Comcast creates a hub for web videos with the Watchable app

Comcast’s 22 million-plus TV subscribers create an incentive for creators who have mostly been confined to internet audiences.

Hoping that adding video from digital players will help stem the cord-cutting tide, Comcast finally announced this morning its streaming video service, Watchable.

“Over time, we’ll add additional network partners, make the experience more personalized and include new options to share content with friends”, said Sam Schwartz, chief business development officer at Comcast Cable in TV, in a company blog post.

An Android app is in the works, a spokeswoman said. Whether they’ll really have an ongoing urge to watch shorter, made-for-digital material through Comcast’s Watchable funnel is not at all obvious. Well, it’s a two-step process that takes a few seconds, and what you get is a kind of YouTube for branded video content. Give it a shot, and let us know what you think.

Initially, the service will be available on Watchable.com, Apple iOS devices and on TV via Comcast’s X1 set-tops. The pattern suggests that an ad-supported model may soon become common in the fast-growing online video space, with big implications for the rest of the television industry. If Watchable can’t steer clear of Comcast’s conflicting interests (namely, renting more DVR boxes and preserving traditional video), it could go down as another failed YouTube alternative. No harm done, really.

Comcast’s announcement comes shortly after Verizon Communications Inc launched a new ad-supported mobile video platform go90 with on-demand and live shows aimed at younger viewers.

The videos will be sorted into categories like entertainment, sports, news, and food and travel.

Comcast has 30 content partners including Machinima, Awesomeness TV, Vice, Defy Media and other online video networks that are popular among millennials on the Web and Google Inc’s YouTube, it said.

“Plus, many of our Watchable partners have not traditionally had distribution on the TV and we can give them a path to reach new audiences and further monetize their content on the biggest screen in the home”.