Category: Comcast

Comcast, Nielsen Team For On Demand Commercial Ratings

12/3/2013

by Wayne Friedman, Monday, December 2, 2013

Fresher TV commercials, as well as measuring those ads, are coming to time-shifted viewing -- perhaps first to Comcast’s video-on-demand service.

The U.S. cable operator has been testing the insertion of the most recent entire TV advertising lineups -- from the most current episodes of network TV shows -- into older available episodes that run on Comcast's OnDemand VOD service, as well as being able to account for those messages.

As part of this, Comcast has a deal with Nielsen, with a new viewer measurement service called On Demand Commercial Ratings (ODCR) for its Xfinity TV platform.

Comcast, which owns NBC Universal, tested ODCR over the summer in Philadelphia and Boston in NBC and ABC programs. A Comcast company blog post outlined the technical tests.

A number of industry efforts have tried to push so-called “dynamic ad insertion," which would allow new commercials to be inserted three days after their initial live airing. This allows cable operators to potentially charge more for commercials, as well as grab new revenue from commercials that inserted after three days. Comcast has been doing dynamic ad insertion for some time.

Right now, national TV advertisers predominantly base and guarantee their media buys on the live average commercial ratings plus three days of program time-shifting. Currently, any time-shifted TV programming also retains the original commercials from its live broadcast.

Video-on-demand services/channels from the cable operators do not allow for fast-forwarding of commercials, unlike Internet-based video platforms, such as Hulu and Hulu Plus.

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Comcast To Stream Movies Via Cable Boxes, Xfinity Site

11/18/2013

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by Wayne Friedman, Friday, November 15, 2013

Comcast Corp. has plans to start selling streaming movies through its cable subscribers’ set-top boxes, as well as running those movies through its Xfinity TV Web site, according to a number of reports.

Comcast is considered to already have one movie studio signed up for the service. Comcast already owns NBCUniversal, which this year had major theatrical hits, including "Fast& Furious 6" and "Despicable Me 2."

Once a movie is purchased on the set-top box, it could be seen on a TV, a computer or mobile devices. The service could start by the end of the year.

Recently, Brian Roberts, chairman/chief executive officer of Comcast Corp., said the company was not pressing to put Netflix on its systems.

This followed a report inThe Wall Street Journal that said the subscription video-on-demand service was negotiating a set-top box deals with Comcast, as well as cable operator Suddenlink.

A new streaming Comcast service would seemingly compete with Netflix. Comcast and cable operators have for some time offered on-demand movies for free viewing or through a purchased rental.

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Fandango Makes Quantum Leap

8/29/2013

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Comcast Buys Movie Ticket Promotions Firm

Comcast’s online ticketing giant Fandango said it is purchasing Quantum Loyalty Solutions, an Incline Village, Nev.-based firm that creates promotions linked to movie ticket sales. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

According to the companies, the deal allows Fandango, which sells theater tickets for U.S. chains with more than 21,000 screens, to expand its existing promotional movie ticket and gift card business. Quantum owns Hollywood Movie Money, a widely recognized movie currency that is accepted at more than 36,000 screens across the country.

"The marriage of Quantum's promotions business and Fandango's ticketing platform will offer unprecedented new opportunities for studios, exhibitors and brands to engage with millions of moviegoers," Fandango president Paul Yanover said in a statement. "We look forward to working with the Quantum team to build on Hollywood Movie Money's momentum and help drive even more movie fans into theaters."

In a statement, the companies said the transaction will make Hollywood Movie Money currency more convenient for consumers, as many rewards will now be redeemable through Fandango's website and mobile apps, which are visited by more than 41 million moviegoers each month. Consumers redeeming Hollywood Movie Money rewards will also be able to purchase additional movie tickets for their friends or family who are accompanying them to the theater.

With the addition of Quantum, Fandango expands its reach to more than 95% of U.S. theaters, as well as many theaters in major international markets.

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Comcast Tests EA-Powered Game Service for X1 Platform

8/28/2013

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MSO Develops iPad App That Controls ‘Console-Quality’ Games Delivered to X1 Set-Tops
By: Jeff Baumgartner Aug 28 2013 - 2:11pm

Comcast is testing a service that essentially turns the set-top running the MSO's new IP-capable X1 platform into a gaming console that is fed by Origin, Electronic Arts’ Web-based game delivery service.

Comcast hasn’t formally announced the trial, but the MSO’s group in Silicon Valley has built and released an iPad app that turns the Apple tablet into a game controller. According to information posted on iTunes, the free, 77-megabyte 1.0 version of the app was released on August 13.

As described by the iTunes app page, the pilot offering, called Xfinity Games Powered by Origin, “delivers console-quality video games from Electronics Arts directly to your television using your Comcast X1 set-top box. You can access a catalog of available games through the XFINITY Games powered by Origin web storefront. After launching a game from the web storefront, this app instantly turns your iPad into the controller.”

Comcast was not immediately available Wednesday to comment on the trial, so it is not clear who is eligible for the trial, how many customers are testing it now, and when the MSO might look to turn Xfinity Games into a commercial product.

