Peacock officially launched on Meta’s Quest 2 and Quest Pro devices Wednesday, marking the first time the streaming service is available on a virtual reality headset.
Under the agreement, subscribers in the U.S. and certain U.S. territories will have access to more than 90,000 hours of hit movies and fan favorite TV shows, Major League Baseball and National Football League games and other sports, all in VR on a giant personal screen. With the launch of the Peacock app for Meta Quest 2 and Pro, they will be able to stream Peacock content while browsing the internet or other apps and adjust their screen size based on their own preference.
“With Meta Quest 2 and Pro, you can turn any room into your own virtual entertainment theater, and now users have access to an even larger collection of fan favorite movies, TV, and sports,” Meta’s vice president of immersive apps and experiences Jarred Kennedy said in a blog post.
The move builds on a broader, previously announced three-year partnership between NBCUniversal and Meta Platforms that will bring experiences across a variety of NBCU IP, including “Universal Monsters,” “Halloween Horror Nights,” and “The Office,” to Meta’s immersive environments including Meta Horizon Worlds and the Meta Avatars Store.
For the first time later this year, Meta users will be able to watch “The Office” on Peacock on Meta Quest 2 and Pro, and then experience, play and interact with “The Office” in VR in Worlds.
To celebrate the launch, Meta Quest device users who are 18 years or older in the U.S. and certain U.S. territories (American Samoa, Guam, Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands), and do not already have a paid Peacock subscription, will be eligible for a limited time offer so that they can start watching right away.
Individuals who already registered a qualifying Meta Quest 2 or Meta Quest Pro on or before April 11 are eligible for three months of Peacock Premium at no additional cost, and those who set up and register a new qualifying Meta Quest VR device through April 11, 2024, will be eligible for 12 months of Peacock Premium at no additional cost.
As of the end of 2022, Peacock surpassed more than 20 million paid subscribers.
However, the service posted a loss of $978 million in the fourth quarter, widening from a loss of $559 million in the prior year period. Full-year Peacock revenue nearly tripled from $778 million to $2.1 billion. For the fourth quarter, Peacock revenue climbed to $660 million from $335 million during the same period last year.
The company expects Peacock’s losses to peak at around $3 billion in 2023.
