Peacock just raised its prices in August, and the three-tier lineup can be genuinely confusing — especially when one plan locks you out of movies and sports entirely. Whether you’re trying to catch the NFL on NBC, binge an Oxygen true-crime series, or hand the remote to someone who won’t sit through ads, the “right” plan depends almost entirely on what you’re planning to watch. This page breaks down every current price, every verified discount, and exactly what you gain or lose at each tier — so you’re not paying $20 a month for something a $9 plan would have covered.
Key Questions, Answered Up Front
In our testing of all three tiers, the biggest source of bill shock isn’t the price — it’s picking Select and then discovering it has no movies or sports. These answers head off the most common mistakes.
Three plans, all with prices effective as of August 18: Select is $8.99 per month (or $89.99 per year) — a narrower tier covering NBC and Bravo shows plus a rotating library selection, but no movies, no sports, and no Peacock Originals. Premium is $12.99 per month (or $129.99 per year) — the full library with ads, including live sports, movies, and Originals. Premium Plus is $19.99 per month (or $199.99 per year) — everything in Premium, but without ads, with downloads for offline viewing, and with a live 24/7 stream of your local NBC channel.
Premium at $12.99/month covers nearly everything the service offers — live NFL games on Sunday Night Football, Premier League soccer, WWE, Universal movies, Bravo reality shows, Peacock Originals, and 80,000+ hours of on-demand content, all with ads. We found the ad load manageable: Peacock targets five minutes or fewer of commercials per hour, which is lighter than cable TV and on par with Hulu’s standard tier. Most subscribers who want Peacock for sports or movies land here. Select is best avoided unless you specifically only want NBC sitcoms and Bravo and don’t care about any of the movies or sports those other services keep advertising on the platform.
Peacock does not offer a dedicated senior citizen discount and has not announced one. The practical workaround for anyone on a fixed income is the annual Premium plan at $129.99 per year — that works out to $10.83 per month, nearly $2.20 less than paying monthly. AARP has occasionally negotiated promotional streaming offers for members, so checking the AARP member deals page is worth 60 seconds before signing up. Otherwise, the annual plan is the strongest discount Peacock offers to the general public without requiring identity verification.
Yes. Eligible college students pay $5.99 per month for Premium — saving $7 per month versus the standard rate. Verification runs through SheerID using a school-issued email address; the process takes about two minutes. The discount covers 12 months and must be re-verified annually, but students can reapply each year and lock in the rate again. At $5.99, Premium costs less than a large coffee per week. One thing to know: the rate snaps back to full price automatically when the 12-month term ends, so set a calendar reminder before the renewal date.
Yes. Active duty service members, reservists, National Guard, veterans, and retirees pay $6.99 per month for Premium for 12 months — saving $6 per month or $72 over the promotional year. Verification also runs through SheerID. Teachers and first responders (including healthcare workers and firefighters) qualify for the same $6.99 rate. After our testing, we found the sign-up page requires a work or ID-verified email, and the discount does not apply to Premium Plus — only to the ad-supported Premium tier.
Peacock allows up to three simultaneous streams on one account, with up to six user profiles. That means a household of two or three people can watch different shows at the same time without bumping each other off — one of the more generous sharing policies among the major streaming services. Peacock has not announced household-sharing restrictions on par with Netflix’s crackdown, though streaming industry analysts note NBCUniversal has flagged sharing as a future revenue lever. As of now, the three-stream limit is the only cap.
It depends heavily on which sports. Peacock carries Sunday Night Football (the most-watched show on U.S. television), select NFL playoff games, Big Ten college football and basketball, Premier League soccer (all 380 matches), PGA Tour golf, and select MLB and NHL games. It also holds exclusive rights to a growing slate of WWE content. If those are your sports, Premium at $12.99 is arguably the single most valuable streaming dollar in the market. If your sport is not on that list — college football conferences outside Big Ten, NBA, boxing — Peacock won’t fill the gap, and adding it on top of another sports service raises your total bill considerably.
