Lucia Moses

Peacock’s next growth bet: selling subscriptions for other streamers

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Peacock’s next growth bet isn’t a blockbuster show or sports deal.

NBCU’s flagship streaming service is plotting to sell add-on subscriptions to other specialty streamers on its platform, four people familiar with the plans told Business Insider.

Peacock has approached streamers about selling subscriptions to offer viewers content that complements its reality and sports-heavy line-up, these people said. Peacock expects to start with one streamer this year and is likely to limit the offering to a small number of partners.

Starz, which already has multiple distribution partnerships, is one that’s being considered, two insiders said. Starz declined to comment.

Two people briefed on Peacock’s pitch saw it as a way for smaller streamers to reach new subscribers in a relatively uncluttered environment, and they hoped Peacock would eventually offer features such as the ability for streamers to offer free samples of their shows.

They described Peacock’s terms as favorable compared to Amazon, which has a large business selling subscriptions to programmers big and small, from HBO Max to Crunchyroll. Amazon’s channel terms vary by partner, but two partners told Business Insider in 2025 that Amazon’s subscription revenue cut was over 50% in their deals.

Peacock’s plans come at a time when streaming services — especially outside market leaders Netflix and Disney — face pressure to consolidate as they look to continue growing their subscriber bases while remaining profitable. Overall, paid streaming growth in the US has cooled, while cancellation rates have risen in the wake of price hikes.

Streamers like Peacock are trying to make themselves stickier

TV viewership growth for streamers in the US is largely stagnant, and subscribers are navigating an increasingly complex landscape. Streaming services are trying tactics like discounts and bundling to keep people from leaving their platforms.

Some other streaming platforms have adopted a marketplace approach that’s broader than what Peacock is contemplating. Amazon is by far the leader. Last year, Amazon reported that its “Channels” program accounted for about 25% of US streamer sign-ups, citing Antenna data. Roku, YouTube, and device makers like Samsung and LG also let people subscribe to streamers through their platforms.

Peacock, for its part, already sells add-on subscriptions to NBC Sports Regional Sports Networks, which it shares a corporate parent with. It also sells a bundle with Apple TV+ that involves cross-platform sampling and a discounted price.

Peacock, with less than 2% of TV watch time in the US, has struggled to grow its share of the TV pie, according to Nielsen. That makes it the second-smallest of the subscription streamers Nielsen measures, ahead only of Warner Bros. Discovery (1.4%), which includes Discovery+ and HBO Max.

US-only Peacock also has relatively few subscribers, with about 44 million. Its nearest rival, Paramount+, has around 79 million global subscribers, and both are well behind Netflix, which is No. 1 with more than 325 million subscribers.

Still, Peacock has far more subscribers than many specialty streamers. AMC Networks, for example, reported about 10 million subscribers across its portfolio of streamers, including AMC+, Acorn TV, and Shudder, as of the end of 2025.

“Peacock has been struggling,” said Alan Wolk, a media industry analyst. “There haven’t been a whole lot of reasons to watch it, so giving people another reason to subscribe is a smart idea. If you ask consumers what’s your biggest frustration with streamers, it’s always, ‘I can’t find anything.’ So the more you can put things together under one interface, the happier people will be.”

A global survey by Nielsen in November found more than 46% say it’s harder to find the content they want to watch because there are too many streamers, rising to 51% in the US, with people spending 14 minutes searching for what to watch and 49% likely to cancel because they can’t find something.

The survey also showed 66% of people expressed interest in a guide to present content information across all services.

James Faris contributed reporting.




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Streamers like Disney+ and HBO Max have a key problem with no clear solution

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Free streaming services are having success, and it may be coming at the expense of their paid peers.

YouTube and other free ad-supported services, such as The Roku Channel and Fox-owned Tubi, have become increasingly popular over the last two years, according to Nielsen’s viewership data.

“For consumers, cost sensitivity is often a more important deciding factor than user experience,” said Brandon Katz, a media analyst at entertainment data provider Greenlight Analytics. “Saving money outweighs the annoyance of terrible insurance commercials.”

As these free streamers eat up a larger chunk of viewership time on US smart TVs, they may be holding back the growth of services like Disney+, Hulu, and HBO Max.

Free-to-access services YouTube, Tubi, and The Roku Channel have grown their viewership by 53% from December 2023 through November, according to a Business Insider analysis of Nielsen data. Those three free streamers make up nearly 18% of all watch time on US TVs, and that doesn’t include Paramount’s Pluto TV, which Nielsen broke out individually until March.

In that span, major paid streamers’ collective watch time is only up 5%. That includes Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Disney+, Hulu, Peacock, and HBO Max, formerly known as Max. (Paramount+ was included until March, when Nielsen stopped reporting its individual share. And HBO Max’s viewership includes sister streamer Discovery+.)

That means free streamers are growing more than 10 times faster than their paid counterparts, though the bulk of that growth is driven by YouTube, which has become a force in Hollywood.

Slower engagement growth is a troubling sign for paid streamers. Viewership is positively tied to pricing power and inversely correlated with cancellations, meaning that people who watch a streamer more often are less likely to cancel.

“Engagement drives churn down,” said Hernan Lopez, founder of media consulting firm Owl & Co.

“It’s not just about hours spent,” he added, but also the frequency that viewers return to an app and the breadth of content that they watch.

Engaged streaming subscribers are also usually more receptive to price hikes, Katz said, since they likely place a higher value on the service than inactive users.

“The goal is to offer customers enough attractive content that opening the app becomes a regular occurrence,” Katz said. “At that habitual usage point, streamers are able to reasonably raise prices without fear of a mass exodus of customers.”

For customers on ad-supported plans, higher engagement also translates to more ad revenue.

It’s not all bad news for paid streamers. Streaming is an increasingly profitable business, thanks in large part to price hikes, which every major service (except for Prime Video) has implemented or announced in the past 12 months.

Disney+, Hulu, and HBO Max have also continued to add customers this year. However, Peacock hasn’t grown its subscriber base since the first quarter of 2025, and Netflix no longer reports its subscriber count on a quarterly basis.

The large gap between free and paid streamer viewership growth rates suggests that so-called stream-flation could be taking a toll. Media giants must walk a tightrope between pleasing Wall Street and pushing consumers toward free streamers, or apps like Instagram and TikTok.

Streaming giants Netflix and Disney each have creative ideas for driving engagement in 2026.

Netflix is turning to video podcasts in hopes of adding lean-back content that keeps subscribers engaged throughout the day. It’s also been trying to use games as a way to create daily habits among its users.

Disney is taking a different tack by betting on AI-generated video through a new partnership with OpenAI. This AI initiative will enable fans to create short clips of Disney characters, such as Mickey Mouse or Darth Vader, eventually within the Disney+ app.




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