Last week, as I was getting ready to add new blog posts to my website, I actually sat down and made a list of things I wanted to write about. This is not usually how I have done things in the past. Usually, I get an idea, write the post and move on. But I was so inspired with potential ideas that I thought I had better do the smart thing and write them down. One of those ideas I had was for a post explaining why I wasn’t currently subscribed to any streaming services and what I was doing instead. While I can still examine that topic at a later date, as of today it is no longer strictly true. Today, I signed up for Peacock.
In late January, it was announced that the WWE Network would be joining the Peacock service in a deal lasting five years at a cost of $1 billion. AIt was at this point that I began to give some serious consideration to joining the service. See, I don’t really care much for the current WWE product. In fact, I haven’t watched any new WWE programming since WrestleMania 35. I remember that show well because it took place on a wonderful day in April at least in terms of the South Dakota weather. I remember thinking about how sad I was that I would be wasting this good weather by staying inside for 7 hours to watch a show that probably wasn’t going to be good if for no other reason that it is hard for any show that long to be good. The last 2 hours of that show dragged and a few days later we were hit with a blizzard.
The blizzard wasn’t the fault of WWE, at least I don’t think it was their fault. But missing out on a nice day for a show I didn’t care much about going in was the last straw. I canceled my WWE Network subscription and haven’t watched any new WWE content since then. I still knew what was happening in WWE because of my subscription to The Wrestling Observer but my interest in wrestling dropped so much that I even let that subscription lapse around June of last year. While I still enjoyed non-WWE professional wrestling I really didn’t care much about any show held in front of no fans.
But when it was announced that the WWE Network would be a part of Peacock I figured I would sign up again. I was always planning to try Peacock around the Olympics but having access to WWE has obviously made me sign up much sooner. Today, I got a deal that I found hard to pass on. At this link I signed up for 4 months of Peacock at a total cost of $10.
The truth is that I really only signed up for the service because of WWE content all be it mostly older WWE content. Since I am a regular listener of The Lapsed Fan Wrestling Podcast, I do find myself wanting to revisit some shows from my youth especially from World Championship Wrestling.
After looking at what the service has available before adding the network content starting on the 18th, it is clear that my purchase is at least for now entirely for WWE content. Looking at the TV show section (the one that I would most likely watch) it occurred to me that most of what Peacock was offering that I would want to watch are shows that I already own in a digital format. Frasier, Everybody Loves Raymond, Two and a Half Men, Modern Family, and others are shows I already own. About the only show they have that I would both want to watch and don’t already own is The PJs. That’s fine though because it is easy enough for me to justify the cost of $2.50 a month for the next 4 months. As I told my friend Euan a few moments ago, at that price I don’t even feel like I need to watch this year’s WrestleMania to justify the cost.
This is the first streaming service I’m paying for since I stopped my Netflix subscription last summer. I only had Netflix back then because when the Lockdown first started I signed up for it thinking that I might need it when boredom set in but that never happened. I barely watched it and it became a waste of money. At least the friend I let share my account got some use out of it but I couldn’t justify the cost anymore.
How much will I actually use Peacock over the next 4 months? That remains to be seen. It won’t have to be a lot for me to feel like I got my money’s worth. After 4 months I may find that I didn’t really watch any of the WWE content or anything else for that matter and let it go. Especially if the older WWE content isn’t immediately available. I am almost certain that I will keep it through the Olympics as that is something that I enjoy watching quite a bit. But when I want to watch Everybody Loves Raymond, I will still head to my own digital library to do so.
Random Catastrophe Version 3.0 
What about AP Bio? You can watch that on peacock right?
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