Hoping to counter the threat of sites like Hulu

Nov 13, 2009 12:26 GMT  ·  By
Comcast hopes to counter the threat of sites like Hulu with On-Demand Online
   Comcast hopes to counter the threat of sites like Hulu with On-Demand Online

More details about Comcast's upcoming video on demand service dubbed On-Demand Online. The service is Comcast's approach to the TV Everywhere project, announced by the cable service and Time Warner a few months back. At a NewTeeVee event dedicated to the future of video content, Comcast Interactive Media President Amy Banse filled in some details about the upcoming service.

For starters, On-Demand Online should be available within a month. No exact date was specified, but it should be live in time for the holidays, perhaps even in early December. The service will allow Comcast subscribers to view a significant amount of content online for no additional costs. The idea is that you pay once and then should be able to access it anytime and anywhere.

Some specific details about the service were also revealed. Users will need to download and install a dedicated app to authenticate and authorize the device to view the content, which may mean that it's Windows only for the moment. After installing the app, users will have to log into the Fancast service with their account, after which they will be able to view the videos from the device. Subscribers will be able to authorize up to three different devices but, once the initial process is done, they will be able to stream the content from anywhere, not just from their home connection. To use the online service, users will be required to install the Move Networks plug-in.

The company wants to position On-Demand Online not as a web service, but rather as complement to the on-demand services it already offers. The reason it wants to make this distinction is because cable companies are increasingly feeling the heat from web-only services serving TV content, most notably Hulu. If you can get the same content online for free, you'd think twice before you pay another fee to get it on your TV. Still, the online services are pretty much in the early stages and even Hulu doesn't really pose any threat to the cable providers just yet. But, as the sites become more popular, the cable companies don't want to be caught off-guard.