Nearly half a decade ago, Comcast stopped fighting Netflix and invited it on its X1 platform with its so-called "aggregator of aggregators" strategy.
Now, with half a million customers reportedly walking out the door each quarter, DirecTV seems to be following the same recipe. The pay TV company has integrated NBCUniversal's Peacock into its DirecTV Stream UX and is offering the "Premium" partially ad-supported tier of the streaming service for $2.99 a month, 40% off the regular $4.99-a-month price.
DirecTV, which was spun off of AT&T in a deal with private equity company TPG last year, said the deal will be extended to "select" linear satellite TV customers in the "coming weeks."
The no-ads "Peacock Premium Plus" tier is also available via DirecTV but at its usual $9.99-a-month price.
DirecTV announced just last week that it has integrated Discovery Plus into the user interfaces of its DirecTV satellite and DirecTV Stream platforms.
Also read: Peacock Paid Users Have Doubled in 2022 to 18 Million, Jeff Shell Says
“As more DirecTV customers gain interest in, and we add top 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,” said Rob Thun, DirecTV's chief content officer. “Giving our customers Peacock at an attractive price helps us to accomplish that goal.”
As for Peacock, NBCU CEO Jeff Shell said earlier this week that the service is up to 18 million paid members, double what it finished 2021 with.
“As Peacock continues to grow, we hope to help extend our pay-tv partners’ businesses by providing additional value to their customers,” said Matt Bond, chairman of content distribution for NBCUniversal, also in a statement. “This is a great opportunity to bring an additive experience to DirecTV subscribers through Peacock’s line-up of exclusive original and sports programming, straight-from-theaters movies and library content.”
