Today, during NBCUniversal’s annual tech conference, One24, the company revealed a number of features coming to its Peacock streaming service ahead of the 2024 Paris Olympics in July.
The most notable feature to be launched on Peacock is multiview, which allows subscribers to watch up to four simultaneous matches simultaneously. Next to picture-in-picture, many sports fans agree that multiview is one of the biggest developments in sports streaming technology in years, offering a more convenient way to watch multiple games at once instead of constantly switching streams.
The company also announced a new interactive “Live Action” button to let fans choose which events they want to watch, a new way to search for specific athletes and other features designed to help subscribers browse more than 5,000 hours live coverage of the upcoming summer Olympics.
Some subscribers have complained about how Peacock has broadcast the Olympics in the past, so it’s important that the streamer provides an adequate viewing experience this year. For example, during the 2022 Winter Olympics, Peacock made a questionable choice to reveal some of the winners in the Highlights rail. This will be the first time the service will do a full live stream of all the summer Olympic events, so we bet Peacock is feeling the pressure to get it right.
Peacock reported 31 million subscribers as of Q4 2023.
Image Credits: Peacock
Two multi-view options
Although YouTube TV and Apple both offer multiview features, Peacock told TechCrunch during an update on Tuesday that it is the first standalone streaming service to offer web support for multiview. Google-owned YouTube TV last year launched a multi-view feature that’s only available on smart TVs. In May 2023, Apple began offering multiview on Apple TV 4K for select sports content, such as Major League Soccer and Major League Baseball streams.
The Peacock also hopes to differentiate itself from its competitors by offering two multiview options: “Discovery Multiview,” which gives fans a four-screen overview of live events happening right now, and a more traditional multiview experience where viewers can choose which four events they want to watch (this second option is only available for Olympic sports with multiple simultaneous streams, such as football, wrestling and track and field.) Both options are customizable, meaning viewers can move between screens and seamlessly switch between audio streams.
With up to 40 Olympic events taking place simultaneously, the unique offer helps viewers determine which four events are the most important. Additionally, the feature will display tags and descriptions for each match to let fans know who has a first-time Olympian or defending champion, or if there is any risk of disqualification.
“With up to 40 events happening at the same time, we want to prevent users from having decision paralysis… [Peacock Discovery Multiview is] the perfect choice for fans who want to sit back and let Peacock be their guide to the best of the Olympics,” adds Jelley.
Peacock’s multi-viewing feature is not only available on the web, but also on smart TVs, streaming devices and tablets. However, the company explained to us that it is not releasing multiview on mobile devices because the smaller screen size makes it difficult to navigate between events.
“Ultimately it comes down to screen size, and we’ve found that multiview on mobile doesn’t provide the best viewing experience,” Peacock SVP of Product John Jelley tells TechCrunch. “For users who want to watch on the go, multiview is available on tablets and of course on all other platforms.”
YouTube TV recently confirmed to 9to5Google that it’s launching support on iOS devices, but it’s likely that the feature will be less advanced compared to the TV version.
Peacock will begin testing multiview during select events this spring.
Image Credits: Peacock
In addition to multi-viewing, the streaming service is adding “Live Actions,” which prompts fans to select a “Continue Watching” button if they want to continue watching live coverage or skip to instant coverage. They can also add events to their “My Stuff” list to watch later.
A new “Search by Athlete” feature allows viewers to narrow their search to their favorite athletes. Previously, they could only search by sport, event, team and country.
Peacock is also expanding its “Catch Up with Key Plays” feature to basketball, golf and football. The feature allows fans to watch highlights of a game to quickly catch up without having to leave the main screen. It was originally released as a feature for Premier League matches.
The company noted that multiview and Live Actions will expand to other live sporting events after the Olympics.
