Where to watch a couple of Peacock shows

[AZhappyjack]

There are two shows that are produced by/for Peacock that I cannot find to watch...

Five Bedrooms (seasons 1 and 2 are on Peacock, but seasons 3 and 4 are not).
Departure (seasons 1 and 2 are on Peacock, but season 3 is not).

What's the deal with this? How can a network own two different shows that are currently still in production refused to offer them for viewing on any streaming service, paid or not?

Am I missing an option to watch these somewhere?

 

[KaliYoni]

What's the deal with this? How can a network own two different shows that are currently still in production refused to offer them for viewing on any streaming service, paid or not?

It's the (as is usual with the broadcast business) consumer-hostile outcome of factors that all come down to money. I see it as the current day version of when disputes between cable companies and sports leagues resulted in subscribers not being able to watch a big game or tournament.

Here's one recent story about what's going on with streamers:

Streaming services are removing tons of movies and shows — it's not personal, it's strictly business

Consumers thought streaming would be forever, but library content is disappearing as studios seek to cut costs.

www.cnbc.com

 

[AZhappyjack]

It's the (as is usual with the broadcast business) consumer-hostile outcome of factors that all come down to money. I see it as the current day version of when disputes between cable companies and sports leagues resulted in subscribers not being able to watch a big game or tournament.

Here's one recent story about what's going on with streamers:

Streaming services are removing tons of movies and shows — it's not personal, it's strictly business

Consumers thought streaming would be forever, but library content is disappearing as studios seek to cut costs.

www.cnbc.com

Good read... thanks for that.

I understand the concept of making a profit... it's the most basic tenet of capitalism... but I cannot wrap my head around the concept of paying writers, producers, actors, technicians, editors, etc to create and produce a show that they refuse to air anywhere - even on their own channel... might just as well take a couple hundred million dollars and flush it down the commode. There's no chance of a profit in that scenario.

 

[Soondae]

Are those programs not available on the Peacock free account? About 3 years ago when I signed up for my Peacock account, I used my brothers Cable service to authenticate their Premium service. His cable account has been closed over two years now yet Peacock still allows me to have the premium account as they have never request for me to re-authenticate the account.

Therefore, find someone with a cable account you can use to sign up for Premium.....

 

[AZhappyjack]

Are those programs not available on the Peacock free account? About 3 years ago when I signed up for my Peacock account, I used my brothers Cable service to authenticate their Premium service. His cable account has been closed over two years now yet Peacock still allows me to have the premium account as they have never request for me to re-authenticate the account.

Therefore, find someone with a cable account you can use to sign up for Premium.....

They are not available on either the free or the premium service. That is the strange part.

 

[HobeSoundDarryl]

My guess is that "in the can" (seasons 1 & 2) are in the bundle to get one hooked and seasons 3 & 4 are fresh enough to still drive some disc and digital outright sales/rentals.

For example, old movies are included in huge bundles on Netflix and similar. But newer movies are only available for rent or purchase as individual products. Wait a year or two and some of those will roll into the bundles available in the "included" price.

If there is a season 5, once it is underway, I bet season 3 rolls into the "included" bundle. And when you get to season 6 being underway, season 4 rolls into the "included" bundle.

Basically, when "fresh," the creators can and will milk every penny out of them. When older, all of the extra they can make has probably been harvested so they just fall into the "bundle" offerings.

Whole series of shows that were rated "top 10" in the 2000s, 1990s, 1980s, etc are generally available in streaming bundles. However, current shows that are not even the "top 40" are generally NOT. Why? Because the fresh stuff has added revenue opportunity until the freshness of them "goes stale" if you will.

 

[AZhappyjack]

My guess is that "in the can" (seasons 1 & 2) are in the bundle to get one hooked and seasons 3 & 4 are fresh enough to still drive some disc and digital outright sales/rentals.

For example, old movies are included in huge bundles on Netflix and similar. But newer movies are only available for rent or purchase as individual products. Wait a year or two and some of those will roll into the bundles available in the "included" price.

If there is a season 5, once it is underway, I bet season 3 rolls into the "included" bundle. And when you get to season 6 being underway, season 4 rolls into the "included" bundle.

Basically, when "fresh," the creators can and will milk every penny out of them. When older, all of the extra they can make has probably been harvested so they just fall into the "bundle" offerings.

Whole series of shows that were rated "top 10" in the 2000s, 1990s, 1980s, etc are generally available in streaming bundles. However, current shows that are not even the "top 40" are generally NOT. Why? Because the fresh stuff has added revenue opportunity until the freshness of them "goes stale" if you will.

That all sounds reasonable, except the newest stuff (5BR S3&4 and Departure S3) are NOT AVAILABLE ANYWHERE. If they are "milking" them, where are they milking them? It's not a huge deal, I'm just curious about how they make anything off of them if all of this is locked away in a vault. And, FWIW, S1 and 2 of 5 Bedrooms was available as a season as soon as each season was done filming... just a head-scratcher.

 

[HobeSoundDarryl]

Hard to say without investigating. Maybe they have some kind of licensing issues. Maybe some kind of legal issues? Sometimes shows use music and the “repeats” burn through the licensed quantity or the time table of license runs out. Then they need a new deal for that music to get to be shown even more times. There’s all kinds of stuff like that that can lead to programming issues, distribution, etc.

I recall there was quite a struggle to release 2 old shows- Wonder Years and WKRP in Cincinnati- on disc over music rights. Here's a story about that. Music is often a culprit in limiting distribution after some amount of time.

Contact the studio that makes those shows and ask. Maybe the direct route will get an answer.

Edit: Did a little research for you. It appears all 4 seasons of Five Bedrooms are available on Amazon Prime. Departure Season 3 is also available on Amazon Prime. Both show "not available from my location" so this is likely accessible from countries outside of the United States.

A little more research implies BOTH will be coming to Peacock in the U.S.- just not yet.