Comcast to start selling Peacock subscriptions through Roku Channel

An app tile for Comcast's streaming service Peacock appears on a streaming television device. (Courtesy photo) — An app tile for Comcast’s streaming service Peacock appears on a streaming television device. (Courtesy photo)

Key Points

Comcast’s NBC Universal will sell Peacock subscriptions through The Roku Channel streaming marketplace, giving it exposure to tens of millions of streamers in the United States.
The deal expands Peacock’s distribution via third-party marketplaces as bundling gains traction with streaming consumers.
Comcast is leveraging partnerships to grow Peacock amid rising content costs and ongoing financial losses.
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Comcast’s NBC Universal has inked a deal with Roku to begin selling subscriptions to its streaming service Peacock through The Roku Channel.

Starting this week, Roku smart TV and streaming device users can purchase a subscription to the ad-free plan, called Peacock Premium Plus, for $17 per month. That plan offers uninterrupted streaming of Peacock’s on-demand movies and TV shows, unlocks access to a live streaming simulcast of a customer’s local NBC station or affiliate and provides live sports programming from NBC Sports and USA Sports.

The deal expands Roku’s partnership with NBC Universal, which also includes the distribution of free, ad-supported streaming TV (FAST) channels from NBC and its related properties through the Live TV section of The Roku Channel. Roku also offers local news feeds from NBC- and Telemundo-owned stations through the same platform, and Roku users can download NBC-owned streaming apps like Peacock to their devices.

Comcast has expanded its growth strategy for Peacock to include third-party deals in recent years. Two years ago, the telecom launched a new offering called StreamSaver that allows its Xfinity TV and Xfinity Internet customers to bundle Peacock with Netflix and Apple TV at a deep discount compared to the retail cost of each individual service. Last week, Comcast expanded its StreamSaver offering to include bundles with HBO Max and the Disney-Hulu package.

Comcast also sells Peacock through a standalone bundle with Apple TV for $18 per month, which is available to anyone with an Internet connection, even if they don’t subscribe to Xfinity’s services. Peacock is available to purchase through Amazon Prime Video Channels as of last year, where it is sold for the same price that it would cost streamers if they purchased access to the app directly from Comcast, and the ad-supported plan of Peacock Premium is offered for free to subscribers of Walmart’s retail membership Walmart Plus.

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Bundles and third-party marketplaces have emerged as an attractive option for streamers who are looking to purchase access to multiple services at a discount and pay for them from a single bill. More than two-thirds of consumers surveyed by tech developer Bango in 2025 said they purchased at least one subscription service through a bundle; separate data from intelligence firm Antenna shows Amazon’s Prime Video Channels and other third-party marketplaces have offered significant exposure to smaller streaming services during their growth phases.

Last week, Roku announced its streaming devices and smart TVs are now used in more than 100 million households around the world. The company has a strong share of the market in the United States, where 40 percent of households use the platform to watch Internet-delivered content on a regular basis. By comparison, Peacock — which is, for now, only available in the United States — has 44 million streaming subscribers, some of whom receive access to the platform for free with their Xfinity Internet service or an eligible pay TV plan.

Peacock helped Comcast’s media segment earn $1.6 billion during the company’s most-recent financial quarter, according to disclosures made by the company in January. But financial losses attributed to Peacock climbed to $552 million during the fourth quarter (Q4) of last year, compared to a loss of $372 million one year earlier.

That financial loss was largely attributed to NBC Universal making deeper investments in premium live sports, including rights to National Basketball Association (NBA) and Major League Baseball (MLB) games, some of which are exclusive to Peacock or simulcast between the streaming platform and cable channel NBCSN.

Comcast is expected to provide updated subscriber and financial metrics for Peacock during its first quarter (Q1) earnings report on Thursday.