The war on password sharing has reached 30 Rock.
On Friday, it was revealed in Cord Cutter Weekly that NBC’s Peacock streaming service has quietly changed its terms of service to ban account sharing with people outside of your primary residence. Per the new terms, “Unless otherwise permitted by your Service Tier, you may not share your subscription outside of your household. ‘Household’ means the collection of devices associated with your primary personal residence.”
The crackdown seems similar in nature to that of Netflix’s ban on account sharing last year. That move turned out to be incredibly lucrative for Netflix but upset a number of their subscribers in the process.
Peacock is still on the relatively cheap side of streaming services. Their ad-supported tier is priced at $7.99 per month, with the ad-free tier at $13.99. That is still up substantially from just a year ago when the ad-free tier could be bought for $5.99 per month.
To make matters worse, Peacock is also cracking down on users who sign up for a free trial or promotion and then cancel their subscription right away. According to Cord Cutter Weekly, users who sign up for a free trial or promotion and cancel their subscription right away “may” lose access to Peacock immediately upon cancellation, rather than at the end of the billing period.
Peacock, of course, is home to a number of live sporting events including exclusive NFL games, English Premier League, Big Ten football and basketball, the Olympics, and more. Though this immediate cancellation policy does not apply to users who have paid for a month of Peacock, it would certainly impact someone using a free trial or promotion in order to watch just a single game or two.
Objectively, these new terms and conditions are not fan-friendly. Unfortunately, that’s the reality of the streaming business these days. Peacock, despite continuing to grow its subscriber base, still finishes in the red quarter after quarter. Compelling users who currently share an account with someone outside of their household to purchase their own is one way Peacock can continue to inch toward the black.