The August price hike — $1 more for Select, $2 more for Premium, $3 more for Premium Plus — is the fourth price increase since Peacock launched at $4.99 in 2020. Premium Plus has doubled from its original price. Comcast, Peacock’s parent company, has pointed to rising content costs, sports rights deals (the NFL and Premier League contracts are among the most expensive in the industry), and the standard streaming industry shift away from subscriber-growth-at-any-cost toward profitability. Whether the content justifies the price is personal, but the trajectory is clear: this probably isn’t the last increase.
Every Peacock Plan, Explained Without the Marketing Spin
These are not three tiers of the same experience. Select and Premium have meaningfully different libraries, and the gap between them trips up more subscribers than any other pricing detail on this page.
Select is Peacock’s lowest-cost paid option and also its most misunderstood. When we tested it, the immediate frustration was clicking on a Universal movie or a Premier League game and hitting a paywall requiring an upgrade. Select includes TV shows from NBC and Bravo, a rotating selection of library titles, and 50+ always-on channels — but explicitly excludes movies, sports, and Peacock Originals. That means no Sunday Night Football, no Jurassic World, no Yellowstone continuation, no The Bear. What it does include is solid if NBC and Bravo programming is what you’re after: Law & Order, Chicago franchise shows, Below Deck, Real Housewives, and back-catalog sitcoms. It runs ads. If you ever want to watch a Universal movie or a sports event, you’ll need to upgrade first — and that extra $4/month is probably worth getting right at sign-up.
In our testing, Premium is the plan we kept coming back to as the sensible choice for the vast majority of subscribers. For $4 more per month than Select, you unlock the entire Peacock library: 80,000+ hours of on-demand content including Universal and Focus Features films, every Peacock Original, all live sports (NFL Sunday Night Football, Premier League, Big Ten, PGA Tour, select MLB and NHL), Bravo and E! content, true-crime from Oxygen, and the current season of most NBC shows available the next day after broadcast. We found the ad experience lighter than expected — typically a brief pre-roll and a mid-show break, not the wall-to-wall commercial interruptions you’d get on cable. For sports fans or anyone who wants movies, this is the minimum plan that actually covers what Peacock advertises. The annual plan at $129.99 cuts the effective monthly rate to $10.83 — a stronger deal than paying month to month even if you only plan to watch for eight or nine months.
Premium Plus is Premium with three meaningful additions: no ads, offline downloads on the mobile app, and a live 24/7 stream of your local NBC station. In practice, when we tested downloads, the feature worked smoothly — you can pull episodes onto a phone or tablet and watch on a flight with no Wi-Fi, which Premium users can’t do. The live NBC stream is genuinely useful if you don’t have an antenna or a cable package and want to watch local news, the Today show, or live NBC events in real time rather than on-demand. Where it falls short: some live sports on Peacock carry ads even on Premium Plus — NBC has been transparent that live sports events aren’t fully ad-free at this tier. If you’re buying Plus primarily for ad-free sports, that’s a legitimate disappointment to know before paying the premium. The $199.99 annual plan brings the effective rate to $16.67/month.
All Three Plans Side by Side
Standard monthly pricing effective August 18. Verify current rates at peacocktv.com before purchasing.
| Plan | Monthly | Annual | Ads? | Sports & Movies | Downloads | Live NBC | Streams |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Select | $8.99 | $89.99/yr | Yes | ❌ Not included | ❌ | ❌ | 3 |
| Premium | $12.99 | $129.99/yr | Yes (light) | ✅ Full library | ❌ | ❌ | 3 |
| Premium Plus | $19.99 | $199.99/yr | No (on-demand) | ✅ Full library | ✅ Mobile app | ✅ 24/7 | 3 |
| Premium (Student) | $5.99 | — | Yes | ✅ Full library | ❌ | ❌ | 3 |
| Premium (Military / Teacher) | $6.99 | — | Yes | ✅ Full library | ❌ | ❌ | 3 |
| Apple TV + Peacock Premium Bundle | $14.99 | — | Yes | ✅ Full library | ❌ | ❌ | 3 |
Every Peacock Discount Worth Knowing About
Several verified ways exist to pay less than the standard rate — but most require proactive enrollment. They won’t apply automatically.
