Comcast draws Peacock and Flex into its deep Olympics coverage

Comcast has major coverage plans for the Summer Olympics this month and it’s giving both Peacock and Flex significant roles in delivering it to consumers.

NBCUniversal has promised 7,000 hours of content for the Tokyo Games and all of that will be available in its entirety on X1 and Stream. The Olympics on Flex will take advantage of Peacock Premium, which is included free for Comcast subscribers and will be front and center on Flex during the Games. X1, the company’s pay TV platform, has for years served as an advanced aggregation hub for NBCUniversal’s Olympics content. But that platform is only for Comcast’s video subscribers and so this year Flex will be used to give Comcast’s broadband subscribers a similar experience.

“For years, X1 has set the bar as the most innovative and technologically-advanced Olympics viewing experience. This year, new features make navigating the Games even easier and more personalized, taking the Olympics experience to a new level,” said Rebecca Heap, senior vice president of video and entertainment services for Comcast Cable, in a statement. “And now with Flex, we have the opportunity to leverage some of the best features of X1, like our voice remote and aggregated guide, to introduce the Olympics and all its passion, exhilaration and glory to even more Xfinity customers.”

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Brynn Lev, vice president of editorial and programming at Comcast, and Vito Forlenza, executive director of product management at Comcast, this week held a press conference to walk through some of the new features that will be available across X1 and Flex and draw from both NBC broadcast and Peacock streaming coverage.

The Olympics homepage on Flex has been built to save consumers the trouble of jumping in and out of different apps by pushing forward individual events and content. Flex will highlight Peacock’s six different Olympics channels, which will be presented within a small programming grid. Peacock will also feature extensive highlights organized into categories and Flex will bring over features like Olympics Medal Count that have appeared in the past on X1.

Olympics Primetime coverage will be available on Flex through integration of the Stream app, and 4K content with Dolby Vision HDR and Dolby Atmos sound will also be available through X1.

Since so much Olympics content will be available, Comcast is adding personalization options so consumers can streamline their access. Viewers can favorite categories like live and gold medal moments along with specific sports. Favoriting certain sports will bring them to the top of the On Now section on X1 and add specific moments to the newly added Your Olympic Highlights section.

Comcast’s editorial teams will put together 100 playlists—which will be built and front-loaded throughout the Games—based around curated themes and containing videos that can be watched as a linear channel or browsed through.