Survey: One-Third of Peacock Users Still Subscribe for Free

As the ever-shifting SVOD business continues to evolve, one key challenge now confronting streamers is how to handle subscription plans that no longer exist.

Netflix, for instance, eliminated new sign-ups for its cheapest ad-free plan last year, but is only just beginning to funnel existing users off the tier. A sober cost-benefit analysis is necessary in these situations: How much of that audience will be lost if forced off their current plan, versus upgraded to either a more expensive plan or a more lucrative ad-supported tier?

For Netflix, it’s likely that the majority of the users at stake will be retained. But the same cannot be said for Peacock, which has its own backlog of legacy users — and a much larger one, proportionally speaking.

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Per exclusive results from the latest quarterly streaming survey by HarrisX, fully a third of Peacock users were still on the service’s free tier as of Q1, even though new sign-ups for the no-cost plan were shut off over a year ago.

Peacock launched in 2020 with a free option it proudly touted; its early marketing slogan was “Free as a Bird.” But the streamer later opted to cut off new free users in light of mounting losses (and Wall Street’s souring attitude on the economics of streaming).

As those losses have continued to pile up — with $639 million more last quarter, according to parent Comcast’s recent earnings report, Peacock has now lost about $8.5 billion since launch — its leadership must be considering whether a push to convert the free-tier users to paid subscribers would be worthwhile. Though these users are still generating some amount of ad revenue for Peacock, it’s clearly not enough to put the service on track to hit profitability in the near future.

Pushing users from a free plan to a paid plan rather than pushing them to accept ads is a much taller order, however, particularly for a service not called Netflix. Peacock’s share of U.S. TV viewing time in March was just 1.3%, versus Netflix’s 8%, according to Nielsen’s monthly “Gauge” report, and hit original series on the platform have been few and far between.

Furthermore, even among its paid subscribers, usage is sparse; the HarrisX survey found only 24% of Peacock Premium users streamed content on the platform on a daily basis.

Admittedly, this was on par with most of Peacock’s fellow legacy-media streamers, and even Big Tech player Amazon Prime Video, which also notched 24% daily usage. But with such a large audience now accustomed to viewing it for free, Peacock will have a difficult road ahead to grow its paid user base even if the free tier is shut down completely.

VIP+ subscribers can read on for all the survey insights ...