College students enrolled at an accredited institution can get Peacock Premium for $5.99 per month for 12 months — a 54% discount off the standard $12.99 rate. Verification requires a school-issued email address and is handled through SheerID at Peacock’s student sign-up page; the process takes about two minutes. The discount must be re-verified annually, and the subscription auto-renews at full price when the 12-month period ends unless you catch it. Set a phone reminder 10 days before the renewal date so you can re-verify or cancel before the full-price charge hits. A student ID card is not sufficient — the SheerID portal requires an active institutional email.
Active duty service members, reservists, National Guard, veterans, and military retirees pay $6.99 per month for Peacock Premium — saving $72 per year versus the standard rate. Military spouses and dependents are also included under most interpretations of the eligibility rules; the SheerID verification portal will confirm on a case-by-case basis. The discount applies only to Premium, not to Premium Plus. Annual verification is required. In our testing, the sign-up flow at the military discount page sent a confirmation email within three minutes of completing verification. Like the student deal, the rate expires after 12 months and snaps back unless you actively re-verify.
K–12 and college educators, firefighters, EMTs, police, and healthcare workers qualify for the same $6.99 per month rate as the military discount. Verification runs through the same SheerID portal at a separate first-responder enrollment link on Peacock’s site. When we checked eligibility, a school-issued email address or employment verification document was sufficient — no union card or badge was required. This discount is less widely advertised than the student and military deals, so many eligible people pay full price without knowing it exists.
Paying annually is the only discount open to everyone regardless of occupation or age. The effective monthly rates work out to $7.50/month for Select ($89.99/year), $10.83/month for Premium ($129.99/year), and $16.67/month for Premium Plus ($199.99/year). The catch — and it’s an important one — is that annual plans do not prorate. If you cancel in month four of a 12-month plan, you lose the remaining eight months of prepaid access and receive no refund. Subscribe annually only if you’re confident you’ll use it for a full year.
The Apple TV and Peacock Premium bundle runs $14.99 per month — effectively getting Apple TV ($12.99/month) and Peacock Premium ($12.99/month) together for $11 less per month than buying them separately, or about $132 in savings per year. In our testing, the bundle is managed entirely through the Apple TV app or Apple’s subscription page; you don’t create separate accounts for each service. The premium-plus version of the bundle (with ad-free Peacock) costs $22.99 per month. One practical note: if you primarily use Roku, Fire TV, or a non-Apple device, the bundle’s interface integration matters less — you’ll just open the Peacock app as normal.
Walmart Plus subscribers ($12.95/month or $98/year for Walmart’s membership) have been able to add either Peacock Premium or Paramount+ as part of their membership and switch between them every 90 days. This effectively makes Peacock free on top of a Walmart Plus membership you might already have for the delivery benefits. It’s also the only current way to access any kind of Peacock free trial — sign up for a Walmart Plus trial and you can test Peacock without a separate Peacock charge. Confirm this benefit is still active at the time you sign up, as streaming bundle inclusions with retail memberships change frequently.
Which Plan Fits Your Situation
Sunday Night Football is one of Peacock’s flagship exclusives, and the service has carried exclusive NFL playoff games in recent years. Premium at $12.99/month covers every Peacock NFL broadcast — no upgrade required. If you’re cutting a $120/month cable bill down to streaming, adding Peacock Premium plus an antenna for local CBS and ABC games brings your NFL coverage to roughly $13 per month instead of $120. We’d suggest turning on the TV app on whatever device you’ll use — Roku, Apple TV, Fire TV, smart TV — and confirming the Peacock app is installed before your first big game. Signal-dependent streaming can have brief buffering during high-traffic NFL nights, so an Ethernet connection beats Wi-Fi if you have the option.
This is where Select at $8.99/month actually makes sense. If your list is Real Housewives, Below Deck, Law & Order SVU, Chicago Fire, and the rotating NBC back catalog, Select covers all of it without requiring you to pay for a sports package you won’t use. That said, test your specific watchlist before committing: Peacock Originals like The Resort, Based on a True Story, or Poker Face require Premium. If any Originals are on your list, jump to Premium — the $4 difference is easier to accept than discovering you can’t finish a series mid-season. When we compared the two libraries side by side, Premium’s inclusion of Universal movies alone makes it the better long-term value for almost everyone.
