Apple and NBCUniversal today announced the launch of the Apple TV and Peacock Bundle, available beginning October 20. … Customers in the U.S. can save over 30 percent by subscribing to the Apple TV and Peacock Premium bundle for $14.99 per month, or Apple TV and Peacock Premium Plus for $19.99 per month, through either app or website. Apple One subscribers on the Family and Premier plans can subscribe to Peacock Premium Plus and receive a 35 percent discount — the first benefit of its kind for Apple’s all-in-one subscription bundle.
This bundle gives me a slightly queasy feeling—it’s like finding a coupon book while unboxing a MacBook Air or seeing SALE! stickers on an Apple Store window. Apple’s brand is built on the pursuit of excellence—in user experience, industrial design, hardware performance, and reliability, among other areas—all of which justify its self-contained ecosystem and premium prices. The discount math calculations involved in evaluating the Apple TV-Peacock bundle come across as transactional in a way that recalls the cable era, rather than Apple One’s internal bundling. Pairing with a rival service for a percent-off deal feels less “Think Different” than “Think Discount.”
As far as I know, Apple has never offered a cross-service subscription bundle like this before. I can’t say it’s necessarily a bad business move, but I do feel that it diminishes Apple’s brand message. I can’t see anything so special about Peacock to explain why—if this bundle proves financially successful—we wouldn’t see future bundles with Disney+, Paramount+, Prime Video, and so on. Bundling may save users money, but it makes Apple look more like it’s selling sugar water—to borrow Steve Jobs’s jab at Pepsi while luring John Sculley to Apple—than changing the world.
I believe that Apple TV has been bundled for a long time with various T-Mobile and Verizon cell phone plans and has been part of sales plans for multiple TVs and at least one retailer (Best Buy).
One significant aspect of the Peacock bundle is that it is the first offer to include Apple One plans. So, it’s one that I may be able to take advantage of.
To me, Apple TV being offered by other vendors feels very different from Apple selling the bundle itself. After all, lots of retailers resell Apple products. Slightly closer is Apple selling third-party products online or in Apple Stores, but even then, it’s a one-time purchase, not an ongoing discounted subscription.
I was curious about what shows Peacock was currently including - took a look at their web site and didn’t see a single thing I was interested in. It all seems a bit “low-brow” to me. But then, the only thing now on Apple TV that we are interested in is Slow Horses. I have a discounted 3-month subscription that I will let expire when Slow Horses finishes the 5th season.
Peacock (as the name and ownership implies) is the place to find most shows broadcast by NBC’s networks.
Similarly, Disney+/Hulu are where you can find ABC programming and Paramount+ is where you can find CBS programming.
Of course, this is a general rule - there are noteworthy exceptions across the board. And all have a broad spectrum of movies/TV shows produced by other channels/networks.
We subscribe to Peacock almost exclusively for Premier League football. Occasionally I will watch a movie that’s exclusive to the service as well, but maybe once or twice a year.
Last year I canceled my subscription when the PL season was finished in May and started again in August when the next season started, but now the price for a year is slightly less than 10 individual months, and the off-season is just a little short of three months, so now I’m subscribed for the year.
I bet it’s seen internally as a sign of some weight finally achieved compared to the huge libraries of the other players. They’ve produced some good high value shows which has been the right strategy given the low relative numbers
Any way I can cut these subscriptions down is welcome. Not a fan of Peacock particularly but my son loves the old cop shows. As an Apple One subscriber there’s no benefit to us.
I’m sure I’m the oddball here, but I find absolutely nothing I have any desire to watch on AppleTV+, or whatever they want to call it today. I also don’t recall seeing anything I want to watch on Peacock, although I haven’t looked in awhile. But, I see this only as offering a discount on two channels I don’t want to watch.
But you cannot save time, so when are you going to watch all that extra stuff? In the end you’ll only be paying extra money without any actual benefit if you ask me
We subscribe to Peacock (lowest price tier) and Apple TV. Peacock for two years now. Peacock carries Olympic sports, some highlights of which used to be shown on NBC over the air, but hardly any now.
On Peacock we can watch all events in the Grand Prix Figure Skating Competitions, US Nationals, European Championships, Four Continents, and World Championships, as well as Olympic events that are not shown over the air. It is much cheaper than buying tickets to the events in person and traveling to Asia, Europe, or wherever!
The first competition was last weekend. Everyone is preparing for the Winter Olympics which is coming up in February. It keeps us busy!
We subscribed to Apple TV a few months ago to watch the new series, Murderbot, which is well done (as a slightly alternate universe to what is in the book). I had intended to cancel after watching the series, but my wife wants to watch it again.
Oh come on. Apple has done free/discount content for ages. Free iTunes songs from Starbucks was a Jobs era promotion. Fundamentally this is no different.
