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Comcast Will Let Netflix Onto Its X1 Platform
Kara Swisher, reporting for Recode:Cable giant Comcast will allow popular web video streaming service Netflix onto its X1 platform. (Editor's note: both the companies confirmed the move to the publication.) Sources said the deal to be on the cable giant's set-top box would be akin to the arrangement that Netflix has cut with smaller cable operators in the United States and bigger ones across the globe. Netflix also has deals with Apple, Roku and Google's Chromecast; its app is offered on these Internet TV services. It also is embedded in smart televisions.It's an enormous step, given the long and sometimes contentious history between the two companies against a backdrop of increased consumer usage of internet-delivered video. From the report:Back in 2012, for example, Peter Kafka reported that Netflix CEO Reed Hastings was "once again accusing Comcast of violating 'net neutrality' principles by favoring its own web video service over those from Netflix, HBO and Hulu, when it comes to data usage."
I never understood why Comcast considered Netflix a competitor instead of something like another channel. Netflix has very little that would be playing currently on most cable channels people pay to watch, and it has nothing live like cable can offer... they are very complementary to each other.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
They'll lose if they take Netflix on head-to-head. But they can treat them like HBO, take a cut off the top, and then later start capping bandwidth and charging overages, or making people buy premium service in order to use Netflix.