Comcast Cuts Price of Its Streaming Hardware From $5 a Month to $0
September 18 2019 - 5:55PM
Dow Jones News
By Lillian Rizzo
Comcast Corp. is making its streaming device available free of
charge to its internet-only customers, in an effort to capitalize
on its expanding broadband customer base as the battle for
streaming customers ramps up.
The nation's largest cable operator launched Flex, its answer to
other streaming hardware such as Roku, Amazon.com Inc.'s Fire TV
Stick and Apple Inc.'s Apple TV, earlier this year. The device,
which originally could be leased for $5 a month, will now be free
to all broadband customers during the duration of their contract,
the company said Wednesday. Comcast declined to say how many of its
customers had opted to lease the Flex since its inception.
Another competitor to Flex was launched Wednesday: Facebook Inc.
introduced a new Portal device that has television chat and
video-streaming capabilities, becoming the latest company to enter
the streaming-hardware field.
Comcast's decision to make Flex free to customers comes one day
after the company's NBCUniversal unit unveiled its new
direct-to-consumer streaming service, Peacock, a nod to NBC's logo.
Peacock will launch in April 2020 and will be available for free to
Comcast's more than 21 million U.S. cable subscribers.
The company has yet to disclose pricing for the app outside of
its customer base. While Peacock will be available on Flex, Comcast
declined to say whether it would be free as well for internet
customers, or what the price point will be.
CEO Brian Roberts on Wednesday said Peacock would lean heavily
on advertising. Mr. Roberts added the company is exploring how to
work with other distributors to extend Peacock to non-Comcast cable
customers at no additional cost to them.
Like its peers, Comcast has been bleeding pay-TV subscribers as
people abandon traditional pay-TV packages in favor of streaming
apps like Netflix Inc., Amazon's Prime TV, and Hulu Inc. Mr.
Roberts on Wednesday said Comcast has 55 million customers across
its business, but the company has lost cable-TV customers for the
past nine consecutive quarters.
Mr. Roberts, who was speaking at Goldman Sachs Group Inc.'s
Communacopia conference in New York, acknowledged the cord-cutting
trend is here to stay, and said providing Flex as an option to
broadband-only customers is a way for the company to remain a
video-content provider.
"Not all video customers are profitable to us anymore, and
programming costs can be lumpy," Mr. Roberts said, adding it isn't
always worth fighting the cord-cutting trend for those reasons.
Comcast said Flex is able to stream videos in 4K resolution and
comes with a voice-activated remote control. The technology behind
the Flex platform and remote control stems from Comcast's cable
system, Xfinity X1, which gives cable subscribers access to their
pay-TV package and streaming apps through Comcast's set-top box. A
majority of Comcast's cable customers use the X1 platform and its
voice remote.
The company said Flex would provide a "digital dashboard,
"similar to X1 and Xfinity's xFi internet service, so that
customers can manage their related internet-home products, and use
other functions similar to a smartphone.
Comcast said there wouldn't be any advertising on Flex. It
declined to say whether it would take a cut of subscriptions
purchased through its platform. As with other streaming devices,
apps from rivals including Hulu and Netflix are available on the
platform.
Peacock will be added to Flex once the service is live. Skinny
bundles, such as Dish Network Corp. 's Sling TV or Alphabet Inc. 's
YouTube TV -- which provide access to a limited selection of live
TV channels -- aren't available on Flex yet, although Sling
International, which provides international TV shows, is.
The company will reach out to its current internet-only
customers, with and without Flex, to notify them that Flex is now
available free of charge. (Customers will still have to pay $5 a
month if they want a second device.).
Flex is currently only offered to Comcast customers. Matt
Strauss, Comcast Cable's executive vice president of Xfinity
Services, on Wednesday said the company was exploring whether
license Flex to rivals -- similar to the X1 cable platform that is
licensed to Cox Communications, among others.
While Comcast has focused on speed upgrades to improve broadband
customers' experience, offering Flex at no cost is meant to improve
the internet-only customers' experience, a spokeswoman said.
Write to Lillian Rizzo at Lillian.Rizzo@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
September 18, 2019 17:40 ET (21:40 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2019 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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