Peacock struts its stuff: Do we need another streaming service?

It’s getting overwhelming, really; in the last year we’ve witnessed the launch of both Disney+ and HBO Max, two enormous streaming services vying for our attention. They both feature hours of television shows and movies from a couple of the biggest media conglomerates in the world. Alongside streaming stalwarts Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon Prime Video, our queues are really stacking up, not to mention our monthly fees. Today marks the launch of yet another: NBC Universal’s Peacock. Is it really necessary?

The best news about Peacock: The base version is free to watch. This certainly stands in contrast to the competition, but in order to get everything the service offers without occasional ads, you’ll have to pay the industry-standard $9.99 a month for Premium Plus. There is also a mid-tier Premium option that unlocks all the content but keeps the ads. It’s pretty similar to Hulu in structure, but with more specific stuff. Behind the pay wall is where you’ll find Premier League soccer games and every episode of Law & Order. For the most part, however, the free service will have more than enough content for the average person. Just get used to watching prescription drug ads.

Just like HBO Max, Peacock is theoretically a single location where everything from a specific company lives, in this case, anything produced by NBC, Universal, or their corporate overlords Comcast. This a magical place where 30 Rock, Jurassic Park, and SyFy film makeup competition show Face-Off all live together peacefully. Also like HBO Max, Peacock is missing some vital content. If you’re looking for something extremely specific, you might be out of luck. The entirety of Law & Order is there, as previously mentioned, but only the last couple seasons of Saturday Night Live, plus a handful of “Best Of” specials.

Interestingly, Peacock offers a feature not seen in other services: Live content channels. This is where you’ll find the Premiere League soccer, but also a number of other channels. Some are fairly self-explanatory, like NBC News Now and NBC sister network Tastemade. But there are also dedicated channels that just play an endless loop of a particular show, like The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon or Hell’s Kitchen. The closest thing we get to my dream of a massive Saturday Night Live vault also lives here, in the form of… the SNL Vault. It plays a random assortment of sketches, but not entire episodes. It’s a unique feature full of potential, but it has ads no matter which subscription model you’re paying for, which might turn some people off.

If the ever-increasing price of streaming is getting you down, Peacock offers a surprisingly hefty amount of content for free, as long as you can stomach the commercials. Even the Premium tiers are relatively affordable. If you simply must see Must See TV shows from yesteryear, need to binge every Dick Wolf show from day one, or want to see original content like Cleopatra in Space (I’m not making that up), it might be worth a shot. If you hate ads or need every possible show and movie right away, then maybe I’d recommend holding off.