Comcast's (NASDAQ: CMCSA) Xfinity TV Everywhere app is now streaming live ABC and NBC programming outside of customers' homes in markets where Comcast has owned & operated (O&O) network affiliates.
That means the live ABC and NBC streams are available in New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, Philadelphia, San Francisco Bay area and a host of other markets.
It's worth noting that Comcast in Boston recently won the right to stop broadcasting through its NBC affiliate WHDH and starting broadcasting from its O&O WNEU-TV starting on January 1, 2017.
As Multichannel News points out, both NBC and ABC allow live streaming from branded apps with pay-TV authentication in some markets, but this new move by Comcast takes those live streams and integrates them with the Xfinity TV app.
Other updates to the app include the ability to purchase, watch and download on-demand titles without leaving the app.
The Xfinity TV app is of course different than Comcast Stream, the standalone TV streaming app the MSO offers exclusively to its broadband subscribers.
Rumors had swirled regarding Comcast's plans to take Stream, which operates over the MSO's managed network, outside of its footprint. But Comcast Cable CEO Neil Smit recently threw cold water on those ideas, saying that Comcast still gets the best return by offering traditional TV bundles to the 55 million homes it passes, of which only 42.5 percent currently have service.
Comcast's expanded availability of live ABC and NBC streams comes as the provider is reportedly thinking about offering its NBC content in a live streaming TV service from Hulu. ABC and FOX are reportedly already on board with Hulu's reported plans to offer live streaming TV.
For more:
- read this Multichannel News story
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