and live sports in one spot.