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Why is the NBC/Universal service "peacock" such hot garbage?

Do you enjoy peacock?

  • Yes. I moved from WWE Network and it saves me 50%

    Votes: 7 4.9%

  • Yes. I like their movie lineup such as E.T., the Jaws series and... that's it.

    Votes: 3 2.1%

  • No. The live events run terrible and the movie selection is crap.

    Votes: 44 30.6%

  • Meh. You can do worse.

    Votes: 31 21.5%

  • Thor: The Dark World

    Votes: 59 41.0%
  • Total voters
    144
Shigs

Shigs

Member
Oct 31, 2017
1,611
Los Angeles
So let's talk about the streaming service known as peacock (yes, they don't put a capitalization on their name) and why it's complete garbage, shall we?

I had to join peacock to continue WWE Network, but I think I'd rather have the old service back. Here's why.

1.) LIVE EVENTS - When I had WWE Network, I could pause the live stream or rewind to see an incredible spot done by one of the wrestlers. I can't do that here. No pausing, no rewinding. You just watch live and live only until the event is over. What's worse is that sometimes their feed goes super choppy as it did last night for one of the WWE matches. It was a slideshow! We know it wasn't my internet because peacock was trending on Twitter for the exact same reason.

2.) MOVIES - So, I'm trying to watch Paddington for the first time (Paddington 2 is not on the service for some reason), and there are literally commercials every ten minutes! I'm paying $5 a month for this! But oh, if you want no commercials, it's double that per month. Not only that, when you pause the movie, a billboard ad comes up. The ad-filled version of Hulu is for TV shows only and the movies aren't touched. Why not here?

What's more, this is NBC/Universal and they don't have their biggest movies on the service?!! Jurrasic Park/World? Nope. The Fast and Furious? Few. Despicable Me? Minions? Sing? Any major Illumination movie?! Nope. Just Dreamworks films. All are still tied up with other streaming services. Paramount Plus includes almost their entire catalog as does Disney plus, but peacock sure as hell is no Universal plus. That's for damn sure.

I'd rather go back paying $10 a month for a WWE Network that works than pay $5 for a garbage service like peacock.

So do you like this service? Do you think it's garbage too? Do you think they should have waited until the contracts on their biggest movies expired from other services?
 
Meg Cherry

Meg Cherry

Member
Oct 25, 2017
7,268
Seattle, WA
I watched Eurovision on it a few months ago, and it was a pretty flawless experience. Ran smoothly, no issues.

That said, that was probably drawing far fewer new viewers than a WWE event or the goddamn Olympics.
 
Soap

Soap

Member
Oct 27, 2017
15,170
I think they lack any standout original content. I'm really curious to see what the new BSG will look like, but they have been almost radio silent so far.
 
Stooge

Stooge

Member
Oct 29, 2017
11,138
The inability to start live events from the beginning or pause them is one of my biggest pet peeves of all of these apps. ESPN+ does the same thing. ESPN+ is also basically a 10 year old service that began as ESPN3 and it still just gets tons wrong.

I usually wake up on Sunday and watch F1 races but if there is any kind of stoppage or red flag I have to wait until the ENTIRE BROADCAST ends to watch from the beginning.

I assume some of this is rights management stuff, but a lot of it I think is technical limitations. BR Live's app (who AEW uses) is also complete dog shit.

It's amazing how much better Hulu is in this regard to live content and its owned by the same parent company as Disney+.

My guess is what we are seeing with stuff like Peacock is that Netflix caught everyone off guard and 2 companies (Disney and WB) took the threat seriously and began putting the pieces in place to compete with them 5 years ago or so. This meant content and technology.

Paramount and Universal seem to have been caught out and just decided they needed to throw something out there.
 
Schw7abe

Schw7abe

Member
Oct 28, 2017
28
I think part of the reason this was rushed out the door was because they were getting rid of nbc sports gold. They needed a paywall to put sports behind!

It's not a good app, but it's improvement over the nbc sports app so I'm not too bothered with it. But I agree that it is pretty barren.
 
Auros01

Auros01

Avenger
Nov 17, 2017
5,504
It's one of the worst streaming services launched in the past few years. I only even dabbled in subscribing because my wife was super into Yellowstone and I got the WWE discount (which made the price an afterthought).

In general, though, it just lacks significant content. I do like the office but I only go through a phase of that maybe once or twice a year as background noise. I tried going through some of the WWE back-catalogue but the inability to jump to specific points/matches of a PPV is just brutal. It's such a downgrade from the original WWE network that it's not even funny.

I'm sure they'll iron out some of the issues in the long run and as different movie agreements lapse, they can start to build their library back up. As it stands now, it's not really worth having.
 
Violence Jack

Violence Jack

Drive-in Mutant
Member
Oct 25, 2017
41,685
I've only used it to watch certain movies and haven't had a problem with it so far. Plus it's free for me.
 
Stooge

Stooge

Member
Oct 29, 2017
11,138
Auros01 said:
I'm sure they'll iron out some of the issues in the long run and as different movie agreements lapse, they can start to build their library back up. As it stands now, it's not really worth having.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

I think this is one of the things that WB and Disney seemed to "get right" was making sure they had their content deals timed to being able to get most of their own movies back at or near launch. Probably helped that WB had HBO Go running for years before this.
 
Darth Pinche

Darth Pinche

Member
Oct 27, 2017
1,760
It streams fine for me, but I agree not much to watch. I got 6 months for free being a Xfinity hostage.

