Another day, another streaming service – well, sort of. From today, Irish subscribers to Sky's pay-TV packages and also Now entertainment members are being introduced to Peacock, the streamer owned and operated by Sky's US sister company NBCUniversal.
Peacock content – both original programming and NBC's library titles – has been added to Sky's platforms in Ireland and the UK, with Sky's other European markets (Germany, Italy, Austria, Switzerland) next in line. This is described as a soft launch, which possibly reflects the fact that some of Peacock's original content production has been delayed by Covid-19.
The brand's arrival in Europe, initially flagged back in July, is a reflection of two key rearrangements in the media landscape: the acquisition of Sky in 2018 by US telecoms giant Comcast, which is also the owner of NBCUniversal, and the move by rival WarnerMedia to take HBO Max onto the European front of the streaming wars.
WarnerMedia’s ambitions, which will be realised with the aid of a merger with Discovery Communications, will eventually mean curtains for Sky’s long-standing supply of HBO content. This must now be replaced with a step-up in Sky’s own original content commissioning, which is already under way, and a greater leveraging of its relationship with its parent.
In the US, where Peacock belatedly launched last year, the service is available in a limited free tier, in an ad-supported premium version for $4.99 a month (unless bundled in with certain broadband packages) or in a largely ad-free “premium plus” version for $9.99 a month.
Money’s worth
Here, the version of Peacock offered to Sky and Now customers will be ad-supported and come at no additional cost. Like all its competitors, Sky needs to prove that its pay-TV packages and streaming products boast more than enough high-quality content to keep customers signed up and feel like they are getting their money’s worth.
Before the streaming wars, this same US content may have found its way across the Atlantic without being packaged up in its own on-demand brand in this way. In 2021, however, it’s necessary to be shouty about what you’ve got.
The pandemic proved a bumper period for streamers including Netflix and Disney Plus, but already there are signs that the heat is coming out of the market. It comes back to a simple principle: while streaming services appear to have endless resources to commission original content, consumers do not have an endless capacity to pay for them all.
