Five years ago this week… NBCUniversal announced plans to launch a streaming service in early 2020, employing a freemium model comprising a free ad-supported tier, alongside an ad-free subscription-based tier – available not just to its own pay TV subscribers but to rivals like AT&T and Dish Network. Personalized ads were marked as a key feature for the launch, as well as a lower ad load—in a bid to differentiate this service from Hulu, of which NBCU parent Comcast also held a stake in. The streaming service, later named Peacock, was officially launched July 2020. Among the less glossy hardware launches at CES 2024 was a new censored smartphone targeted at children. Developed by parental control app provider MMGuardian and…