Exclusive - Comcast to sell movies for download, streaming: sources
(Reuters) - Comcast Corp plans to start selling movies for download and streaming through the cable operator's set-top boxes and its Xfinity TV website, according to people with knowledge of the plan.
Context & Ripple Effects
This is Comcast's third run at selling video directly. Back in January 2008 it sketched out plans for a huge menu of films, and by that September it had shipped an early video download beta — both well before the current set-top generation. The new plan, still unconfirmed by the company, would put transactions inside the box itself rather than in a separate web player.
The timing fits a broader push: in August 2013 Reuters' sister exclusive reported Comcast was developing an anti-piracy alternative to the 'six strikes' regime, and the pickup here is unusually wide — WSJ, The Verge, Engadget and VentureBeat all ran the same sourcing within a day, suggesting rivals and studios are reading this as a real product move, not a trial balloon.
First-order effects
- If launched, Comcast subscribers would buy or rent movies through the same set-top box they use for linear TV, putting the operator's storefront head-to-head with Apple's and Amazon's download stores inside its own installed base.
- Studios gain a new transactional shelf with built-in billing — no separate account or credit card entry for millions of households already attached to the cable bill.
Second-order effects
- Rival pay-TV operators face pressure to match an owned-download option on their own boxes, since Comcast would be the first major US cable distributor selling purchases natively alongside its subscription lineup.
- Pricing tension emerges inside Comcast's own product: a $15-or-so digital purchase sits awkwardly next to the flat-rate bundle, raising the bundle-cannibalization question every operator has so far avoided answering.
Third-order effects
- The pattern points toward set-top boxes evolving from locked subscription terminals into open storefronts where operators take a cut of any video sold — eroding the distinction between a cable company and an internet retailer.
- Legitimate purchase channels inside the box also give ISPs like Comcast a concrete counteroffer to piracy enforcement, complementing the graduated-response alternative it has been developing.
The trend: Pay-TV operators are converting the set-top box from a subscription terminal into a transactional storefront, competing with Apple and Amazon on their own home turf.