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Comcast Unveils $5-a-Month Streaming Service Xfinity Flex (cnet.com)
Comcast announced a $5-a-month streaming video service Thursday called Xfinity Flex, an offering that aggregates on-demand video from your subscriptions like Netflix Amazon Prime Video and HBO, as well as offering free ad-supported shows to watch and options to rent and buy programming. From a report: It essentially replicates some of the features of a cable service but delivers over the internet rather than... well, cable. But it won't have live channels or DVR, and it won't let you watch a live-TV streaming service like YouTube TV or Sling TV, keeping Flex squarely in the realm of on-demand viewing that's less threatening to Comcast's traditional -- and lucrative -- cable TV packages. Instead, Flex will have built-in ways to upgrade to live TV from Comcast. Xfinity Flex comes with a 4K and HDR-ready wireless set-top box with an X1 voice remote, Engadget adds. It's scheduled to launch March 26th, and will be available to customers who have Comcast internet.
Quoting from the story: "Xfinity Flex will run $5 a month on top of a Comcast customer's cost for internet service."
Hahaha Uhm no. $5 to "aggregate" my streaming services? LOL. I "aggregated" them by putting all those apps into the same folder on my iPad. There, saved $5/mo. Wow, Idiots.
Fuck Comcast.
Basically this is letting them snoop everything you watch and sell that to advertisers etc. Why would I pay them for that??
I'd bet they charge $8/month for that streaming box, and that you can only rent it, not buy it.
Still -- maybe? I have Comcast for internet only. It might work for me.
That way if the backups go on the hard drive I loaded my shows and movies on goes I can easily re-rip them from the originals in the closet all packed away nice and safe. Carry on though if you like paying for advertisements. :)
I wonder how they convince Amazon, Netflix, and HBO to allow them to stream their content rather than having customers go to their individual apps/sites/boxes/whatever.
Still, I could see services like this having a place. One of the things that can be frustrating and limiting about these various streaming services is the content customers want is often spread out among multiple services and we have really gotten used to the idea of going to one source for each type of product.
I have Comcast for internet only. It might work for me.
The idea of a streaming service aggregator is a little mystifying to me, since I just run separate streaming apps and that works really well.
Maybe if the aggregator UI was better than the stream apps UI? I can't see that being true for Netflix though (maybe for Prime which has a terrible UI).
For searching, I can already search for content across multiple streaming apps on an AppleTV so it doesn't help any there...
Maybe the Comcast specific aggregator would offer some kind of quality boost or improved level of performance?
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
I wouldn't pay an extra $5 for it though. I thought this was initially what the xbox one guide was supposed to be but it never seemed to happen. Would love it if this was enough to push them to finally implement it.
I already have a streaming service aggregator, it's called a Roku, and it costs 0.00/Mo.
Also, with my Pi-Hole, I don't get ads.
Roku cost me 99.99, but it's the premium version, has a voice remote, ethernet [since wireless sucks] , and USB, so it plays my media.
I of course, have another content aggregator, ala raspberry pi, or XU4, or other cheap ARM board, that costs less than the rental price.
All of their customers do.
They are the ones getting fucked by Comca$t.
Basically, Comcast will rent you a Roku box? Brilliant...
Naaa, it would be a lot more fun killing you. I prefer shot gun, 12 gauge, non bird shot. Shot to the gut should do it. Nice and slow. Maybe just start by taking out one of your legs first, watch you wither and squirm in agony for a short period. Then do a gut shot to finish you off. Naaa, I would rather just watch you die slow.
'torrenting...still free
(/h or /s, you decide)
So rise up, all ye lost ones, as one, we'll claw the clouds.
Roku does this for free anyway (well, free monthly, once you get one of their inexpensive streaming boxes)
Fully licensed blockchain psychiatrist
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You will never matter. Colorado doesn't need you. The incel community lol doesn't even need you. Nobody needs you. Kill yourself.
