Xfinity Flex, a streaming video platform and hardware product for Comcast’s broadband-only subscribers, will be getting the Hulu app in the “next few weeks.”
Speaking today at a Morgan Stanley investor conference, Comcast CEO Brian Roberts said Hulu was on its way to join other Flex-supported streaming apps including Netflix, YouTube, CBS All Access, Amazon Prime Video, Starz and Peacock, NBCUniversal’s upcoming ad-supported streaming service. He said Flex now provides access to more than 100 apps.
Flex was announced in March 2019 priced at $5 per month and in September, Comcast announced that it would make the device and service free for its broadband-only subscribers.
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Roberts said approximately half of all his company’s sales in 2019 were broadband only and that Flex was designed as a way to still provide those customers with a full-featured platform so they’ll churn less and be exposed to more of Comcast’s advertising inventory.
“It’s not a perfect science, but customers who are not that valuable in video, who want to walk away and try other things, are now easily able to do that,” Roberts said.
Comcast started giving away Flex to its broadband subscribers near the end of last year and almost ran out of inventory, which Roberts said caused the company to have to slow down its efforts with Flex. He said Comcast has put out more Flex boxes than it has lost video subscribers. Flex wasn’t available for all of 2019 but it’s worth noting that Comcast lost 732,000 video subscribers last year, according to Leichtman Research Group.