But a must watch is We Are Ladyparts. Amazing British comedy about an all woman Muslim punk band.
 
Corran Horn

Corran Horn

Member
Oct 25, 2017
1,611
I have Comcast tv so I would figure I get the ad free tv but nope, just premium I guess. I tried to watch parks n rec like how I use to on Netflix (late night binge to relax in bed) and was turned off by all of the commercials I haven't tried since.
 
AvianAviator

AvianAviator

â–˛ Legend â–˛
Member
Jun 23, 2021
6,327
Can someone explain to me the in-joke of using "Thor: The Dark World" as a filler poll option?
 
Guzim

Guzim

Member
Oct 25, 2017
4,496
I'm just happy it's free for me (Xfinity Flex). But it's an awful service. The only worthwhile thing has been Girls5eva.
 
Distantmantra

Distantmantra

Member
Oct 26, 2017
11,150
Seattle
I've watched Rutherford Falls, Girls 5Eva and We Are Lady Parts which were all great. Plus it has all of Escape to the Chateau which is super enjoyable. It's also included in my Comcast subscription so I'm fine with it.
 
Dark Ninja

Dark Ninja

Member
Oct 27, 2017
8,070
Its really bad somehow worse than the WWE Network originally was. Its like NBC wanted to have a streaming service just cause everyone else is doing it so just put something out there. Its on the levels of Crackle and Pluto TV.
 
DJConvoy

DJConvoy

Member
Jan 8, 2021
887
It's "slightly" better on my Fire Stick than my cable box, but just slightly. It's very slow and unwieldy. God help you if you are coming over from WWE Network; everything is hard to find and divvied up into wacky seasons. I get it for free with Comcast, but I pay the extra five bucks for no ads. You get ad breaks, anyway... or at least spaces for ads.
 
Wrellie

Wrellie

Member
Oct 29, 2017
696
There's a ton of Dateline episodes - so worth it for whatever it costs to see without commercials.
 
brinstar

brinstar

User requested ban
Member
Oct 25, 2017
10,263
It's included with my cable but the ads are awful. I hate that Parks and The Office are locked there now. I've seen them a million times but they were always a staple of Netflix for me. I'm probably just gonna have to cave and buy them on video now that they finally have Blu-Ray releases.
 
CommodoreKong

CommodoreKong

Member
Oct 25, 2017
7,695
Dark Ninja said:
Its really bad somehow worse than the WWE Network originally was. Its like NBC wanted to have a streaming service just cause everyone else is doing it so just put something out there. Its on the levels of Crackle and Pluto TV.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

The funny thing is they're still licensing out their content to other services:
deadline.com

Starz Inks Post Pay-One Licensing Deal For Universal Movies

Universal Filmed Entertainment Group continues its spree of licensing deals in multiple windows.
deadline.com deadline.com



They still want that license revenue on top of the revenue from a streaming service.
 
PHOENIXZERO

PHOENIXZERO

Member
Oct 29, 2017
12,072
I got four months for like ten bucks of their "slightly less commercials" teir and barely used it, it's not renewing.
 
captive

captive

Member
Oct 25, 2017
16,991
Houston
Because all these companies decided they could do it better instead of standardizing on 2 or 3 services. And not all of them are going to put time and effort into the app and service.

No I'm not going to subscribe to your shitty service on top of Netflix.
 
GungHo

GungHo

Member
Nov 27, 2017
6,126
All of these new streaming services drag their feet out the door… missing vital features, making the same fuck ups as their competitor, etc. I know they're essentially rushing an MVP out the door with the hopes of funding later development, but it is similar shit every time. Take some notes or something.
 
IMCaprica

IMCaprica

Member
Aug 1, 2019
9,419
I use it to watch a TV show or two for free and that's it. I'd probably hate it if I didn't completely give up on WWE 6 or 7 years ago.
 
TAJ

TAJ

Banned
Oct 28, 2017
12,446
It should be an amazing service, but for whatever reason most of their content isn't on there.
 
Slappy White

Slappy White

Member
Oct 27, 2017
3,205
Mine has always worked flawlessly, it's free with ads as part of my internet package, and it has tons of shows I love to rewatch (ie modern family, two and a half men, cheers) no complaints from me. Plus I don't have to pay for wwe anymore. It's actually incredible.
 
BringBackSonics

BringBackSonics

Member
Oct 27, 2017
45,044
Seattle
I like the WWE, and the wife likes some of those classic nbc series. It's my wife's second most watched service.

plus the premium is free for us
 
vatstep

vatstep

Member
Oct 25, 2017
9,498
Another annoying thing about watching WWE content on there is that they don't have timestamps for specific matches on PPV events. That was super helpful on WWE Network if you just wanted to watch a specific match.
 
GMM

GMM

Member
Oct 27, 2017
5,481
That doesn't sound too bad honestly, you should try using garbage like HBO Nordic or smaller stuff in other countries that have truly terrible UI design. It's also weird to complain about having ads in the ad supported tier, just pay those $5 to get rid of them if it's that big of an issue, you do have choice.

Also fuck the WWE, don't support Vince and his disgusting abuse of talent.
 
Walter White Walker

Walter White Walker

Member
Oct 27, 2017
21,518
My internet provider just recently offered me 3 free months of Peacock. I looked and saw nothing I wanted to watch so I said "Nah, I'm good." Not worth the effort of installing, deleting and making sure they don't start charging me after the 3 months are up for mostly trash.
 
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