Comcast is getting ready to join the already crowded streaming TV industry. According to the company’s CEO Brian Roberts, Comcast is preparing to launch its own streaming TV service by the end of this year. However this is the opposite of what NBC Universal’s CEO Steve Burke is stating. Burke is skeptical of OTT services at this point, as none of them have really taken off in any capacity just yet. The streaming TV service is aimed at millennials and cord cutters, and will be available without a set-top box. Comcast is going to call the service “XFINITY Instant TV” when it does launch.
The executives didn’t say a whole lot about XFINITY Instant TV, but they did say that they are experimenting with different prices right now. Reports had stated before that the service would start at $15 per month, which would undercut its competition severely, but the executives would not commit to that pricing. The service is said to offer the local channels that you come to expect – and don’t always get with competitors – as well as some premium channels and DVR functionality. Comcast has not laid out which particular channels will be included, and that could be what sells the service, or could be the downfall of it.
During the conference call, Comcast’s CEO did also talk about his appetite for deals. Stating that they are always looking at the world around us, and looking for something new. But he doesn’t feel that Comcast is missing anything in general, so an acquisition may not happen, but Comcast has not yet ruled it out. This is likely an answer to questions about Comcast being in talks with Sprint about acquiring the company. Comcast has been looking to get into wireless for quite some time, so the talks aren’t surprising. Obviously, even if Comcast was in talks with Sprint, they would be unable to talk about them publicly until something has been agreed upon by Sprint/SoftBank and Comcast. And of course, that has not yet happened, so executives will be pretty vague when it comes to those questions, at least for now.