Today, April 15, is the day Comcast cable customers can access NBCUniversal’s brand-new streaming service, Peacock. That’s the good news; the bad news — because really the world doesn’t have enough bad news right now — is that most of the original programming expected to premiere on the service in the coming weeks and months has been delayed until 2021 because of the coronavirus pandemic.

If you’re one of the Comcast’s 31 million TV or broadband subscribers, you should be able to access Peacock now. According to Variety, this subscriber-only preview “includes more than 15,000 hours of movies and shows, including library titles like Parks and Recreation, Law & Order: SVU, and Two and a Half Men; movies including E.T., Jurassic Park, and Shrek; and exclusive early access to content from NBC’s late-night shows.” By April 30, all Comcast, Xfinity X1, and Flex users should have access.

Those who are not currently Comcast subscribers will be able to access Peacock with a subscription starting on July 15 — although there have been rumblings that given the enormous demand for entertainment at home during the pandemic, NBCUniversal may move that date up. For non-Comcast subscribers, Peacock will have three tiers (Comcast users are getting a preview of the “Peacock Premium” tier):

  • Peacock Free: 7,500 hours of programming - no monthly cost
  • Peacock Premium: 15,000 hours of programming, live sports, early access to late night shows - $4.99
  • Peacock Premium With No Ads: $9.99 for the above without ads.

Thousands of hours of movies and shows sounds pretty good right now; we certainly have plenty of time on our hands. The promised MacGruber series from the creators of the movie would have been better, tho. Alas, it will have to wait.

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