Peacock will likely arrive without Amazon or Roku support: report

Another splashy streaming service debut may be sullied by distribution woes as NBCUniversal’s Peacock looks likely to make its national debut without Amazon or Roku support.

According to CNBC – which is owned by NBCU parent company Comcast – Peacock, like HBO Max before it, is almost certain to not have support from Amazon or Roku when it launches on July 15. NBCU’s primary sticking point with Amazon is reportedly the Amazon Channels store. The broadcaster reportedly wants users to sign up and watch directly through the Peacock app, rather than through Amazon’s subscription platform, so it gets first-party consumer data it can use for targeted advertising and other purposes.

Meanwhile, Peacock’s disagreement with Roku is based on advertising. According to the report, Roku is asking for 15% of Peacock’s ad inventory – less than its typical 30% cut – but Peacock is pushing back on that and instead offering Roku more ad space in other NBCUniversal apps.

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As the report points out, Amazon likely wants a piece of Peacock’s ad inventory as well. However, the service will only have about three to five minutes of advertising per hour, and Comcast/NBCU is counting on advertising revenue to drive a lot of Peacock’s success.

The company expects the service to attract 30 million to 35 million active accounts in the U.S., $2.5 billion in revenue with $6 to $7 ARPU driven mostly by advertising, and breakeven adjusted EBITDA, all by 2024.

Not having an app on Amazon or Roku – which combined have more than 80 million active users – could hurt Peacock’s chances of reaching its active users goal.

Peacock has a free tier available to everyone and a premium tier that costs $4.99 per month with advertising (or $9.99/month with no ads.) Premium – which includes access to Peacock original content and next-day streaming of current series episodes – will be made available for free to 24 million Comcast and Cox subscribers.