Comcast Brings Stream TV Service to Chicago

Comcast is offering a new Stream TV service for internet-only subscribers.

A Comcast representative has explained in a press release that Stream TV is an IP cable service that the company delivers over the home network that it manages. The service doesn’t count against Comcast usage caps.

It’s the same principle that Time Warner Cable and Charter Communications are using for their managed IPTV apps that are being delivered to Roku boxes.

Comcast’s webpage has also provided information concerning other aspects of the service.

Comcast brings Stream TV service to Chicago and offers access to TV channels live for internet-only subscribers to Xfinity. More than 70 percent of millennials use a streaming service, while only 64 percent subscribe to cable.

“We want to make ordering and accessing Stream TV as simple as possible for our customers and let them start watching favorite content as quickly as possible”, Matt Strauss, executive VP and general manager of video services for Comcast Cable, says.

The FCC document further noted, “IP-based service provided by a cable operator over its facilities and within its footprint must be regulated as a cable service not only because it is compelled by the statutory definitions; it is also good policy, as it ensures that cable operators will continue to be subject to the pro-competitive, consumer-focused regulations that apply to cable even if they provide their services via IP”. T-Mobile’s “Binge On” offering gives mobile customers the option to stream video (at 480p resolution, optimized with a proprietary bandwidth system) from about two dozen content partners, including Sling TV and HBO, without it counting against their cellular data usage caps.

Stream TV is priced at $15 a month, with the first month free.

The news ticker outside the Today Show announces GE’s sale of NBC to Comcast in NY. Outside of the home, Stream TV offers access to on-demand and recorded videos, and customers can use their Comcast username and password to sign into channel-specific applications like HBO Go. Comcast’s July announcement said Stream TV would launch across the company’s entire territory by early 2016, and Comcast says it still expects to hit that timeline. In Q3 2015, Comcast gained 320,000 broadband subscriptions for a total of 22.87 million, while losing 48,000 cable TV subscribers, dropping to 22.26 million. The thirteen largest pay-TV providers overall lost 190,000 video subscribers in the quarter, up from a loss of 155,000 in the same period a year ago, according to Leichtman Research Group.