Philo vs Peacock – What Should You Choose?

Philo is a streaming service-based TV channel that primarily focuses on providing affordable access to live on-demand content. It is popular for its budget-friendly pricing and is considered an attractive option for cord-cutters who want access to live TV without the high costs associated with cable subscriptions. 

On the other hand, Peacock is a streaming service owned by NBC Universal. It is popular for offering a wide range of content, including movies, TV shows, news, sports, and original programming- major NBC Universal properties. Both of the entertainment platforms have their own unique features along with advantages and disadvantages. 

In this article, we detail Philo vs Peacock to provide you with an in-depth understanding in terms of comparison. This comparison will help you to make an informed decision.

Philo vs Peacock: Free Trial

Both of the services offer different kinds of trial versions, which are free of cost. Let’s check out both services’ free trial versions.

Philo

A very good way to start with Philo is using its free trial version. It allows you to enjoy the service for 7 days without any charges. Before the end of that certain week, you can cancel your account if you don’t like the programs. Registering for the trial is a very easy process. 

You only need to provide your basic information, which includes entering your credit card details and confirming your account through an email verification. Once the sign-up process is completed, you can start enjoying the contents available on Philo for free. 

Most importantly, during the trial week, you can use its unlimited Cloud DVR feature to record content. But, after the end of the trial period, and if you do not continue with Philo, the recorded material will be lost after the trial week.

Learn More: Is Philo Free with Amazon Prime? Really Free?

Peacock

Peacock Premium and Peacock Plus are the only paid options. The fundamental Peacock service is entirely free, and there’s no need for a trial period. Peacock’s sign-up process is much simpler.

You can create your account using just your email address. After setting up your account, you can start streaming for the free content available. There are two things we would like to mention about this free version of Peacock. 

First, ads will pop up after every 5 minutes. Second, you have only 15,000 hours of access to watch content for free.

Who Wins?As Philo provides a full week of access to all its content, you can do the evaluation perfectly. Additionally, there are no ads like Peacock. So, our vote goes for Philo.

Philo vs Peacock: Price and Value

When you shop for a streaming service, you must look into the price. Because it matters a lot. Besides the price, a good valued streaming service is always recommended. Let’s take a look at Philo vs Peacock which offers good prices with good value.

Philo

Philo is a low-cost live TV streaming service. Its channel lineup matches up with your viewing demand and is great for saving money on monthly TV bills.

Plan Name Feature Price
Philo
  • 70+ channels
  • Unlimited DVR
  • 7 days free trial
$25 / month

Philo also provides some exciting add-ons. So, you can customize your viewing experience by paying for the add-on package.

  • Movie Package: Add your favorite channels like Cinemax and MGMHD to the Philo subscription
  • STARZ Package: Add STARZ channel to your Philo account
  • MGM+ Package: Add MGM+ channel to your channel lineup

Overall, Philo is ready to give you the best opportunity possible with affordable pricing.

Don’t miss to check out YouTube TV vs Spectrum TV.

Peacock

Peacock is comparatively more expensive than Philo. That’s because of multiple plans and benefits. Peacock is a worthy contender in the race of streaming apps. Its price and value are unmatched!

Plans Name Feature Price
Peacock Premium
  • Stream 80,000+ hours of Movies and sports on TV
  • Access Hit & New Shows, Films, Originals
  • Watch NBC and Bravo Shows
  • Enjoy LIVE Sports & Events
  • Access 50+ Always-On Channels
  • $5.99/month
  • $59.99/year
Peacock Premium Plus
  • Download & Watch Select Titles Offline
  • No Ads (Limited Exclusions)
  • Access Local NBC Channel LIVE, 24/7
  • $11.99/month
  • $111.99/year

Who Wins? – Philo is a low-cost streaming service with few options while Peacock comes with many features. Here, Peacock is a winner.

Philo vs Peacock: Channel Lineup

It’s a must to check out the channel lineup of any streaming service before you shop. You have to check if the TV shows you like are available on the streaming platform. Otherwise, using that streaming service doesn’t make much sense.

Philo

Philo offers 70+ channels for subscribers. From kid-focused channels to news networks, everything you will get on Philo. Here’s a quick list of Philo channels.

