Comcast Tower

Comcast plans to raise its broadband cap to 300 GB per month as it trials two new ways to deal with managing traffic on its network, the nation’s largest cable operator said in a blog post today. The move is a welcome one for those who have hit the existing 250 GB cap, but it neglects to address some of the earlier complaints that have arisen in the last few weeks about Comcast exempting some of its own video on-demand trafficand allegations that the company is prioritizing that traffic in violation of federal rules implemented when it bought NBC-Universal.

What Comcast plans to offer

Comcast says it plans to trial two types of plans in unnamed markets. The first will offer customers a higher cap at higher tiers of service. So the Internet Essentials, Economy, and Performance Tier customers will have a 300 GB cap while those getting higher speeds (and Comcast offers some pretty high speeds at 100 MBps) will have some undetermined, higher cap. Customers under this plan will also be allowed to buy additional gigabytes for a certain amount. Comcast gave the example of $10 per 50 GB block.

The second trial will offer customers a 300 GB cap across all product lines and will offer customers a chance to buy more bytes for the same price. What’s key in both of these situations is that Comcast is allowing customers to buy more gigabytes after they hit the cap. Previously, it cut customers off. In this way it’s closer to capped plans such as those offered by AT&T, which stops users at a 250 or 150 GB per month cap and then charges them $10 for 50 more gigabytes.

The second approach will increase data usage thresholds for all tiers to 300 GB per month and also offer the option to buy more gigabytes. Comcast will also suspend the enforcement of its caps across all of its markets while it tests the new caps and plans.

While Comcast’s decision to expand its caps is good, it’s also sticking to the idea that unlimited broadband is detrimental to the quality of its network. In its blog post and on a conference call discussing the new plans, Comcast repeatedly tied these caps to better network management, but Comcast already has a network management plan that it filed with the FCC after it was caught blocking P2P packets on its network. In that plan, the company noted that when its network became congested it would temporarily slow traffic to customers requiring the most bandwidth. So why does it need the cap?

What Comcast doesn’t talk about.

Many argue that the cap is less about network management and more about protecting Comcast’s pay TV business as customers spend more time watching television via web-based subscription services including Netflix and Hulu. As I said, I’m glad Comcast has raised its cap, but conspicuously missing from the Comcast post is an admission that the cap is problematic when Comcast still offers to exempt some of its services from the cap.

When asked about this, David Cohen, Executive Vice President of Comcast, shut down the discussion, saying, “It is a real stretch to create a discrimination argument here.” He went on to say that the concern over any exempted services should be dramatically reduced because of the increased data threshold. “We’re relieving a hypothetical pressure on usage, here,” he said.

While the cap’s size has created some controversy as more and more customers hit it, the issue is less the size and more the existence of the cap if Comcast continues to offer services that will be exempt from that cap. Even at 300 GB per month, if certain types of traffic don’t count against that cap, then the cap still offers Comcast a competitive advantage over Netflix, YouTube and other over-the-top video services. Cohen repeatedly, however, mentioned a comment from the Netflix earnings call where the CEO of the streaming video provider said that a 250GB cap wasn’t affecting its business.

What Reed Hastings actually said was this:

It’s not a near-term issue with the 250 gigabyte cap. But the core principle [of network neutrality] is important anyway, which is the cap should be applied equally or not at all.

The larger cap also doesn’t address the question of whether or not Comcast is prioritizing its own traffic over other Internet traffic as was alleged earlier this week in a blog post by Bryan Berg, the CTO of MixMedia Labs. Comcast has explained why it believes it is not prioritizing its traffic in a manner that would draw government ire, but in a close reading of its post, what Comcast is describing is highly technical. Essentially it is saying that it is creating a logical as opposed to a physical separation in the traffic, and that it why it is marking packets.

Comcast wants you to feel free to use the web

So while Comcast is trumpeting its forward-thinking behavior on caps, there are a lot of questions about the timing of its announcement. Reporters on the call repeatedly asked Cohen about the rationale for increasing the cap. Cohen said its median usage is between 8-10 GB per month or about four percent of the cap and that the “vast, vast majority of users aren’t hitting the cap,” which does beg the question: why change the cap now?

Cohen’s response was, “It’s a matter of messaging way more than it’s a question of capacity.” He reiterated the idea that this is about encouraging users to use and download lawful content on their Comcast service without worrying about the cap. This implies that customers might find the cap inhibiting their behavior or that people questioning the cap are making some headway. So for now, customers get 20 percent more head room on their Comcast cap, and we’ll have to wait and see when and where Comcast rolls out its new plans.

Meanwhile I’ll leave you with Cohen’s suggested headline for this piece: “The headline today should be, we’re out of the cap business.”

