NBCUniversal is said to be optimistic that they will be able to debut original series for their upcoming streaming service Peacock before year’s end, including the Saved by the Bell and Punky Brewster revivals among others.
Production on many series have been paused due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic which has shut down many of them in recent weeks with no definite date set as yet for a potential resuming of filming.
Peacock Chairman Matt Strauss spoke this week with Variety and says some projects, such as the high profile adaptation of Aldous Huxley’s 1932 novel Brave New World and the Psych movie, are effectively complete:
“We’re all unclear when exactly things are going to go back to normal and we’re going to be able to pick up where we left off with certain aspects of the original productions. We are very very optimistic that there’s a handful of originals that we will have.”
Peacock is set to launch an ‘early preview’ today of the ad-supported tier dubbed ‘Peacock Premium’ for Comcast’s own 31.5 million TV and internet customers, all at no extra charge.
This comes ahead of it becoming available, in both a $5 ad-supported and a $10 ad-free version, across the whole U.S. from July 15th. NBCU is said to be mulling the possibility of moving that launch up sooner.
At launch, Peacock Premium includes more than 15,000 hours of movies and shows including library show such as Parks and Recreation, Law & Order: SVU and Two and a Half Men along with movies like the Jurassic Park and Shrek franchises.