Included Channels
  • A&E
  • AMC
  • Animal Planet
  • AXS TV
  • BBC America
  • CLEO TV
  • Comedy Central
  • Cooking Channel
  • CRACKLE
  • Crime + Investigation
  • Food Network
  • History Channel
  • Lifetime
  • Motor Trend
  • MTV
  • Nickelodeon
Premium Channels
  • Cinémoi
  • MGM+
  • MGMHD
  • Sony Movies
  • STARZ

Peacock

Peacock offers NBC-focused content. But, it doesn’t mean you will only stick to NBC channels. There are many options to explore.  When you purchase a Peacock subscription, you will get 50+ channels. A few channels are-

  • American Greed
  • Bad Girls Club
  • BRAVO Below Deck
  • Black-Led Comedy
  • Casa Cerrado
  • CJ ENM PICKS
  • Classic TV Comedy
  • Drama TV
  • Great Finds
  • Hallmark Channel
  • Law & Order
  • LOL! Network
  • NBA TV
  • Peacock Latino
  • Peacock Picks Family
  • Sky News

Who Wins? –  I will go for Philo because it offers 70+ different channels while Peacock has only 50+ channels. So, Philo wins here.

Philo vs Peacock: Shows and Movies

In terms of shows and movies, both of the services have their unique offerings. Here, we detail this context.

Philo

On Philo, you can watch a wide variety of shows. It is mostly suitable to watch reality-based TV shows. You can watch shows on BBC World News and BBC America. Additionally, this selection includes shows from MTV, Food Network, HGTV, the History Channel, and TLC.

We would like to notify you that Philo stands out by including AMC, a network not found on every competing streaming service. In the movie section, you can watch Family Movie Classics (FMC), which were primarily broadcast movies from the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s.

Peacock

As mentioned earlier, Peacock is very based on showcasing NBC Universal-owned products. Here, you can watch previously famous shows like Bel-Air, Yellowstone, Quantum Leap reboot, Real Housewives, Poker Face, Twisted Metal, the Office, Parks & Recreations, etc. 

They also add new TV series every month; the current hot one is “Wolf Like Me”, which premiered in 2022 and now its season 02 is ongoing. Again, in the sports show section, you will be able to see NFL, MLB, WWE wrestling, and other live sports shows. 

Finally, for movies, it combines all the shorts of top channels to come up with a good movie library. You can watch NBC classic movies and recent movies as well, like John Wick, Inside, Renfield, etc.

Who Wins? Philo is good for only classic items, whereas Peacock is good for classic NBC shows and movies, live sports shows, and even recent movies. So, in this case, Peacock wins.

Philo vs Peacock: Sports and News

Now, let’s check how these two entertaining services do in the sports and news sections.

Philo

First of all, there is no option to watch live or late sports shows on Philo. For the news option, Philo only offers you news from two sources: BBC America and BBC World News.

Peacock

Peacock has a wide-ranging live sports lineup that features various events. An exclusive list is below:

  • Premier League
  • MLB Sunday Leadoff
  • Sunday Night Football
  • Big Ten Football
  • Notre Dame Football
  • NASCAR
  • NTT IndyCar Series
  • SuperMotocross World Championship
  • Golf tournaments, and many more to choose from.

Additionally, for news watching, you have only one option: NBC News Now.

Who Wins? Even though Philo offers two giant sources for watching the news, it receives zero ratings in the sports section. On the other hand, Peacock offers watching live news along with a fabulous collection of sports events. So, in this case, Peacock is the winner.

Philo vs Peacock: Compatibility

When considering which streaming service is worthwhile to subscribe to, it must check out the compatibility. If you have an existing streaming device, make sure your new streaming service is compatible with your device. Here’s some compatible device that fits with Philo and Peacock.

Philo

Philo is compatible with a limited number of devices and can be accessed on the following devices:

  • Android Phone
  • Android Tablet
  • Android TV
  • Apple iPad
  • Apple iPhone
  • Apple TV
  • Chromecast
  • Fire Tablet
  • Fire TV
  • Roku
  • Samsung TV
  • Web Browsers

Peacock

Here is a list of the devices that Peacock supports:

  • PlayStation
  • Xbox
  • Amazon Fire Tablets
  • Chromecast
  • Apple TV
  • Roku
  • iOS
  • LG Smart TVs
  • Android mobile
  • Vizio SmartCast TVs
  • Amazon Fire TV
  • Meta VR Devices
  • Cox streaming devices
  • Xfinity streaming players
  • Android TV
  • Google TV
  • Microsoft Edge
  • Samsung smart TVs
  • Chrome
  • Safari
  • Firefox

Who Wins? – It is clearly visible that Peacock is compatible with many devices, while Philo is only available with a limited number of devices. So, Peacock wins here.

