NBC's Peacock is the latest Amazon Prime Video Channels addition

Amazon Prime Video isn’t just about originals and catalog titles, it’s also about Channels. No, not the free, ad-supported ones you might stumble across on Sling or Pluto, but more like Universal Crime (aka the channel that just runs every episode of 'Columbo' on loop). Prime’s bigger play has been to position itself as the hub where you actually subscribe to and watch other streamers. It’s aggregation with a cut of the money, and the lineup isn’t small potatoes. HBO Max, Paramount+, even Apple TV+ have all plugged in. Now Peacock is getting folded in, with NBC signing on to the Prime Channels mix offering.

Peacock is, well, probably another place you can watch 'Columbo'—though we haven’t checked in a while. The service has some originals, though few have broken through. Mostly, it’s a home for old NBC sitcoms, Universal films, and a mountain of reality TV. Still, with a high-profile swing coming in 'The Paper,' its 'Office'-adjacent workplace comedy, it’s a good moment for Peacock to be both in the news and easier to find.

Through Prime Video Channels, Peacock Premium Plus—the ad-free tier—will cost $16.99 a month or $169.99 a year. That means Amazon gets its cut of all those 'Office' rewatches, but the bigger play may be sports. NBC landed a major NBA package in the latest media rights deal, and with Peacock carrying those games, Amazon now has another way to grab basketball eyeballs.

The streaming landscape is impossible to pin down, but Peacock showing up inside Prime is meaningful. Now, if you’ll excuse us, we need to see which 'Columbo' case Universal Crime is cycling through right now.

(h/t The Hollywood Reporter)