I subscribed to Peacock a little over a year ago, because I got offered a discounted rate ($1.99 per month for the first year), meaning I got a couple of movies I wanted to see, and all of Peacock's other content for that whole year, for less than the cost of renting or buying those movies a la carte.
The discounted rate recently expired, and now it's $5.99 a month. I decided to keep it for a little while longer, if for no other reason than that it hosts NFL Sunday Night Football and just opening the Peacock app on my Roku is easier than futzing with my antenna trying to get good reception of the area NBC affiliate, then revisit the matter.
But then NBC made the decision to have an NFL playoff game -- the wild card Kansas City Chiefs / Miami Dolphins contest -- only on Peacock. Not a paying subscriber? No game.
I wanted to see that game, and as a paying subscriber I got to see it. But I object to playoff games not being available to people who choose to futz with their TV antennas.
Business Insider tells me that "The success of the Peacock NFL game means it could cost you extra to watch the playoffs again next season."
Could that change if Peacock gets a raft of cancellations with notes to the effect of "you made me pay to see NFL playoff games, so from now on I'll skip those games -- and drop your service altogether?" With those notes cced to the NFL?
I doubt it. But in evaluating whether to continue paying for Peacock, this outrage will be part of my calculus. It Just. Pisses. Me. Off.
Our streaming service bills come to a good deal less than we'd be paying for even "basic cable," but all of those services -- Netflix, Amazon Prime, and Peacock, which I pay for, and Hulu with the $2 a month Disney add-on, which Tamara pays for -- are always on the table for cancellation.
The least likely one to be canceled is Amazon, since there are benefits in addition to video; due to price increases, the most likely one was, until this thing with Peacock, Netflix. Now they're neck and neck.
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