Comcast and UK Subsidiary Sky Reportedly Launching Smart TVs (theverge.com) 17
Comcast appears to be planning to offer TVs running its own software across at least two territories, according to recent reports from Protocol and The Financial Times. It comes a little more than a week after Amazon announced that it too will be getting into the TV set business. The Verge reports: In the US, the TVs will reportedly be branded as XClass TVs. Originally manufactured by Hisense, the 43 and 50-inch sets will run Comcast's X1 operating system, which is already found on its set-top boxes and Xfinity Flex streaming box. An Xfinity landing site confirms the "XClass TV" branding, while an FAQ spotted by Protocol says they'll aggregate "your favorite apps, live channels, and On Demand movies and shows together in one place."
Meanwhile in the UK, Comcast subsidiary Sky is reportedly planning to launch smart TVs of its own. The FT's report doesn't mention what operating system these TVs are likely to run. Sky already operates its Sky Q platform in the country, which currently runs on set-top boxes and shows satellite broadcasts alongside video streamed from services like Netflix and Disney Plus. As Protocol notes, the initiatives appear to be Comcast's attempt to insulate itself as customers turn away from traditional cable and satellite plans in favor of streaming services. By offering a platform that competes with the likes of Roku, Comcast would be able to maintain its direct relationship with customers. It could then aggregate content from other streaming providers alongside its own Peacock and Xumo streaming services. Controlling the viewing platform also gives Comcast and its subsidiaries the ability to negotiate with streaming providers to offer them better prominence on its platforms, the FT notes.
Meanwhile in the UK, Comcast subsidiary Sky is reportedly planning to launch smart TVs of its own. The FT's report doesn't mention what operating system these TVs are likely to run. Sky already operates its Sky Q platform in the country, which currently runs on set-top boxes and shows satellite broadcasts alongside video streamed from services like Netflix and Disney Plus. As Protocol notes, the initiatives appear to be Comcast's attempt to insulate itself as customers turn away from traditional cable and satellite plans in favor of streaming services. By offering a platform that competes with the likes of Roku, Comcast would be able to maintain its direct relationship with customers. It could then aggregate content from other streaming providers alongside its own Peacock and Xumo streaming services. Controlling the viewing platform also gives Comcast and its subsidiaries the ability to negotiate with streaming providers to offer them better prominence on its platforms, the FT notes.
RIP CableCARD (Score:2)
I was going to ask if it supported CableCARD, in case you moved and ended up with some other company ... but it seems that the FCC quietly killed that rule last year:
https://thedesk.net/2020/09/fc... [thedesk.net]
I know a few people with Tivos that use them ... gonna suck if they change companies when their discount period ends.
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I was going to ask if it supported CableCARD, in case you moved and ended up with some other company ... but it seems that the FCC quietly killed that rule last year:
https://thedesk.net/2020/09/fc... [thedesk.net]
I didn't know the rule was removed.
However, I submit that the article was incomplete in addressing the reason CableCARD didn't take off: DRM. I have a CableCARD and an HD Homerun PRIME tuner. It's a fantastic piece of kit, and I would love to use it with MythTV...only I can't, because my cable company insisted on using the CopyOnce flag. This causes issues with MythTV for most channels I use, and the only software that was ever able to tune all of my channels was Windows Media Center, which was a big deal i
Re: (Score:2)
Sonarr. 'nuff said.
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while at the same time, basically every episode of every TV show ever broadcast is available for download via The Pirate Bay.
And I'm sure the cable and media companies are totally puzzled how Pirate Bay could have gotten so popular.
Launching Smart TVs (Score:2)
With a trebuchet?
Is this the endgame of the HDTV price wars? (Score:2)
Smart TV's already dirt cheap now, and I guess that they only way they can get cheaper is if they bundle them for a discounted price with a content provider subscription.
I can imagine that not of a lot of people are going to buy these Comcast Smart TV's, but instead they'll get them for "free" (or really cheap, like $99) with a two year Cable and Internet service subscription contract. Makes economic sense, too... for the price Comcast charges for their overpriced cable service, they could easily recover th
Re:Is this the endgame of the HDTV price wars? (Score:5, Insightful)
Its interesting, my Samsung TV will work like a dumb TV just fine if I do not connect ethernet or wifi. Sales guy at the office recently brought in a Vizio TV and asked me to set it up - that Vizio crap would not function without a network connection. I'll never have a TV that refuses to work without a network connection.
Re: Is this the endgame of the HDTV price wars? (Score:2)
The TVs will likely be low quality engineered planned obsolecence crap that will fall apart after two years, so why wouldn't they go with this plan to attract customers?
Enviromental concerns be damned!
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Dirt cheap?
Dirt cheap would be below $50.
I don't see any of those massive 100" TVs even remotely close to that.
And small ones? I already got a normal PC display, thank you very much. And an old (but gold) projector too.
Ah yes Comcast and TV's (Score:1)
As long as it has at least one HDMI port (Score:2)
so that you can just buy some kind of external box later to bypass any internal Comcast lock-in attempts. I'd much prefer TVs to be non-smart because a quality screen should easily last ten years but there's no chance my smart TV will play YouTube ten years from now. Most of the smarts belong in a cheap external box or we'll be throwing away huge and perfectly good screens way too often.
The TV with two brains (Score:3)
One that is on an external stick that can be easily replaced, and the built in 'dead' one that is just about useless for everything it was ment for.
Fortunately, most Smart TVs I've seen have an HDMI port .
LOL, uh, no (Score:4, Interesting)
It's hard to overstate just how bad - clunky, slow, out-of-date - Comcast's set-top box OS is. The idea that they are spreading it to more devices instead of killing it off would be depressing if there was any possibility that I'd ever use it.
I've been a Comcast customer off and on for the past 2 decades, and there are exactly zero times when using their stuff didn't leave me semi-suicidal. Fortunately now they're just my internet provider, which means I can /almost/ always avoid any of their apps & websites.
Return of Bell Telephone (Score:2)
Way back when, you had to lease your telephone equipment from the phone company and you were not allowed to plug in 3rd party equipment direct to the telephone line. This is why early modems used acoustic couplers.
Now it seems like we are moving back to those bad old days.
Smart TVs with Alzheimer's (Score:2)
"your favorite apps, live channels, and On Demand movies and shows together in one place until the licensing deal expires, or the app no longer supports this model, or the company goes bust or the app UI changes to suit a more popular model and makes it useless on this device"
I've had all these problems on our "Smart" TV in just 6 years. Get a good dumb-as-shit TV and connect it to a box you can replace.
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Just get a SCREEN. You already got a computer. And a remote control.
Why the hell do luddites insist on bundling all permutations of something into another, separate product? ...
Apps, devices, functions in scripting language libraries, even food!,
Now I know why Sky always felt so hateable (Score:1)
Does that mean, that Comcast is a Rupert Murdoch enterprise?
That would explain ... so ... much ... !