There’s no senior discount, but the annual Premium plan at $129.99 per year ($10.83/month) is the strongest value available without verification. If you watch Peacock consistently, paying once per year rather than month to month saves $26 annually. Before paying anything, check whether your internet provider includes Peacock: Xfinity internet customers have at times received Peacock Premium at no extra charge as a bundle perk — that situation changes with plan and promotional period, but it’s worth a call to your provider to ask. If you’re an AARP member, check the member deals page before subscribing directly — promotional streaming offers surface periodically through that program. Also worth noting: Peacock runs steep seasonal promotions (including during the holiday period) where Premium has been discounted to $1.99/month for a year. Waiting for one of those if you’re not in a rush can cut the annual cost dramatically.
Downloads require Premium Plus at $19.99/month. In our testing of the download feature, episodes download quickly on Wi-Fi and play without an internet connection once saved. The mobile app (iOS and Android) handles downloads; you cannot download to a laptop or desktop browser. Each downloaded title has a license window — typically 30 days from download and 48 hours from the moment you first press play — so don’t download something six weeks before a trip and expect it to still be there. If travel is occasional rather than constant, consider subscribing to Premium Plus for one month ahead of a big trip, downloading what you need, then downgrading to Premium — Peacock lets you change plans mid-cycle and switch back up when you travel again.
Peacock has no contract and no cancellation fee. Sign up for one month ($12.99 for Premium), watch what you came for, and cancel before the next billing date. You keep access through the end of the period you paid for. This “rotation” approach — subscribing to one streaming service at a time, watching through its library, cancelling, then rotating to the next — is the most practical strategy for cost-conscious viewers in the multi-streaming era. The only trap here is subscribing through a third party (Apple, Roku, Amazon) and then trying to cancel at peacocktv.com. Cancellation must happen through whoever billed you — if the charge shows up in your Apple subscriptions, cancel there, not on the Peacock website.
Peacock’s app runs on Roku, Amazon Fire TV, Apple TV, Chromecast, Android TV, and Samsung, LG, Vizio, and Sony smart TVs. It’s also on PlayStation 4 and 5, Xbox One and Series X/S, iOS, Android, and all major desktop browsers. The one device category that can cause issues is older smart TVs — anything from 2015 or earlier may run a version of the app that loads slowly or lacks some features. If you find the app won’t install on an older TV, a $30–$40 Roku Streaming Stick resolves it and also keeps your streaming apps updated automatically.
How to Cancel Peacock — Without Getting Tripped Up
Cancellation is straightforward if you cancel through the same place you originally signed up. The most common mistake is trying to cancel on peacocktv.com when the original subscription was started through Apple, Roku, or Amazon.
Log in at peacocktv.com from a browser. Click your profile icon in the top right corner and select Account. Under the Plans & Payment tab, click Change or Cancel Plan. On the next screen, choose Cancel Plan — not Change Plan, which only adjusts your tier. Peacock will show a win-back offer, typically a few months at a discounted rate. Skip it by clicking Cancel Plan again at the bottom. Choose a cancellation reason and confirm. You keep access through the end of the billing period you already paid for — no immediate cutoff. No refund is issued for unused monthly time, and annual plans do not prorate.
Each platform handles its own billing, so cancellation must happen there rather than on Peacock’s website. Apple: Settings → [your name] → Subscriptions → Peacock → Cancel Subscription. Roku: go to my.roku.com/account, or on the device go to Settings → Subscriptions. Amazon: Amazon.com → Account → Memberships & Subscriptions. Google Play: play.google.com/store/account/subscriptions. If you attempt to cancel at peacocktv.com but the subscription was billed by a third party, the Peacock site won’t show a cancel option — that’s normal and not a bug. Go to the platform that charged you.
If Peacock Premium is bundled with your Xfinity internet plan at no extra charge, there is nothing to cancel — the Peacock benefit ends automatically if you change or cancel the Xfinity plan that includes it. If you want to remove Peacock from your Xfinity bundle early for any reason, contact Xfinity customer support directly; you cannot remove it through Peacock’s website. Walmart Plus subscribers who activated Peacock through the Walmart+ membership should manage the perk in their Walmart+ account settings, not through peacocktv.com.
