Peacock gets first international expansion to Sky in Europe

NBCUniversal’s streaming service Peacock will come to Sky customers in Europe later this year.

This is the first international expansion for the US streamer which launched in mid-2020. This comes after the parent company of both NBCU and Sky, Comcast, announced that Peacock has amassed 54 million signups since launch and 20 million monthly active users for the quarter.

Comcast said that Peacock will debut across Sky platforms including Sky Q, Now and Sky Ticket later this year across the UK, Ireland, Germany, Italy, Austria, and Switzerland. All Sky TV customers will gain access to the ad-supported version of Peacock at no additional cost, while Peacock will be bundled as part of the entertainment membership on NOW and Sky Ticket.

NBCU said that the international version of the service will offer content including The Office, Rutherford Falls, Saved by the Bell, Kardashians, and Young Rock.

NBCUniversal CEO Jeff Shell said: “Comcast’s Xfinity has been integral to the success of our go-to-market strategy with Peacock in the US, and we see a similar opportunity to expand internationally with Sky. We are excited to bring Peacock to millions of Sky customers and add incredible value to their platforms with a premium catalog of the best entertainment from across NBCUniversal that is included with their subscription. By leveraging Comcast’s Xfinity platforms in the US, we were able to test and learn, quickly drive scale, usage, and brand awareness of Peacock. We look forward to doing the same with Sky in Europe.”

Dana Strong, group CEO of Sky, said, “Peacock will be a great addition for Sky customers with over 7,000 hours of content at no additional cost. This exceptional value add is another example of the great ways we are innovating to bring more benefits to our customers from the synergies across Sky, NBCUniversal, and Comcast Cable.”

While this is the first international expansion of Peacock, NBCUniversal is yet to mention whether it plans to offer Peacock as a standalone service like it does in the US. As such, there is no indication as to how much Peacock’s pricing structure would look like, or whether it will follow the US model of offering three tiers ranging from free to a premium ad-free tier.

The announcement came as Comcast revealed its results for the quarter. Sky’s group revenue increased by 28% to US$5.2 billion. Direct-to-consumer revenue increased 7.7% to US$4.2 billion, driven by higher ARPU due to lower subscription rates in 2020 when sports were postponed.

Total Customer Relationships decreased by 248,000 to 23.2 million in the second quarter of 2021. For the six months ended June 30, 2021, total customer relationships decreased by 26,000.