Comcast and NBCUniversal’s new Peacock subscription streaming video service will debut live sports later this month when the English Premier League makes its return from the global Covid-19 pandemic.
Starting with Bournemouth v Crystal Palace on June 20, Peacock will carry at least seven matches scheduled to be simulcast on NBC Sports Gold’s “Premier League Pass”.
The other matches currently scheduled are Newcastle v Aston Villa, Norwich City v Everton and Wolverhampton Wanderers v Bournemouth on June 24; Burnley v Watford on June 25; and Bournemouth v Newcastle and Arsenal v Norwich City on July 1.
The games will be made available on Peacock Premium, which is currently available for select Comcast customers only.
The OTT platform will roll out nationwide in the US on July 15. Peacock will be available in three tiers: $9.99 a month without commercials, $4.99 a month with ads, and a limited version that will be free to customers. The free version will not contain Premier League games.
Initially, non-televised Premier League games were expected to be launched on Peacock in August, at the start of the 2020-21 season, before the onset of the coronavirus crisis. As such, the launch of live sports on the service has been moved up.
Peacock was also due to include extensive coverage of the Tokyo Olympics before the Games were provisionally postponed until 2021. Early next year, the service will carry a National Football League wildcard playoff game which was recently acquired by NBC.
Comcast executives hope to grow Peacock – which joins Disney+ and Netflix among many others in an increasingly crowded direct-to-consumer streaming space – to between 30 million and 35 million active accounts by 2024.
