NBCUniversal has increased the price of Peacock's Premium and Premium Plus plans.
New customers will now pay $5.99 per month (or $59.99 per year) for a Premium subscription, which is an increase of $1 per month. The Premium Plus tier now costs $11.99 per month (or $119.99 per year), which is an increase of $2 per month.
Existing subscribers pay these higher prices from Aug. 17 and will see the increase on their next billing cycle. As to why the price is going up, NBCU explained it's to allow for investment in content and will help keep the service competitive.
The streaming service had 22 million subscribers at the end of the first quarter this year and currently offers over 80,000 hours of content, Variety notes. Premium subscribers can watch all of it, along with new movies "fresh from theaters," next-day access to the latest content from NBC and Bravo, live sports, and more than 50 always-on channels, but there are ads. Paying the extra $6 per month for Premium Plus removes the ads and unlocks access to your local NBC channel.
Peacock is certainly not alone in raising its prices. A Hulu subscription jumped $1 per month for the ad-supported tier and $2 per month for the ad-free tier last October. ESPN+ increased by $3 per month last August, and Disney+ went from $7.99 to $10.99 per month in December. Netflix and Apple TV+ pricing also increased last year.
Back in February, NBCU axed Peacock's free streaming tier for new users, but softened the blow by offering new customers one year of access to the Premium subscription for $29.99. Anyone who took up that offer will therefore avoid this price hike until early next year.