Lest you think Apple and Disney were the only companies trying to add charges to your credit card bill, NBCUniversal has finally revealed some key details about its own service that’s arriving in 2020—including its name. The company hasn’t set a price just yet, but if its programming slate is up your alley, you’ll have to explain why you’re paying for something called “Peacock” every month. Yes, it’s going with Peacock. The name is a play on NBC’s multicolored logo, but it also sounds like an idea that was left on the 30 Rock cutting room floor.
Just imagine the conversation you’d have with a friend who isn’t literate in all things pertaining to the streaming wars. “I tried Peacock last month, it’s been amazing so far!” you’d beam, before your friend gave you a weird look and said, “Dude, is that another one of those elitist nondairy milks?” On the bright side, at least it isn’t the third new streaming service utilizing a plus sign.
Silly branding notwithstanding, NBC’s strategy for Peacock appears to be a familiar one for the streaming era. Peacock will emphasize reimaginings of pre-established IP. The service will include a new take on Battlestar Galactica from Mr. Robot creator Sam Esmail, a Saved by the Bell revival, and a Punky Brewster reboot. (Reportedly, a reboot of The Office is also a “goal” for the streamer, though nothing has been officially announced on that end.) And where Disney+ can boast a film library that includes Star Wars, the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Pixar, and Disney animated classics, Peacock will be home to movies from Universal Pictures (i.e., the Fast & Furious and Jurassic Park franchises, among many others), DreamWorks Animation, Illumination, and Focus Features. Ostensibly, that means if you want to binge all the Shrek films, courtesy of DreamWorks, you gotta “rock the ’cock”: a phrase customers will definitely use to explain that they are now subscribing to Peacock.
Beyond that, the new streamer will have all the seasons of The Office—courtesy of NBCU shelling out a reported $500 million to retain the rights to the show—along with the entirety of Parks and Recreation, Brooklyn Nine-Nine, Cheers, Everybody Loves Raymond, Friday Night Lights, Downton Abbey, Frasier, and Syfy’s four-season run of Battlestar Galactica. Peacock is wielding some impressive nostalgia plays, and considering Netflix just spent more than half a billion dollars to acquire Seinfeld for five years beginning in 2021, that’s a valuable proposition in and of itself. Peacock will also feature a new comedy series from The Good Place and Parks and Rec creator Mike Schur, a late-night show from Amber Ruffin, and other original series—though it’s unclear which of these will be available upon the streamer’s launch in April.
As far as new streamers go, Peacock has a relatively promising slate of offerings. Apple TV+ has lacked a lot of clarity about its service and what would be available at its inception, only last week revealing its starting price—the consequence of a tech company using the same secrecy it applies to the launch of the latest iPhone for its streaming service. For better or worse, WarnerMedia’s HBO Max will make HBO Go/Now superfluous. And no amount of press releases with A-list stars attached will convince me that Quibi is a real thing. The worst that can be said about Peacock is that it has an objectively bad name. However, it will be home to lots of beloved sitcoms—The Office was more popular on Netflix than any of the streamer’s in-house programs—and new content from established showrunners like Esmail and Schur, making it perhaps the best value-add for potential subscribers, especially now that there are so many streamers that choosing the ones you want to use is not unlike doing a cable bundle.
But it’s obviously way too early to gauge what Peacock’s new content might look like. Battlestar Galactica—the Ronald D. Moore–created revival from the mid-2000s, that is—is among the best sci-fi shows ever made, so running it back carries a high degree of risk. That said, if anyone were up to the task, Esmail’s bona fides between USA Network’s Mr. Robot—a series that is still very good even though it hasn’t gotten a lot of attention after its Emmy-nominated first season!—and Amazon’s Homecoming speak for themselves. Esmail also clarified on Twitter that his take on BSG isn’t a remake, but a chance to “explore a new story within the mythology.” (Plus, perhaps his version of BSG will have a series finale most fans won’t be pissed off about.) And assuming the new Saved by the Bell doesn’t go full Euphoria on us, earnest high school programming might actually feel like a breath of fresh air.
In any event, the impending debut of Peacock next April is yet another reminder that the streaming wars don’t end in 2019 with the arrivals of Apple TV+ and Disney+. More services are going to be fighting for your money and attention, while the TV-viewing landscape becomes increasingly—unsustainably?—fractured. From the consumer’s perspective, this low-key sucks. But if it’s all becoming a tad overwhelming, might I suggest a pivot to literature?
