Peacock: Huge disappointment at Sky – The new streaming service is not worth mentioning in Germany

• Peacock started very suddenly in Germany and immediately caused long faces.
• Highlights are lacking and a Sky subscription is mandatory.
• Without an early change of course, Peacock’s future in Germany looks bleak.

A world without streaming services is now hardly imaginable, but the launch of a new provider usually causes skepticism. Many viewers have already subscribed to several services, further costs must have a very good reason.

The streaming service Peacock, which in the USA also acts as the media library of the broadcaster NBC in addition to numerous films from Universal, has now started in Germany and is breaking new ground. It has been clear for months that Peacock will appear in this country as part of the Sky offer and not as an independent service, so Sky users will get Peacock at no extra charge.

This approach is understandable, after all, Peacock, as a brand that is hardly known in Germany, would probably go under if you had to struggle for subscribers without support. But the Sky expansion is disappointing and the launch of Peacock hardly seems to go unnoticed.

Peacock goes under

The launch of Peacock in Germany was only officially confirmed the day before, and there were no major advertising campaigns. Peacock content is what Sky customers are most likely to stumble upon, but to them, Peacock is just another section of their Sky app, offering many series and films that have previously been part of Sky’s offering.

Peacock’s own productions are currently still manageable and not all of them are already available in Germany. In the US, Peacock can boast of being the exclusive home of The Office, but the series, starring Steve Carrell, has recently arrived on Netflix here.

The large “Saturday Night Live” archive, which offers all episodes of the cult show up to the 1970s in the USA, cannot be found in Germany, the same applies to NBC shows such as “The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon”. Peacock not only goes under completely, it also lacks big and exclusive titles.

For Sky customers only

In the US, too, Peacock can’t compete with streaming greats like Amazon Prime Video or Netflix, but the full range can be streamed for $4.99 a month and much of the content is available completely free of charge.

Series fans who are interested in Peacock series like “Girls5eva” or “MacGruber” can’t subscribe to Peacock for a month, they need a Sky subscription directly, which is more expensive than Peacock in the USA even in the best case. So Peacock will hardly attract new customers to Sky, at the same time the integration into Sky could deter potential Peacock users.

The beginning of the end?

It is not known what successes NBCUniversal and Sky are hoping for from the German Peacock launch. In any case, it currently doesn’t look as if the new streaming service will make big waves in this country.

As an independent operator offering Sky customers free of charge, Peacock would have had the opportunity to attract new and Sky subscribers alike. But even then, one should perhaps have waited for the own offer to be larger and more meaningful, Peacock still remains uninteresting in the ever-growing streaming jungle.

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