By Jonathan Easton

NBCUniversal has begun the soft rollout of its streaming brand Peacock in the UK with Sky.

As announced in July, Peacock is coming to Sky in the UK and Ireland on November 16. At present, the focus is on the platform’s content rather than the SVOD itself, with NBCU saying that this marks the launch of Peacock content across Sky territories.

NBCU has said that “thousands of hours” of content will be made available to Sky and NOW customers at no extra cost. This includes Peacock originals such as Rutherford Falls and Dan Brown’s The Lost Symbol and movies including O Brother, Where Art Thou? and Tower Heist.

At present, there have been no announced plans to rollout Peacock as a standalone streaming service within Europe.

Following this soft launch, Peacock will expand as a “content destination” across Sky platforms in territories including Germany, Italy, Austria, and Switzerland in the coming months.

Managing Director, Content Sky UK and Ireland, Zai Bennett, said: “The introduction of Peacock content on Sky and NOW will expand the incredible line-up available to all our customers, giving them access to even more of the best entertainment from our partners at NBCUniversal. With brand new Peacock Originals, must-watch reality and hit library series we couldn’t be more excited to add Peacock for all our customers, at no extra cost.”

Managing Director, Europe, Middle East & Africa, NBCUniversal, Lee Raftery, said: “Following its successful phased launch in the U.S., we are excited to mark the international debut of Peacock content in the UK and Ireland on Sky. Peacock provides Sky customers with an expanded catalogue of world-class content, including many of our most popular movies and shows from Peacock and across NBCUniversal.”