IndyCar streaming platform raises prices at worst possible time

Days after the lone Peacock exclusive on the 2023 IndyCar schedule, Peacock have announced a significant price hike for every single one of their subscription offerings.

If Sunday’s Honda Indy Toronto wasn’t frustrating enough for the many IndyCar fans who don’t pay extra for a subscription of Peacock Premium or Peacock Premium Plus and therefore had no way of watching the 85-lap race won by Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing’s Christian Lundgaard, Peacock have gone and rubbed a little extra salt in the wound just days later.

NBCUniversal’s streaming service, which is the exclusive home of all IndyCar practice and qualifying sessions (aside from a portion of Indy 500 qualifying) and the annual Toronto race at the 11-turn, 1.786-mile (2.874-kilometer) temporary street circuit at Exhibition Place, have announced price hikes across the board.

A single-month subscription of Peacock Premium now costs $5.99 instead of $4.99. A single-month subscription of Peacock Premium Plus now costs $11.99 instead of $9.99.

Annual subscriptions have also seen significant price hikes, with Peacock Premium jumping from $49.99 to $59.99 and Peacock Premium Plus jumping from $99.99 to $119.99. The Premium Plus monthly add-on has also jumped from $5 to $6.

It’s not welcome news for IndyCar fans, many of whom were already disgruntled from the exclusivity of Sunday’s race.

Overall, prices are going up 20% across the board. These price hikes are officially set to go into effect on Thursday, August 17.

Of course, IndyCar is hardly the only thing available on Peacock. There is plenty of other content which is accessible on the service, including NASCAR, other sports, and TV shows, some of which are sports related and others which are not.

With that being said, for the IndyCar fans who only purchase a subscription to watch America’s premier open-wheel racing series, these price increases are certainly not what they wanted to see.

Yet with all things considered, these hikes are not completely unexpected, and not just because we live in a day and age when everything seems to be going up in price on a more frequent basis than many are accustomed to. This marks the first time that Peacock have hiked prices since their launch in July 2020, so this latest development has been a long time coming.