But the trial offers evidence of the kind of third-party services and potential, new revenue streams Comcast envisions for X1, a next-gen video platform that features a cloud-based navigation system, advanced search features, and a Google Chromecast-like “Send to TV” component (still in beta) that lets users fling Web-sourced videos to the TV screen using a PC, tablet or smartphone. Comcast’s coming “X2” upgrade will add more personalization, support in-home TV streaming to mobile devices, and a cloud DVR product.

It was not immediately known if Comcast is offering the trial in all its X1-enabled markets. Comcast hasn’t disclosed how many customers are on the new platform, but the MSO has deployed X1 to more than half its footprint, including systems serving Atlanta; Philadelphia; Washington, D.C.; Houston; Chicago; Denver; Seattle; and Baltimore (a current list of X1 deployment markets can be found here). The MSO plans to roll out X1 to most of its footprint by the end of the year.

Comcast’s trial also marks a further blurring of lines between set-top boxes and gaming consoles, which have rapidly morphed into IP video delivery systems. Just this week, Time Warner Cable launched an authenticated app for the Xbox 360 that delivers up to 300 live TV channels from the MSO’s subscription video service. Sony, meanwhile, is rumored to be developing a “virtual” MSO service as it prepares to launch the PlayStation 4 on November 15.

The idea of a set-top doubling as a game console goes back more than a decade. In 2001, Pace, which happens to make the hybrid IP/QAM HD-DVR that Comcast is using for the initial rollout of X1, built aprototype set-top/gateway that integrated Sega Corp.’s Dreamcast console. Pace never rolled it out commercially, but it provided an early glimpse at a set-top/console combination.

Comcast’s trial with EA also delivers a flash of nostalgia for The Sega Channel, the long-defunct subscription service that used cable connections and a specialized adapter to download game titles to the 16-bit Sega Genesis console. The Sega Channel, originally backed by Time Warner Cable and Tele-Communications Inc. (now part of Comcast), was shut down in 1998.

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Cable Show 2013: Comcast Rolls DVR Into the Cloud

8/16/2013

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Refreshed Version of X1 Will Also Offer In-Home TV Streaming on Tablets and Other IP-Connected Devices
By: Jeff Baumgartner Jun 11 2013 - 11:30pm
Refreshed Version of X1 Will Also Offer In-Home TV Streaming on Tablets and Other IP-Connected Devices

Washington – Comcast is testing a Cloud DVR service in Boston and Philadelphia ahead of a commercial launch later this year that will eventually be offered to customers who subscribe to the company’s new IP-capable X1 service.

Elad Nafshi, Comcast Cable’s vice president of video product management, demonstrated the Cloud DVR service as well as an in-home live TV streaming service here at a booth demo Tuesday afternoon. The Cloud TV and IP video streaming component will both be offered on an updated version of Comcast’s cloud-based platform that was introduced at the show by Comcast CEO and chairman Brian Roberts.

Similar in some ways to the recording architecture of Cablevision Systems’ “remote-storage” DVR, Comcast’s Cloud DVR will create individual copies of each customer’s recording and make them available to set-tops, tablets, smartphones and other devices that run an updated version of the MSO's cloud-based interface, internally called X2, that Comcast will begin to roll out this fall.

In addition to iOS- and Android-powered devices, PCs and Macs, Comcast’s Cloud DVR will also run on the MSO’s XG1 and XG5 QAM/IP gateways and the Xi3, an all-IP client box that the MSO unveiled here at the show.

Comcast has not disclosed pricing, but noted that it expects to launch the Cloud DVR product commercially in select markets by the end of 2013. The Cloud DVR will eventually become the MSO’s de facto DVR service, Nafshi said in an interview following the demo.

The Cloud DVR product will also feature a sync-and-go/check-out capability that will allow users to take a copy of a recorded program with them once it’s transferred to a connected device. Transferred recordings will not be accessible on other devices, so the process is likened to checking out a book. Any program ported to another device will be available for viewing for up to 30 days.

Comcast also showed off a new in-home live TV streaming component that can be viewed on devices outfitted with the X2 software.

In addition to delivering Comcast’s entire live TV lineup, the in-home streams will also support closed-captioning and the emergency alert system, essentially replicating all the key technical and regulatory functions that are integrated with the MSO’s legacy QAM-based live TV platform.

Comcast said it also has the technical ability to insert targeted ads dynamically into those live TV streams, and extend this capability to Cloud DVR recordings (when they are played out by the customer) and in recorded programs that are transferred to a tablet or another device.

“We didn’t take any easy ways out,” Comcast chief technology officer Tony Werner said.

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Comcast, Nielsen Team For On Demand Commercial Ratings

Comcast To Stream Movies Via Cable Boxes, Xfinity Site

Fandango Makes Quantum Leap

Comcast Tests EA-Powered Game Service for X1 Platform

Cable Show 2013: Comcast Rolls DVR Into the Cloud

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