The battle to woo cord cutters with à al carte cable TV channels via apps has taken a new turn, with cable giant Comcast now joining the fray.
Comcast's new service is called Stream, and it will include programing from what it says are "about a dozen networks -- including all the major broadcast nets and HBO."
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Priced at $15 a month, the service will only be available to Comcast's Xfinity Internet subscribers via the Xfinity TV app. The roll out of the service will also be limited, with the first Stream service coming to Boston at the end of this summer and then to Chicago and Seattle. After those cities, the service will be rolled out to the rest of the U.S., wherever Comcast has a footprint, according to a statement on the company's website.
On the sign-up page for Stream, under "live TV," network logos from Fox, Univision, The CW, ABC, CBS and NBC are included. However, for "on demand," the only major cable channel listed is HBO.
So while the service will deliver television programing on computers and mobile devices, the paltry channel offering, along with the cable TV subscription requirement, doesn't really stand up the competition. (Both Showtime and HBO offer premium channel options that don't require a cable TV subscription.)
In an interview with The New York Times, Matthew Strauss, Comcast's executive vice president and general manager of video services, said that later iterations of Stream will allow users to substitute HBO for a different premium channel. Strauss also promised that in a future version of Stream users will be able to add additional channels in packages (children’s programming, sports, etc.) for an extra $5 to $10 a month.