Four price hikes in four years. That’s the track record Peacock is asking its 48 million subscribers to accept, and this time the increases are steep enough to make even loyal viewers pause. As TechCrunch reported, the NBCUniversal-owned streaming service is raising prices across every plan it offers, with changes taking effect August 18 for new and returning subscribers.
The ad-supported “Select” plan goes from $7.99 to $8.99 per month. The ad-supported “Premium” tier jumps from $10.99 to $12.99. And the ad-free “Premium Plus” plan, the one most privacy-conscious users gravitate toward, climbs from $16.99 to $19.99. Current subscribers get a short grace period, with increases hitting on their next billing date after September 17. Annual subscribers and anyone on an active promotional rate keep their current pricing until those plans run out.
Peacock’s official justification, posted on a support page, is boilerplate stuff: the increases “allow Peacock to continue to create the best experience for its viewers, remain competitive in the marketplace, and deliver unique content across all genres.” That’s the kind of statement that says everything and nothing at the same time. What it doesn’t address is what subscribers on the cheaper ad-supported tiers are actually giving up beyond money, which is attention, behavioral data, and viewing habits, all fed into ad-targeting systems.
This matters because the ad-supported plans aren’t just cheaper. They’re a different product entirely from a privacy standpoint. Peacock, like most ad-supported streaming platforms, collects detailed viewing data to serve targeted ads. The new $8.99 “Select” tier and $12.99 “Premium” tier both still include ads, which means users on those plans are paying more while continuing to hand over the same data. The price goes up; the data collection doesn’t stop.
Peacock has been busy adding features to justify the cost. Recent additions include an AI-powered “Bravoverse” vertical-video feed pulling clips from reality franchises, a live sports streaming feature that uses real-time AI cropping for phone screens, and two new mystery games built with AI gaming startup Wolf Games. A partnership with YouTube Premium is also coming, set to bring Peacock’s Premium plan to YouTube subscribers in the U.S. starting early 2027.
The platform did just report its first-ever profitable quarter, with subscriber growth driven by the NBA playoffs, FIFA World Cup, and “Love Island.” So this isn’t a service bleeding money and raising prices to survive. It’s a service that turned a profit and raised prices anyway. That’s a different conversation.
Peacock is not alone here. Netflix, HBO Max, and others have been on the same trajectory, steadily pushing prices up while keeping ad-supported tiers as the budget option, which is also the data-collection option. The pattern across the industry is consistent: ad-free tiers get more expensive, pricing pressure nudges cost-conscious users toward ad-supported plans, and those plans generate revenue twice, once from the subscriber and once from advertisers buying access to that subscriber’s attention and data.
For users who care about privacy, the math is simple. The “Premium Plus” ad-free plan is now $19.99 per month. That’s a significant monthly expense. But it’s the only Peacock plan that actually keeps your viewing data out of the ad-targeting pipeline. Whether that’s worth it depends on how much you value your data and how much you actually use the service. Given that this is the fourth price hike in four years, that’s a question worth asking seriously.