Comcast’s X1 platform has long been available to the company’s residential video subscribers but now the company’s business video subscribers can get it too.
X1 for Business includes simplified search and navigation, voice control and a picture-in-picture, sports content companion called the X1 Sports App that includes team and players profiles, statistics and real-time, game-specific data. X1 for Business also features a voice-enabled television user interface that reads aloud selections like program titles, network and time slots so businesses can better serve customers with visual disabilities.
The company is timing the launch of X1 for Business to coincide with the NCAA Basketball Tournament, which makes sense considering that many of Comcast’s business video subscribers are bars and restaurants.
The vast majority of Comcast’s nearly 22 million video subscribers are residential customers, but the company does have more than 1 million business services video subscribers. X1 for Business is available to them as of today.
Christian Nascimento, vice president of product and premise services at Comcast Business, said now that X1 has reached a point where it’s really well deployed for residential customers in Comcast’s footprint, the time was right to launch X1 for Business.
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He also said that as more Comcast residential customers are getting used to having X1 at home, they are more often asking for its in their business settings.
“It’s natural for them to want to see the same guide they see at home,” Nascimento said. He added that it’s essentially the same product as residential X1, with the voice remote, guide, pause and rewind.
But Nascimento said the X1 business launch has changed the conversations Comcast has with its business customers. Whereas before it basically came down business customers wanting live TV and Comcast selling it to them, there are now considerations about accessibility features and apps for businesses like stock prices tickers and sports scores.
Nascimento said the X1 for Business launch is about giving business customers a product that’s easier to use and one that can improve experiences like sitting in hospital waiting rooms, where gaining quick access to kids' programming can make a significant difference.