The content providing battle between MVPDs Comcast and Verizon gets more complicated as more details emerge about Comcast’s Watchable online video service.
Watchable, a direct competitor with Verizon’s imminent Go90 platform, had its demo briefly left up by engineers on Wednesday, so Variety poked around and revealed important details about Comcast’s bid for Millennials via streaming content.
Watchable, which is planned for release in “coming weeks” is a set-top streaming channel that will feature content from Comcast investments like Buzzfeed (in which the company recently invested $200 million), The Verge and Vox Media, and from outside content providers like Vice, Popsugar, iFood.tv, and Jukin Media, among others. Eventual partnerships with the Onion and Fullscreen have been announced.
The crucial difference between Watchable and Go90 is that Watchable will be available entirely to the general public via a website, while subscribers can watch it on their set-top boxes and mobile apps. Go90 will be limited in its public-facing content, and unlimited only to Verizon subscribers.
Go90 seems set to beat Watchable to marketplace, however, as Go90 is rumored to launch “in the coming days.”
Watchable joins Comcast’s recent announcement of Stream, its subscription-based OTT live TV platform for Xfinity subscribers, in its bid to hold off video losses as viewers move away from traditional linear TV.