Philo vs Peacock: DVR

Here, we do a comparison between Philo and Peacock in terms of DVR facility.

Philo

Philo gives you lots of space to record shows in the cloud. It means you can enjoy a limitless amount of cloud DVR storage. Also, you can watch on three devices at the same time. 

Another important thing to mention is that you can also create ten different profiles of Philo for using the DVR facility. In this way, whoever uses your account can pick their favorite shows and track what they’ve recorded. Finally, no physical DVR equipment is needed to use this DVR storage facility.

Peacock

Unfortunately, Peacock offers only watching shows and programs live. It does not offer any DVR storage facility. The platform uses DRM protection to restrict users from getting the DVR storage facility.

Who Wins?Logically, in the case of the DVR storage facility, Philo wins as Peacock does not offer any.

Philo vs Peacock: Video Quality

For any video-watching platform, the video quality matters a lot. Let’s check out how these two platforms perform in this sector.

Philo

Philo’s live TV broadcasts are at a maximum of 720p and 30 frames per second. Most amazingly, for all those on-demand shows, you can get up to 1080p resolution. Some other on-demand streaming services have 4K content, but it is for only a limited amount of programs. Philo also offers standard Surround 2.0 audio.

Peacock

On Peacock, you have the option to choose from three quality settings: low, medium, and high. These settings cover a range from 240p to 1080p resolution. But, if you’re watching UHD 4K content, you can stream at a maximum of 1440p. At present, if your device is compatible with Ultra HD 4K, the system will automatically show you programs of this quality.

Who Wins? – Due to the lack of availability of watching programs in UHD 4K on Philo, here, the vote goes for Peacock.

Philo vs Peacock: Our Expert Analysis

We do a side-by-side comparison between the offerings and facilities of Philo and Peacock. 

Philo

If you’re a fan of entertainment and reality shows, Philo offers an exceptional live TV streaming experience. It focuses on delivering a variety of entertainment channels like Comedy Central, Paramount Network, and AMC, as well as lifestyle networks including A&E, HGTV, and Cooking Channel.

Philo_logo

For a reasonable monthly fee of just $25, Philo provides access to over 70 channels. Additionally, it comes with unlimited cloud DVR storage, allowing you to store your favorite shows for up to a year. However, it’s best to explore alternative streaming services if you’re a sports enthusiast, as it does not offer any.

Pros

  • Highly affordable
  • You can watch channels that are not available elsewhere
  • Unlimited DVR storage facility
  • Best classic shows and movies

Cons

  • No UHD 4K version is available
  • No sports channels
  • No local channels
  • Comes with ads

Peacock

Peacock stands out as one of the most affordable media streaming options, which is a clear advantage. For just $5.99 per month, you can access the Premium plan, even with ads, offering an extensive content library with over 80,000 hours of programming, including popular shows from networks like NBC, Bravo, and Syfy.

Peacock_Logo

In general, we believe that adding Peacock to your collection of streaming apps is a worthwhile choice. It allows you to watch classic and new movies along with live sports shows. Also, it has an enriched library of TV shows which add new elements each week.

Pros

  • Free version’s availability.
  • You can watch NBC-owned content.
  • Ultra HD mode visual.

Cons

  • No DVR storage facility
  • The original content quantity is very poor.

Final Words

We hope that our detailing on Philo vs Peacock will help you enormously to make an informed decision. If you are looking for reality-based shows, Philo is the best option. 

Also, this one is good for watching classic content. On the other hand, if you want everything together, like new movies, shows, live sports, news, etc., we suggest you go for Peacock.

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Hannah
Hannah

Hannah serves as the streaming channel editor at ISP Bird, where her job involves watching and covering all things related to streaming, from devices to content. She's a Yale University graduate with a degree in English and enjoys watching TV and movies for both work and leisure.