Peacock rolling out Watch With feature
February 9, 2023
By Nik Roseveare
Streaming service Peacock is launching ‘Watch With’, a new product experience that allows viewers to watch special episodes alongside their favourite talent, with real time reactions, live commentary, and unfiltered Q&A.
Directly following the Season two premiere of Peacock’s drama series Bel-Air, Watch With will officially launch with Jabari Banks and Olly Sholotan on February 24th. The feature will soon extend to Eurovision with two-time Olympian and NBC correspondent Johnny Weir, The Real Housewives Ultimate Girls Trip with Candiace Dillard Bassett and Marysol Patton, plus more to be announced.
Watch With is a user experience that allows marketers to take fans behind the scenes of their favourite content and engage with the stars, directors and creators. This series of fan-powered events are designed to present a seamless split screen view that allows talent to answer questions and interact in real time. As soon as the user enters the livestream, they will see a video overlay of talent providing commentary on the episode, alongside a count of how many fans are watching. The event will also keep pulse on all live social chatter, bringing noteworthy moments and questions up to the talent in real-time.
With ongoing testing for continual optimization, the Watch With feature first appeared in beta form on the platform last year with beloved Miami Housewives, Larsa Pippen and Marysol Patton.
“After exceeding our viewership forecasts, we’re highly encouraged by the first test of ‘Watch With’ as a way to super-serve fans with a live communal viewing experience,” said John Jelley, Senior Vice President, Product & UX, Peacock and Direct-to-Consumer, NBCUniversal. “As we work to build an unrivaled audience experience at Peacock, we’re looking to continue experimenting with in-product innovations that enhance the streaming experience and break into the cultural zeitgeist.”