Comcast Is Trying to Be Roku Now

Apparently redoubling its efforts to win the streaming wars, cable supplier Comcast has introduced a brand new wi-fi streaming system known as the XiOne.

A fast level of clarification right here, earlier than we proceed: A Comcast spokesperson apparently informed Vulture that the system’s title needs to be pronounced “more like an acronym, so the letter X, the letter I, and then the number one. So ‘X – i – 1.’” Sounds extra like a baby of Grimes and Elon Musk than a streaming system, however OK!

The XiOne is reportedly coming quickly to clients within the U.S. who use Xfinity Flex, Comcast’s streaming product for broadband-only cable clients, although it’s now out there for the corporate’s SkyQ clients in Italy and Germany. Eventually, the system may even be out there by way of Comcast companions like Cox Communications within the U.S. and Rogers, Shaw and Videotron in Canada.

The XiOne helps Wi-Fi 6, 4K UHD, HDR, Dolby Vision, and Dolby Atmos, and it’s clearly Comcast’s play to compete with Roku and Fire TV, each of which have lately set about embedding their very own streaming merchandise in companion TV units. But Comcast spent years timidly recusing itself from the streaming wars, solely to elevate its big dinosaur head up in 2021 and discover itself hemorrhaging subscribers together with each different main cable tv participant within the U.S., and there’s no indication that it might fare higher at distribution than different well-established manufacturers which are lighter on their toes.

The new system is being rolled out amid rumors that Comcast is planning to insert the X1 tech that at the moment powers its set-top packing containers into different gadgets—particularly, its personal branded line of good TVs. Just final week, Protocol reported that Comcast has partnered with Walmart and Hisense to develop the “XClass TV,” which may even run a model of the corporate’s proprietary working system. Unlike Comcast’s different set prime gadgets, nonetheless, the “XClass TV” could be out there to everybody—not simply those that subscribe to the corporate’s cable providers.

“When Sky joined the Comcast family, we brought together our engineers to share insights, roadmaps, talent, and technology to support our global customers,” Charlie Herrin, president of expertise for Comcast, stated in a statement. “The launch of our new XiOne device is a direct result of these efforts and underscores how our collaborative development approach can bring new and innovative streaming products to markets faster and more efficiently.”

Comcast could also be chomping on the bit to grow to be a streaming giant, nevertheless it’s all too little, too late. Rather than spending years hatching more and more elaborate plans to throttle competing streaming services, Comcast ought to have gone on the offensive, embraced the soup it was swimming in, and got down to develop a competing service immediately. But that’s not what occurred, and now, there’s little to no motive to consider {that a} regional cable firm, and a late entrant to the streaming wars at that, even stands an opportunity in opposition to its rivals.

There’s additionally the pesky little indisputable fact that Comcast is, on the finish of the day, a cable big with a cable big’s mentality, and that mentality has traditionally been regardless of the reverse of “the customer is king” is. When the corporate first rolled out Flex, which was billed as a free streaming service that got here with a free 4K streaming field for Comcast’s web subscribers, it charged ridiculous fees for {hardware} leases. (The fee is now $5/month for extra Flex packing containers after the primary.) And all this for the shopper assist of the model that was named the “Worst Company in America” not as soon as, however twice within the final decade? Reader, permit me to counsel a Roku.