As a cord-cutter, one of the biggest challenges is making sure you have all the TV you want without paying for the stuff you don't. When a legacy company like Comcast gets into the streaming game, they bring with them their own complexities. With a free service (Xumo Play) acting as a gateway, they've set the stage for a choice between their two paid options: NOW TV and Peacock Premium Plus. For the cost-conscious viewer, it's a decision that pits one type of TV against another. The question is, which is the right one for your home?
NOW TV: The "Skinny Bundle" Approach
Price and Features
NOW TV is priced at $20 a month and offers a small selection of live cable channels. It's a great option for people who want some of the more popular cable channels, like A&E, AMC, Food Network, and Hallmark, without the high price of a traditional cable subscription. This service is exclusive to Xfinity Internet customers and notably does not include live local broadcast networks. A huge bonus is that a NOW TV subscription includes the entire on-demand library of Peacock Premium at no extra cost.
The Ideal Viewer
This service is the ideal choice for a person who is looking for a low-cost way to get a limited number of live cable channels back in their life. It provides a solid variety of popular entertainment and lifestyle channels for a fraction of the cost of other live TV streaming services.
Peacock Premium Plus: The Premium Content Experience
Price and Features
Peacock Premium Plus costs $17 a month (I'm rounding to the nearest dollar), you get the full Peacock library of content with a largely ad-free viewing experience for on-demand shows and movies. Most importantly, this is the only service within the Comcast ecosystem that gives you a live feed of your local NBC station, a key feature for sports and news fans. This plan also includes the ability to download content for offline viewing.
The Ideal Viewer
This service is for the streamer who cares more about an expansive on-demand library and the convenience of ad-free viewing. The included live local NBC affiliate is a major bonus that helps fill a key gap for many cord-cutters.
The Final Showdown: Which to Choose?
The greatest paradox in Comcast's streaming strategy is that a NOW TV subscriber cannot simply upgrade to Peacock Premium Plus for a few extra dollars. Since Peacock Premium is included with NOW TV at no additional cost, you might think the upgrade would be inexpensive, but it is not. A NOW TV subscriber who wants the ad-free viewing and live local NBC must pay the full $17 monthly price for a separate Peacock Premium Plus subscription. This makes it a very poor value to try and get both.
It's worth noting that this is not standard for all streaming services. For example, the upgrade from Paramount Plus Essential (with ads) to Paramount Plus Premium (ad-free with live local CBS and the full Showtime library) costs only about $5 a month.
Because of this, the decision is not about bundling the two services, but about choosing one over the other. The final call comes down to what you value most: a small selection of live cable channels from NOW TV, or an ad-free, live local NBC experience from Peacock Premium Plus.
Comcast has successfully created two different products that target different audiences. It's a clever strategy, as a consumer has to make a clear choice, and there is no simple way to combine the best of both worlds. My Streaming Life has always been about making smart, cost-effective choices that reflect my family’s viewing habits, and this decision is a perfect example of a trade-off that has to be considered carefully.
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