Peacock Launches on Roku Across the U.S.

Roku today is launching Peacock, nearly 10 weeks after the NBCUniversal streamer made its U.S. debut.

The availability of the Peacock app on Roku devices and Roku-enabled TVs comes after NBCU and the platform company buried the hatchet last Friday, in a broad deal that included renewing the deal to keep NBC’s TV Everywhere channels on Roku and the addition of NBC content to the free Roku Channel.

Roku’s stock was up 15% in midday trading Monday on the resolution of its standoff with NBCU over Peacock.

Roku had previously said the technical integration of the Peacock channels would take several weeks. But evidently the work to get liftoff for Peacock, at least initially, was less complex.

Peacock remains unavailable on Amazon’s Fire TV, as well as Samsung’s Smart TVs, another major over-the-top video platform.

Comcast CEO Brian Roberts said last week Peacock had netted 15 million user signups in its first two months of national availability (but that’s not the same thing as paying users or even active users). NBCU is banking on its partnership with Roku, which has over 43 million active user accounts and reaches households with an estimated 100 million people, to give Peacock a strong new tailwind.

“We are excited to bring Peacock and its unrivaled catalog to millions of Americans who enjoy entertainment on their favorite Roku devices,” said Maggie McLean Suniewick, Peacock’s president, business development and partnerships. “Roku customers are engaged streamers and we know they’ll love access to a wide range of free and paid content.”

Peacock — Comcast and NBCU’s big foray into the streaming wars — is available for free with ads, stocked with over 13,000 hours of NBC shows, sports, news, late-night TV and specials, original series and movies, and content licensed from third parties. Viewers who pay $4.99 per month extra can get Peacock Premium, which has a larger selection of more than 20,000 hours programming; a $10 monthly tier provides a no-ads version of the service.

The two companies reached détente after their standoff hit a boiling point — and NBCU had threatened to pull its channels from Roku this weekend over the dispute over Peacock.

“We are pleased that NBC agreed to a very positive and mutually beneficial partnership to bring Peacock to America’s No. 1 streaming platform,” Roku’s Tedd Cittadine, VP of content acquisition, said in a statement Monday. “We are excited by the opportunities to integrate NBC content within the Roku Channel while we also work together with Peacock on the development of a significant and meaningful advertising and ad tech partnership. This is a great outcome for consumers and we look forward to growing together with Peacock as they bring their incredible content to the Roku platform.”

Roku makes its money on such content partnerships, with its standard terms asking for 20% of content and subscription purchases and 30% of advertising inventory on free channels. Terms of the NBCU-Roku deal haven’t been disclosed.

Peacock initially launched in April in an early-access rollout for Comcast customers. The cable giant’s Xfinity X1 and Flex customers (as well as Cox Contour subscribers) have access to Peacock Premium with ads for no extra charge and can get the ad-free tier for $5 per month.