NBC tried their hand in the realm of streaming services last year when they launched Peacock; however, it was never in the news until recently, when it gained the entirety of the hit show, The Office, from Netflix, making Peacock the only streaming service to offer The Office. The Office’s departure from Netflix has upset numerous people. Most people do not want to keep subscribing to streaming services as it can get very costly. Coupled with the fact that a small number of people are subscribed to Peacock, not many people know whether or not Peacock is worth purchasing.

Peacock has an interesting pricing structure compared to other streaming services such as Netflix or Disney+, where there are different pricing tiers that allow for different content. Peacock offers a free subscription allowing users to watch some shows and gain access to some content. However, most of the content, at least, what people want to watch, is locked behind the paid subscriptions. There are three options: a free subscription that gives you access to some shows with advertisements, a $4.99 per month subscription that allows all of the content, but with advertisements, or the $9.99 per month subscription, that allows all of the content, but with little to no advertisements. 

The service right now, in January 2021, contains a fair amount of content, but nowhere near as much as some streaming services like Netflix or Hulu. There are definitely some popular shows on it, like The Office, but other popular shows such as Parks and Recreation, Yellowstone, and This is Us, are also featured on Peacock. Peacock also houses many movies as well. There is definitely at least some value on the streaming service.

After doing some research about the streaming service and even watching a few shows myself, I do not believe that it is currently worth buying Peacock. However, I am sure that by the end of the year, or at some point, it will gain enough content that it will be worth buying. I just believe that there is not enough to keep people interested and coming back for more. It does have The Office, and as huge of a fan of that show as I am, I do not believe that it is worth buying a streaming service for up to $10 a month just for one show.

As I mentioned, I do believe that Peacock has potential and once they gain access to more shows and movies that are under contracts with services like Hulu, they will definitely gain some steam and see an increase of active subscribers. While I was using Peacock for this review, I observed that it has an easy to navigate interface, and I did not encounter any glitches or buffering issues while using it.

Especially in times like this, where money is so important to so many people, people are not as willing to drop money on a relatively new service when they can continue watching shows and movies on the streaming services that they know. In my opinion, there are already too many streaming services, even subscribing to just a couple of them can get out of hand. 

All in all, I do not believe that buying Peacock as of January 2021 is a smart choice, but at some point, it most likely will be. Having The Office on there is most certainly a plus, but it is not enough to warrant making an investment. I do believe that in due time, Peacock will become more popular and will become a good choice for a streaming service.