Laura Orcutt, Comcast’s Peacock Won’t Have Much Original Content This Year as Productions Halt

Comcast’s Peacock Won’t Have Much Original Content This Year as Productions Halt

Streaming service will rely on classics as it launches, with most new shows postponed

By Lillian Rizzo

April 14, 2020 5:24 pm ET

https://www.wsj.com/articles/comcasts-peacock-wont-have-much-original-content-this-year-as-productions-halt-11586899466?mod=djemCMOToday

Comcast Corp. recently offered a new service, Peacock streaming, to its current customers this month and it will be available to the general public in mid-July. At the beginning of the year it promoted itself by highlighting its new, upcoming shows with well-known names like Alec Baldwin, Jamie Dornan, Christian Slater and Demi Moore. Unfortunately, the pandemic has slowed down production and now the service will focus on past hit shows like “30 Rock,” “Parks and Recreation” and the “Law and Order” for now. However, next year, it will have exclusive rights to the “The Office” as well as the Tokyo Olympics.

This is a bit of a new marketing strategy in Price because the company will not be requiring subscriptions, like Netflix, Disney and Apple because they think this market is already saturated. They will be going old-school with a free service supported by ads. The chairman of Peacock noted, “Nothing is more affordable than free”. This supports a penetration pricing policy that we discussed in Chapter 17. Even though this is a new product, it does not seem like the company is promoting it as free for just an introductory price dealing which is a differentiator.

They are a little late to the party as many other networks have offered services, so this Marketing ‘blast from the past’ is just good old-fashioned TV which will hopefully be a sight for sore eyes (literally, because the blue light from my computer and phone is killing me).  

I found this interesting because the economy is going to be experiencing the worst recession on record and its unknown how long it will last. To make it through, I and many others will have to (begrudgingly) cancel our subscriptions to Disney + and other services. I think Comcast may have a fighting chance being able to say they are absolutely free for a portion of their services.