Peacock may increase the cost of its monthly and annual plans again

It looks like Peacock is raising prices again for the second time in less than a year. According to Variety, the monthly Premium with ads plan will “increase by $2 to $7.99”, officially making it more expensive than Netflix’s Standard with ads option. The platform’s Premium Plus (which the report points out is “mostly ad-free”) is seeing a similar hike as it’ll cost $13.99 a month. Variety states “Peacock’s Premium annual price” will soon become $79.99, “while Premium Plus is going from $119.99 to $139.99” for the year.

These changes apparently take effect at different times for different groups. For new customers, they’ll see the increase on July 18. Current subscribers won’t see the hike until or after August 17. It depends on “their next billing date”. 

So the main question on everyone’s mind is “Why?” Why are they allegedly doing this again so soon? No one knows for sure. NBCUniversal has yet to make an official announcement for the second price bump. However, if you look online, people are pointing their fingers at the Olympics.

The Paris 2024 Summer Olympics kick off on July 26 and go on until August 11. NBCUniversal bought the rights to broadcast the games in the United States “with coverage likely to spread across Peacock TV and its suite of TV channels.”

Recent updates

The timing of rumors seemed suspicious to many since the games are only a few months away. Granted, Peacock has made content updates in 2024 that could necessitate charging users more. The platform, for example, gained exclusive rights to stream Oppenheimer back in February.

But, other features like the introduction of Multiview and Live Actions are too big to ignore. If you’re not familiar with them, the former lets you watch up to four different Olympic sports at once. The second allows viewers to continue watching an event rather than move “with the broadcast” to another. On top of that, Roku has revealed it’s partnering up with NBCUniversal to introduce the new NBC Olympic Zone where people can enjoy the summer games on their “Roku TV or device.”

We contacted NBCUniversal for clarification, asking if they would like to comment on the rumors. This story will be updated if we hear back. Hopefully, the rumors remain rumors forever.

If you're excited about the Olympics and are thinking of buying a new display, check out TechRadar's list of the best TVs for 2024. We have a lot of recommendations at different price points.

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