After launching in February, Comcast’s Xfinity Streampix, which features a deeper dive into older movies and TV shows, is now rolled out across more than 95 percent of the MSO’s footprint.
Earlier this year, Comcast added library servers in most of its Pittsburgh market. The library servers enable the streaming side of Streampix, although the content could previously be viewed online. With the library servers, Streampix is available as part of Comcast’s On Demand menu.
The upgrade also allowed Comcast to offer more on-demand and HD video choices, all of which date back to 2008 when Comcast CEO Brian Roberts first spoke about the company’s “Project Xfinity” at the Consumer Electronics Show. At the time, the Xfinity name referred to more choices on VOD and linear TV, or an “everything available on TV” concept. Comcast later adopted Xfinity as the brand name for all of its triple-play services.
Over the past few weeks, Comcast finished rolling out the library servers in the rest of the Keystone Region, which includes all of Pennsylvania outside of metro Philadelphia, eastern Ohio, and the Maryland and West Virginia panhandles. With the network upgrades, Comcast customers have access to more than 95,000 TV shows and movies.
To launch Streampix, Comcast entered into licensing agreements with leading movie studios and programming providers, including Disney-ABC Television Group, NBCUniversal, Sony Pictures, Warner Bros. Digital Distribution and Cookie Jar Entertainment.
The streaming service includes numerous past season and current hit shows and full series such as “30 Rock” and “Married … with Children,” as well as popular children’s franchises like “Inspector Gadget.” Available movies include “Ocean’s Eleven” and “When Harry Met Sally.”
Streampix initially launched on Apple’s iOS devices through Comcast’s Xfinity TV Player App, but it’s now available on Android devices via the same app and on Xfinity TV on Xbox 360.
Comcast offers Streampix for free on many of its triple-play and double-play packages, but it can also be purchased for $4.99 a month – which is less than Netflix, Hulu Plus and Amazon Prime – with other video offerings.
While there is a small amount of incremental revenue to be had with Streampix, the real value is providing customers with more video choices across more platforms and devices, which in turn reduces churn. Dating back to Project Xfinity, Comcast planned out a new content storage platform and distribution system via its extensive fiber network to deliver more content to its subscribers.
“Really, it’s just an enhancement of capacity and a great investment that brings more choices to customers,” said Comcast Keystone Region spokesman Bob Grove.
