NBCUniversal, looking to pump up its Peacock subscriber numbers, inked a deal with DirecTV to offer the streamer to the pay-TV provider’s customers.
Beginning Thursday, customers of the broadband-delivered DirecTV Stream will be able to add Peacock Premium (with ads) directly to their bill for $2.99 per month, a 40% discount from the $4.99 retail price. According to the companies, the special discounted offer for Peacock Premium “will be extended to additional select DirecTV [satellite] customers in the coming weeks.” In addition, Peacock Premium Plus (without ads) will be available at the standard rate of $9.99/month to both DirecTV and DirecTV Stream subscribers.
For DirecTV, which spun off from AT&T last year, the addition of more over-the-top streaming services is an attempt to keep customers who may be on the fence about dropping their pay-TV service. Last week, DirecTV announced a deal with Warner Bros. Discovery to offer Discovery+ with ads at the same 40% price discount.
“As more DirecTV customers gain interest in [streaming services] from programming partners, including NBCUniversal, we always strive to offer the content our customers want most, using whatever device wherever they are — but also at a strong value they can really appreciate,” Rob Thun, DirecTV chief content officer, said in a statement. “Giving our customers Peacock at an attractive price helps us to accomplish that goal.”
Peacock Premium features original series, movies, news and live sports with content from across NBCU and partners. The service has more than 18 million paying subscribers, NBCU CEO Jeff Shell said last week at an investment conference, again citing the recent decision to claw back content rights from Hulu as helping drive up subs.
“As Peacock continues to grow, we hope to help extend our pay-tv partners’ businesses by providing additional value to their customers,” commented Matt Bond, NBCU chairman, content distribution. “This is a great opportunity to bring an additive experience to DirecTV subscribers through Peacock’s lineup of exclusive original and sports programming, straight-from-theaters movies and library content.”
DirecTV had an estimated 13.5 million subscribers at the end of the third quarter 2022, after losing about 400,000 customers, per Leichtman Research Group.
DirecTV spun off from AT&T in August 2021 in a deal with TPG Capital. As a privately held company, DirecTV no longer reports financials or subscriber figures. However, like the rest of the pay-TV biz, the operator was seeing steady declines over several years amid the rise in cord-cutting.