YouTube Premium will look a lot different for subscribers next year, when it absorbs all of Peacock’s programming.
YouTube announced this week that all Premium subscribers will get Peacock Premium’s ad-supported movies, shows, and sports coverage starting in early 2027. This content will stream directly through the YouTube app and will not require a separate add-on subscription, a YouTube spokesperson confirmed. (Peacock Premium will still remain available through its own app, without YouTube Premium.)
While YouTube has made no secret of its plans to subsume traditional TV, until now it’s been missing the kind of original shows and live sports coverage that people typically seek out through paid streaming services. Adding Peacock’s catalog will transform YouTube Premium from a mere grab-bag of extra features into something more akin to Netflix or Hulu — though it might also raise prices.
Details of YouTube’s Premium bundle with Peacock
Today, YouTube Premium consists mainly of feature enhancements for regular YouTube videos. For $16 per month or $160 per year, you get ad-free viewing, offline downloads on mobile devices, background video playback, and higher video quality. The subscription also includes YouTube Music, an alternative to Spotify and Apple Music with millions of streaming songs.
YouTube also sells a “Lite” version of Premium for $9 per month without the streaming music subscription, though this comes with ads and background viewing restrictions for YouTube Shorts and music videos. (Both plans are entirely separate from YouTube TV, the bundle of cable channels that starts at $65 per month.)
Peacock Premium, meanwhile, costs $11 per month or $110 per year, and the new deal with NBCUniversal will bring its entire catalog into YouTube Premium, though there’s still some confusion on how this will work.
YouTube spokesperson Jessica Gibby says Premium subscribers will “automatically receive Peacock” next year, though the company seems to be avoiding phrases like “for free” or “at no extra charge.” YouTube is also not commenting on whether it will add a lower price tier without Peacock Premium, or whether it’ll have some combination of YouTube Premium and Peacock Premium without YouTube Music.
This is pure speculation on my part, but my guess is that YouTube Premium will get a small price hike for existing subscribers — maybe a dollar or two extra per month — and that users will be able to downgrade to a Peacock-free plan at the old price. If the price doesn’t jump by too much, most users probably won’t bother.
What it means for YouTube (and for TV)
Even if the YouTube Premium and Peacock bundle costs a bit extra, it’ll still be fundamentally different from how YouTube has approached premium TV programming before.
Until now, YouTube has sold a handful of streaming services as distinct add-ons, including HBO Max, Fox One, and Paramount+. These “Primetime Channels,” as YouTube calls them, do not require a Premium subscription, and there’s no financial benefit versus signing up for each service directly.
Bundling Peacock brings YouTube Premium closer to being an actual premium streaming service, with movies, TV shows, and live sports to take on the likes of Netflix, Disney+, and Amazon Prime Video. While Peacock’s catalog is smaller than those other services, you could also envision YouTube Premium bundling more video services in the future, effectively becoming a super-service for traditional TV programmers.
YouTube is already the most-watched streaming service in the United States by a wide margin, including on televisions. It’s been using this reach to upend TV distribution as we know it, both by convincing traditional media companies to repurpose their existing content on YouTube and by cultivating a wave of new media creators.
The missing piece has always been the kind of programming that only exists on paid streaming services. YouTube gave up on its own original programming years ago, and its “Primetime Channels” feel like an afterthought, with no visibility in YouTube’s main menu system.
By contrast, Peacock’s arrival next year will deliver a bundle of premium programming directly into the main YouTube interface, and YouTube Premium’s existing subscribers won’t have to do anything to get it. This will greatly expand the reach of Peacock, which only has 48 million subscribers on its own. YouTube has more than 125 million subscribers across YouTube Premium and YouTube Music.
The big question now is whether YouTube will extend its Premium bundling to more streamers in the future, and whether those streamers will want to give in to a company that’s clearly out to consume them.
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