Official Pages to Sign Up, Verify, or Get Help
All links below go to official provider pages. Confirm pricing before purchasing — rates update without notice.
Pricing information reflects Peacock’s official price increase effective August 18, 2026, as published on peacocktv.com’s pricing help page. Discount rates (student, military, teacher, first responder) reflect current SheerID-verified program terms as reported across multiple consumer pricing sources and confirmed against Peacock’s official discount enrollment pages. Subscriber count (48 million paid) reflects Comcast’s Q2 2026 earnings disclosure. Content library and simultaneous stream limits reflect Peacock’s published plan descriptions. This page is independent and is not affiliated with Peacock, NBCUniversal, or Comcast. Streaming plans and promotional rates change without notice — always confirm current pricing at peacocktv.com before subscribing.
Key sources: peacocktv.com (official plan pricing and price-increase help page); Comcast Q2 2026 earnings report (subscriber count); peacocktv.com student, military, and first-responder enrollment pages (discount rates). In our testing of plan features and cancellation flows, all information was verified against live plan pages as of late September 2026.
WHY no senior discount??? We only want BASEBALL playoffs just a few games, which we were told online, no pay tv needed to watch the elimination games….. until the World series starts…. NOT HAPPY
You’re not alone in this frustration — and you’re not wrong that the information online was confusing. The situation with MLB playoffs on Peacock this fall is genuinely complicated, and the pricing changes that hit in August made it worse. Let’s break down exactly what happened, what it costs, and what your real options are.
⚾ THE MLB PLAYOFF PICTURE
NBC + Peacock ⚠️ streaming-locked games
TBS / Max
FOX / FS1 / FOX One
TBS / FOX / FS1
FOX only — FREE over-the-air antenna
Here’s what the online info got technically right but practically wrong: yes, NBC is airing games during the Wild Card round on its broadcast network. And yes, FOX is handling the World Series, which is free over-the-air. But NBC’s Wild Card deal came bundled with Peacock-exclusive streaming games — meaning some of the Wild Card games are only on Peacock, not on the free NBC broadcast feed you can pull in with an antenna. That’s the trap. NBC did not air every elimination game on the free channel. Some were deliberately fenced behind the paywall from the start.
😤 Why Your Frustration Is 100% Valid
The media rights deal MLB signed with NBC in 2026 was explicitly designed to push viewers toward Peacock. NBC guaranteed two free broadcast games per day during the Wild Card round — but the remaining Wild Card games were the first MLB postseason games ever exclusive to streaming. There was no equivalent setup under ESPN: at least one game per day aired on ABC. Under the NBC deal, the Peacock lock-outs came without a clean public announcement that caught casual fans. If you went to a generic “MLB playoffs schedule” page that didn’t mention the network splits, you’d have no idea some games required a subscription. That was a real failure of consumer communication — not your misreading.
💸 WHAT PEACOCK COSTS NOW (AFTER AUG 18 PRICE HIKE)
$8.99/mo · $89.99/yr · Limited content
$12.99/mo · $129.99/yr · Ads included · Sports ✅
$19.99/mo · $199.99/yr · Ad-free · Downloads
This is the fourth price increase in four years — Peacock launched in 2020 and has raised rates every single year since. The August 18 hike pushed the Premium plan (which is the one you actually need for sports) up $2/month to $12.99. That’s $155.88 per year if you pay monthly, or $129.99 if you go annual. The plan most people need just to watch baseball jumped $24 in price in twelve months. To be clear: the Premium plan at $12.99/month is what covers NBC’s Wild Card games. The $8.99 Select plan does not include live sports.
💡 The Ugly Math for “Just a Few Games”
The Wild Card round is a best-of-three series and lasts a maximum of three days: September 29–October 1. The minimum you’d pay for just that: one month of Peacock Premium at $12.99. You get the game. You also get charged again in 30 days if you forget to cancel. That’s the business model working exactly as designed. Peacock offers no day pass, no week pass, no playoff-only ticket. It’s the full monthly subscription or nothing. For someone who only wants three days of baseball and has no other use for the platform, that genuinely feels — and is — disproportionate.
