Here we go again with the streaming service price hikes. This time, it’s Peacock turning the screws on its subscribers. Comcast, the platform’s parent company, is pushing through a significant rate increase for both tiers of its streaming service — and the sticker shock might surprise even the most seasoned streaming veterans (Source: Bloomberg via Android Authority).
Peacock’s biggest price increase ever
Surely it’ll stay put for a while, right?
According to the Bloomberg report, Peacock will raise the price of its ad-supported Premium tier from $7.99/month to $11/month, while the Premium Plus (mostly ad-free) plan will jump from $13.99 to $17/month. That’s a straight-up $3 monthly increase across the board, and marks the largest price bump in Peacock’s five-year lifespan. For perspective, this puts Peacock’s top-tier option squarely above competitors like Max and Hulu, both of which have arguably stronger catalogs and better user experiences.
The timing is just as frustrating. New users will get hit first: Starting July 23, those signing up for Peacock will be subject to the new pricing structure. Current subscribers will have a brief reprieve — their monthly bills won’t change until August 22.
This is now Peacock’s third price hike since it launched in 2020. What started as a fresh alternative with day-one access to NBC shows, Universal movies, and a growing portfolio of live sports is quickly becoming just another expensive line item on your monthly bank statement.
So, what are you really getting for the extra cash? Sure, Peacock has the Olympics this summer and the NFL season on the horizon, but it’s hard to ignore the growing trend of streaming services charging more while delivering less.
The bigger picture: streaming’s “Platform Rot” era
Peacock’s price increase isn’t happening in a vacuum — it’s part of a broader, increasingly frustrating industry shift some call “platform rot,” a family-friendly synonym for a more pointed term coined by Cory Doctorow in 2023. Doctorow’s term and its euphemisms describe a platform’s lifecycle as it moves from being user-focused to profit-driven, eventually alienating its audience and penalizing business partners in the process.
Over the last year, nearly every major streaming service has raised prices. Netflix, Max, Hulu, Disney+, and even Apple TV+ have all inched upward. In return, users are getting less value: shrinking libraries, disappearing shows, more ads, and crackdowns on password sharing.
Streaming, once the cord-cutter’s dream, is starting to resemble the very cable bundles it was supposed to replace — but with worse interfaces and more fragmentation. Peacock’s latest hike is just another step in a worrying direction. At some point, you’ve got to wonder: how many more price hikes until we start saying goodbye for good?
