U.S. Open Coverage Shifting To Peacock Goes About As Well As Expected

As predicted some time ago, the inclusion of Peacock as part of NBC’s streaming strategy might upset U.S. Open fans. This, even though the app was free and shockingly, completely free of ads during its round one debut on Comcast’s big foray into streaming.

Todd Kelly reports on the viewer issues with Peacock, which picked up the last and first two hours of weekday coverage (more weekend windows early are looming).

Problem is, Peacock doesn’t quite have Netflix-level penetration across the U.S. and many sports fans are probably still scrambling as this story was being typed, looking for that app. NBCUniversal reported on Sept. 15 that 15 million people have signed up. It first debuted about three months ago for Comcast and Cox subscribers.

They’re probably banking on acquiring more by using a major championship to spur sports fans to jump on board.

Good news: You can find Peacock on your computer by going here. You do need to create an account but it’s free.

Reports on Twitter are that Peacock is not on the Roku. It’s been confirmed that it’s also not on the Amazon Firestick, but, there’s a work-around for that.

Nothing says well-oiled machine like a workaround and being unattached to Roku and Amazon.

But the kids love their streaming no matter how clunky it remains for sports viewing. Personally, I had no issues with Peacock working on a smart TV other than a noticeable loss of picture quality and whites looking blue, some of which was verified by many on Twitter if you hit this and read the replies:

For those who made the leap, anyone else finding the US Open @peacockTV picture to be softer than @nbc and @GolfChannel? Graphics that looked so good now feel very 2007.

— Geoff Shackelford (@GeoffShac) September 17, 2020