After Months of Drama, Peacock Is Now on Roku

Folks, Peacock is finally on Roku.

After news broke earlier today that NBC apps were dangerously close to getting pulled from Roku’s platform over terms regarding NBCUniversal’s new streaming service Peacock, both companies have seemingly arrived at a truce. Roku announced Friday that Roku users will now have access to the Peacock platform, a very good streaming service that also happens to be free if you don’t mind the limited ads. (And having spent a significant amount of time with this service, I can tell ya, they ain’t that bad.)

“We are pleased to have reached an agreement with Comcast that will bring Peacock to Roku customers and maintains access to NBCU’s TV Everywhere apps,” a Roku spokesperson told Gizmodo by email. “We look forward to offering these new options to consumers under an expanded, mutually beneficial relationship between our companies that includes adding NBC content to The Roku Channel and a meaningful partnership around advertising.”

The spokesperson said the Peacock app should arrive on Roku “in the coming weeks.”

A spokesperson for NBCUniversal told Gizmodo in a statement that the company is “pleased Roku recognizes the value in making NBCUniversal’s incredible family of apps and programming, including Peacock, available to all of their users across the country.”

“More than 15 million people signed up for Peacock since its national launch in July and we are thrilled millions more will now be able to access and enjoy Peacock along with other NBCUniversal apps on their favorite Roku devices,” the NBCUniversal spokesperson added. “Roku’s incredible reach will not only help us ensure Peacock is available to our fans wherever they consume video but continue to expand NBCUniversal’s unrivaled digital presence across platforms.”

Peacock is home to all of NBCUniversal’s content, plus movies, series on demand, live TV, and live sports. It’s also got originals, including the deeply weird sci-fi series Brave New World, an adaptation of Aldous Huxley’s novel of the same name and a show I ripped through pretty quickly. Peacock’s free tier only makes some of its content completely free, but you can pay $5 per month for the other stuff with ads or $10 per month to go ad-free. It’s one of the only premium services that offers a free tier as part of its business model, which makes it a pretty attractive service for folks who are already paying out the ears for content elsewhere.

But it hasn’t been on Roku since it launched, and discussions have for months been held up over the terms by which Peacock would be offered on the platform. This week, the two sides appeared ready to pull the plug on licensing agreements for even other NBC-owned apps on Roku before reaching a final-hour deal late Friday. This would have resulted in the removal of 11 network apps, 12 apps from stations owned by NBC, and 23 Telemundo-owned apps. That’s a lot of apps.

But all’s well that ends well. Maybe HBO Max will be next?

This story is developing and may be updated throughout.