The New York based OTT streaming platform Peacock was launched in the US three years back in July 2020. And ever since its launch, the streaming service has not increased its subscription prices. But now, the OTT platform is set to increase the monthly subscription prices for the first time since its launch.
With effect from 17th August 2023, existing Peacock subscribers will have to shell out almost six times that of the current monthly subscription cost. And the price hike will be immediately effective for new subscribers. The price of Peacock Premium (including ads) will be increased from $1 to $5.99, and the price of Peacock Premium Plus (almost ad-free) will increase from the existing $2 to $11.99 per month.
Since its launch in 2020, Peacock has added more than an impressive 80000 hours of content and will reportedly touch 1 lakh hours of total content in the coming year. Their content library includes some popular films and shows such as ‘Poker Face’, ‘Dr. Death’, ‘Yellowstone’, ‘The Office’, and the ‘Harry Potter’ film series, to name a few.
Last month, it was announced that Indian OTT platform Jio Cinema had become the streaming home for Peacock content in India as part of an agreement between Peacock’s parent company NBCUniversal and Viacom18. And in doing that, Jio Cinema now streams premium foreign content which, besides Peacock, also includes content from HBO, Paramount Plus, and Showtime networks. But to enjoy this foreign content, viewers have to pay Rs.999/- subscription cost.
But now, with Peacock’s monthly subscription prices increasing six-fold in the US, will it affect Jio Cinema’s annual subscription cost in India? We think not. Because Jio Cinema is aggressively marketing its OTT platform in the cutthroat OTT industry in India. And further increasing the subscription cost from Rs.999/- to a higher amount might not go down well with the price sensitive prospective OTT subscribers. At least for now.