Xfinity customers may want to rethink staying subscribed to Peacock in the immediate future.
NBCUniversal CEO Jeff Shell recently announced that its Peacock subscription service would soon require payment at some point to offset its declining ad revenue.
Shell's announcement follows NBCUniversal's confirmation that it is no longer offering its free tier to new subscribers, forcing them to choose between its two paid subscription plans.
Peacock Pricing Changes For Xfinity Customers
NBCUniversal, through a reply to a Peacock subscriber on Twitter, mentioned that the complimentary Peacock Premium access they were enjoying would soon end on June 26, 2023, though it didn't reveal any other details as of press time.
However, Shell's statement reveals more than what the tweet shared. According to the NBCUniversal CEO's statement during the Credit Suisse 24th Annual Communications Conference, he said that the company would make Xfinity customers pay for their Peacock Premium subscriptions at some point, per Variety.
This payment requirement may be due to the company's latest selling cycle, which revealed that its ad revenue is falling flat due to "cord cutting being offset by [higher] pricing and Peacock," Shell said during the conference.
Shell revealed that NBCUniversal earns more from advertising on Peacock than from the subscription fees to charges to Peacock subscribers and is "seeing CPMs at the broadest level."
Additionally, this revelation is in spite of the fact that having Xfinity customers pay virtually nothing for their Peacock Premium subscription helped Peacock grow into the subscription service it is today.
Shell mentioned that Peacock caught up to Paramount in two years thanks to its previous marketing scheme - an achievement that the latter did in seven to eight years if Shell is to be believed.
Regardless, this news is consistent with NBCUniversal's efforts to gamble on its success to increase its revenue. The company previously doubled its paid subscriber total from nine million to 20 million subscribers in 2022.
Thanks to this achievement, NBCUniversal feels confident to charge its subscribers to continue accessing its streaming platform.
How Much Will Xfinity Customers Be Paying Soon?
Fortunately, NBCUniversal will be offering its Peacock streaming platform to Xfinity customers at a discounted price instead of giving it away for free, according to The Verge.
However, the company has yet to reveal the pricing of this new discounted version to the public as an add-on to their Xfinity subscription. Previously, Comcast's Xfinity X1 and Flex customers could get Peacock Premium with ads for free - a subscription tier normally priced at $4.99 per month.
Xfinity customers could enjoy their Peacock Premium subscription with no ads at all for an additional cent, which would have cost $9.99 for others.
Meanwhile, a Reddit post under the r/cordcutters subreddit revealed that Peacock Premium to new Xfinity video and Flex customers come April 3. Instead, they will be presented with an offer to get access to the streaming platform for free but only for six months as a trial period going forward.
Related Article: Peacock's Free Tier Is No Longer Available for New Subscribers
