YouTube Premium Peacock bundle adds sports and NBC shows

The YouTube Premium Peacock bundle is set to arrive early next year, with NBCUniversal’s Peacock Premium being folded into YouTube Premium’s $15.99-a-month plan, according to an announcement from YouTube and NBCUniversal.

For subscribers, the headline is simple: Peacock Premium content will be available through the YouTube Premium subscription without needing a separate Peacock account, according to the companies’ deal.

The move adds a fresh pile of live sports and NBCUniversal entertainment to a service best known for ad-free YouTube viewing and YouTube Music. It also gives Peacock a much bigger storefront as streaming services keep looking for ways to get in front of viewers who are already paying monthly bills elsewhere.

What is included in the YouTube Premium Peacock bundle?

According to the announced deal, the bundle will include Peacock Premium access for YouTube Premium subscribers beginning early next year. That means viewers will get Peacock’s live sports, entertainment programming, movies and originals as part of the $15.99 monthly YouTube Premium subscription.

The sports lineup named in the announcement includes NFL, NBA and MLB games. The entertainment side includes Law & Order, Saturday Night Live and Love Island, along with Peacock’s wider catalog of films and original programming.

• Peacock Premium will be included in YouTube Premium’s $15.99 monthly plan.
• The deal is scheduled to begin early next year.
• Named sports content includes NFL, NBA and MLB games.
• Named shows include Law & Order, Saturday Night Live and Love Island.
• Peacock’s broader library of movies and originals is also part of the package.

Peacock Premium is NBCUniversal’s paid streaming tier, carrying the company’s TV programming, films, originals and select live sports. YouTube Premium is Google’s paid YouTube plan, with a main subscription priced at $15.99 a month.

Why Peacock wants YouTube’s audience

Peacock has 48 million subscribers, while YouTube Premium and YouTube Music have a combined 125 million subscribers, according to Mashable. That gap helps explain why NBCUniversal would want Peacock sitting inside a larger subscription product rather than relying only on people signing up directly.

Mashable reported that Peacock turned a profit for the first time last quarter. The YouTube arrangement follows other Peacock distribution partnerships with Apple TV, Prime Video and Roku, all aimed at putting the service in more places where streaming customers already spend time.

YouTube Premium already has more than one pricing option. Mashable listed a $8.99-a-month Premium Lite plan and a $26.99-a-month family plan alongside the standard $15.99 monthly subscription.

The companies have not said in the reported announcement that the Peacock bundle will change those other YouTube Premium tiers. The concrete change so far is the addition of Peacock Premium to the $15.99-a-month YouTube Premium subscription early next year.

For viewers who already pay for both services, the deal could remove one separate streaming bill once the bundle begins. For NBCUniversal, it puts Peacock’s sports, shows and movie catalog in front of YouTube’s much larger paid audience.

This story draws on original reporting from Mashable.