Peacock is NBC Universal's attempt to keep commercials relevant in the streaming era

Variety

The forthcoming streaming service will run no more than five minutes of ads per hour and will remember how often a particular ad plays for each subscriber. Most importantly, Peacock wants to connect commercials to the viewer. "In a different time in the business, viewers understood that 'a word from our sponsor' helped make their experience possible," says Brian Steinberg. "The title of Milton Berle’s Texaco Star Theater ensured that. But the modern TV model, with handfuls of commercials breaking through to interrupt linear viewings of everything from Sunday Night Football to Better Call Saul, appears to have sundered that connection. TV no longer relies on a 'word' from sponsors, but rather a cacophony. By the time the audience gets through back-to-back-to-back-to-back runs of national ads from Burger King, Apple and Geico and local spots from the regional car dealership, they may well have forgotten what they were watching in the first place. NBCU intends to change that system."