On June 26th, Xfinity will revoke Peacock Premium access from its TV and internet customers. And to add insult to injury, Peacock just closed the door to its free streaming tier, meaning that Xfinity customers must pay at least $5 a month to continue streaming Peacock.
This news was initially leaked to the r/cordcutters subreddit, but it was later confirmed by Variety. And it doesn’t come as much of a shock. Last year, NBCU CEO Jeff Shell celebrated Peacock’s very profitable infancy and told investors that “at some point” the Xfinity promotion would end.
Xfinity is owned by Comcast, which also owns NBCU. So, when Peacock launched in 2020, it made sense to offer the service’s Premium tier to Xfinity customers. Everything changes on June 26th, when Xfinity customers lose Peacock Premium access. (Xfinity will stop offering this perk to new customers on April 3rd.)
Now, in a perfect world, Xfinity customers could simply downgrade to Peacock’s free subscription tier. But new signups for the free tier ended in January of 2023. Existing members may keep their free account, but Premium subscribers can’t downgrade—if you’re subscribed to Peacock Premium through Xfinity, you’ll need to pay $5 a month to continue using the service in any capacity.
Note that Xfinity may offer customers a discounted Peacock Premium membership. But the details for this discount are not finalized, and we only know about the discount because of the Reddit leak.
Source: Xfinity via u/ElegantTobacco, Variety