They recently jumped up my internet connection costs %5 without telling me anything,,, but no set-top box.
Itâ(TM)s $5/mo so that they wonâ(TM)t slow down your streams you get from these other content providers. Thatâ(TM)s the end game. Thanks FCC for making this an option for them.
That sounds like an anti-trust lawsuit waiting to happen because I see them crippling access to say Netflix unless you pay the $5 to them.
Anti-net neutrality laws opened the door for that sort of abuse so it might not even be anti-trust.
Sig. Sig. Sputnik
Their software is the worst flash based crap anyone has ever seen.
It's surprising anti virus software doesn't try and remove it.
This described software has been in beta for a long time, and free, on Roku. It sounds like it is transitioning to live.
The beta software has worked a billion times better than their crappy set-top boxes, to the point that the only reason I keep the set-top box is because it's required to have the set-top box to use the beta app. And there have been warnings that users will be charged per device it is activated it is on when the app goes from beta to live, as if it were an additional TV, not one STB and a Roku plugged into the same TV.
Getting screwed again by Comcast, par for the course.
$5/mo to RENT a streaming box + remote how long before it's $7-$10/mo and if you don't return the box you will be billed $250.
Back when I had service from Comcast (before switching to AT&T Fiber and DirecTV Now), customers were allowed to stream channels to a mobile device within your home network, but not outside of it.
I quickly solved that problem by installing a VPN server on my home network and using that to watch TV while on the road. No doubt many others did the same. This $5 / month fee is effectively a surcharge by Comcast for the computer illiterate.
nursing homes are a gold mine for cable locking and they can use this to lock out others in them.
Hahaha Uhm no. $5 to "aggregate" my streaming services? LOL. I "aggregated" them by putting all those apps into the same folder on my iPad. There, saved $5/mo. Wow, Idiots.
Yeah, but if you don't pay it they'll throttle your streaming services so they are unusable. Maybe not at first...but soon.
So they have included "free ad-supported shows" for $5/month? Hmmmm.....
A never ending $5 a month for the privilege of leasing the equivalent of a Roku or Apple TV. This, when Rokus are $30-$40 to own. LOL, nope.
Wow, just wow.
As usual, Comcast wants you to rent something you could buy cheap. For a low, low introductory price which will inevitably increase as time goes on. In a year you will have spent enough to buy the hardware at least twice.
The hardware is intentionally feature-limited to avoid competing with Comcast legacy services.
As a bonus, you get to call Comcast technical support if there's a problem.
And, if at some later time you come to your senses, you'll discover just how difficult it is to return the hardware and stop Comcast from charging your credit card.
Seriously, just another example of the cable industry trying to apply an obsolete business model to current times. Cable is dead. Streaming is not like cable, unless we (the consumers) let it be. Let's not do that, ok?
Oliver's law of assumed responsibility: If you're seen fixing it, you will be blamed for breaking it.
A feature limited (from TFA) Roku or Apple TV.
Oliver's law of assumed responsibility: If you're seen fixing it, you will be blamed for breaking it.
I wouldn't need their set-top box, just publish the APIs and developers can all work it into their media players. If it requires their box, then it's still "just cable."
"Believe me!" -- Donald Trump
All streaming sites and services are pieced together from a small number of contracted providers. Comcast is one of the most popular vendors of these services and runs their own ad services called "freewheel" and it's extremely popular.
You might be relieved to hear that compared to some other names, Comcast is surprisingly good about not collecting a bunch of invasive information. It's more about building profiles around video content and advertisements than profiling the viewers. Put yourself in Comcast's shoes and imagine which sort of metrics are going to provide the most value compared to how hard they are to collect and crunch. Would you rather know that guys who watch the swimsuit bikini special seem to watch the whole beer ad or knowing that craig, steve, and joe specifically all like content with bikinis?
If you read slashdot you pretty much know every dirty deed comcast has ever done. They're rather up front and unapologetic most of the time. When they bullshit it's always totally transparent. Not much need for imagination.