🧓 WHY THERE’S NO SENIOR DISCOUNT — AND WHAT ACTUALLY EXISTS
Peacock does not offer a senior discount, and there’s no indication one is coming. The blunt reason: NBCUniversal’s pricing strategy follows the same logic as every other streaming service — sports rights cost a lot, and they’re recovering that cost by pushing the base price up for everyone, not by segmenting on age. Peacock has demonstrated it’s willing to give discounts to students and military — groups that generate long-term subscriber loyalty — but has not extended the same logic to seniors, likely because the actuarial assumption is that older subscribers churn less and complain less. That’s not flattering to Peacock, but it’s probably accurate.
~$3.99–$4/mo for 12 months · verify via SheerID
~$3.99–$4/mo for 12 months · verify via SheerID
~$4/mo for 12 months · verify via SheerID
Peacock + Apple TV+ from ~$15/mo — ~30% off
❌ No discount — not offered at any age
One check worth making: if you’re a Comcast Xfinity subscriber, Peacock is owned by the same parent company (NBCUniversal/Comcast). Xfinity has historically offered Peacock at a discount or bundled it with internet and TV packages. The specific bundle deal depends on your current Xfinity plan — log into your Xfinity account, go to the “Streaming” or “Add-Ons” section, and see if Peacock Premium is offered at a reduced rate. Some Xfinity Rewards members at Diamond or Platinum tier have gotten free Peacock access entirely. Worth checking before paying full price.
✅ WHAT YOU SHOULD ACTUALLY DO
1️⃣ Check which specific games are on free NBC first
NBC guaranteed two free broadcast games per day during Wild Card week (Sept 29–Oct 1). If your team is playing in one of those broadcast slots, you may be able to watch with a digital antenna on your TV — no subscription needed. Check the specific game schedule at NBC Sports or MLB.com and look for whether your team’s game is marked NBC (free) vs. Peacock (paid).
2️⃣ If your game is Peacock-only: subscribe, watch, then cancel immediately
Sign up for Peacock Premium at $12.99/month. Watch your games. Then go to peacocktv.com → Account → Manage Subscription → Cancel Plan — do this the same day you sign up. You keep access through your paid period. You do not get charged again. Peacock makes canceling reasonably straightforward compared to some other services. The only month you pay is the one you actually needed.
3️⃣ The World Series is free — period
Every World Series game is on FOX — and FOX is a free broadcast channel. If you have a digital antenna (a flat antenna you plug into your TV, available at any electronics store for $15–$40), you can watch every World Series game in HD at no cost whatsoever. No cable, no streaming service. This part of the original advice you received online was completely accurate — it just didn’t apply to the Wild Card games.
4️⃣ If you’re an Xfinity customer, check your account first
Comcast owns Peacock. Xfinity subscribers — particularly those with higher-tier Rewards status — sometimes receive Peacock Premium at a steep discount or free. Log into xfinity.com, go to Rewards, and look for Peacock offers before signing up at full price directly.
📣 THE BIGGER PICTURE WORTH NAMING
💬 This Is “Streamflation” — And It’s Hitting Seniors Hardest
Peacock just posted its first-ever quarterly profit in mid-2026 — and then immediately raised prices. That’s not a coincidence. The streaming industry has figured out that the era of cheap introductory pricing is over. Netflix, Disney+, Paramount+, and now Peacock have all raised rates in 2025–2026. Streaming a full household’s worth of services ad-free now costs $90–$95/month — close to what cable used to cost. The difference is that cable at least included regional sports and local channels without an extra paywall.
For seniors on fixed incomes, this model is particularly punishing because the content they care about most — sports, local news, and live events — is exactly what the streaming industry has decided to lock behind its highest tiers. The Wild Card baseball situation is a perfect example: a sport with a deeply senior-skewed audience, moved to a streaming service with no senior discount and a minimum $12.99 monthly subscription to access the games. That’s a policy choice, not a technical limitation. And it’s worth letting both Peacock and MLB know directly that you noticed.
📋 Quick Reference Summary