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Going live with Comcast doubles the number of households with access to WatchESPN to 40 million.

WatchESPN is part of a multi-year deal Comcast and Disney reached earlier this year that combined traditional carriage agreements with multi-platform access. Other channels due to get the “watch” treatment include Disney Channel, DisneyXD and Disney Junior.

Choices

Instead of forcing users to go through XfinityTV.com or the Xfinity TV app, access through WatchESPN lets sports fans zero on programming from across the ESPN network and to take advantage of the ESPN user experience.

But integrating it with Xfinity TV apps also makes it easier for Comcast viewers looking for a way to manage their portable or off-TV viewing experience through a single gateway. That’s also how users will be able to setup remote recording. WatchESPN is a network experience; XfnityTV is programming plus program management.

How does it work

Make sure you’re using the current WatchESPN app update dated May 8. Click on settings and go to “choose provider. Until today, the only options were Verizon FiOS TV and Broadband, Bright House Networks, and Time Warner Cable. Now Comcast is in the list. Select Comcast and you get a white splash screen that explains the requirements — must subscribe to Xfinity TV with access to VOD and must subscribe to the network you are trying to watch. If you don’t get ESPN in your Xfinity package, you can’t watch it through the app or online. That splash screen, which is bigger than those of other MSOs, also includes something unusual — ads from Comcast.

Enter your Xfinity user name and password, and you’re in. I don’t live in a Comcast area but I do tech support for parents who do and tested it with one of their logins. In a matter of seconds, I had access to live streams from ESPN, ESPN2 and ESPNU, plus replays on broadband channel ESPN3 (nothing live at the moment), ESPN Radio and more.

Comcast Ventures head Amy Banse, one of the architects of Comcast’s multi-platform strategy, will be speaking at paidContent 2012: At The Crossroads, May 23 in New York. Here’s how you can join us for the conversation.

“These guys have the pipe and the bandwidth,” Ars Technica reported Aragon as saying. “If they start capping things, it gets difficult.”

At issue isn’t just the 250 GB monthly cap that Comcast has imposed on its residential broadband customers, but the fact that it’s making exceptions to that cap. Content streamed to Comcast’s Xfinity app in the Xbox is off the meter, while content coming from other providers is counted against that monthly allotment. While Netflix , Sony and other over-the-top video providers aren’t happy with the situation, my colleague Stacey Higginbotham writes that Comcast may be well within its rights, since it’s using its own infrastructure to deliver the Xfinity service and can therefore treat it as a special case.

However, as my colleague Daniel Frankel at paidContent proposes, Comcast may be biting the hand that feeds it. Providing broadband services, which in turn bring third-party content into the home, is turning out to be a much better business model for cable operators than providing that content on their own. Cable providers are losing video customers and finding their programming margins squeezed, but those same customers remain willing to pay big bucks for raw broadband access.

Picture courtesy of Flickr user brizzlebornandbred.

Speaking at an investor event conducted by parent company Liberty Media (NSDQ: LINTA) in November — just after Starz announced that its agreement with Netflix would end in February — Chris Albrecht, the pay network’s CEO, said an “authentication app” similar to HBO Go would be announced sometime in 2012.

A Starz representative would not comment regarding a timeline for the release of such a product, which would allow Starz subscribers to view the network’s shows on any device by logging in with a username and password registered with the video provider.

With its Netflix deal to stream archival Starz original series episodes and licensed movies due to end next month, Starz — the third biggest pay-cable provider — now finds itself playing catch-up in the technological race it began.

While many expected Starz to make an announcement at CES this week, it was Showtime that stepped up and answered HBO’s volley, touting a new iPad application that allows its subscribers at participating distributors to watch more than 400 hours of the network’s programming on their tablets.

Showtime officials said the app will be in the Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) iTunes store sometime in early 2012, with access for subscribers of AT&T’s U-Verse and Verizon’s FiOS carrier services. Comcast (NSDQ: CMCSA) subscribers, meanwhile, will get Showtime Anytime through the carrier’s Xfinity TV service. The network says more distribution deals are in the pipeline.

Meanwhile, HBO Go — and its Cinemax-based Max Go sibling — are rolling out now on Time Warner Cable (NYSE: TWC) system. And with that, Go is now available to 98 percent of the pay network’s subscribers. Cablevision (NYSE: CVC) will be the last MSO to launch the Go service, and that should happen sometime in the first quarter, an HBO rep told paidContent Wednesday.

That leaves Starz, traditionally one of the more innovative networks in regard to on-demand technologies.

Predating its arrangement with Netflix, Starz had established Vongo, a movie-rental download service that at one point offered more than 1,500 titles for an additional subscription fee. Although Vongo no longer exists, Starz still supports online downloads of its content through carriers including Verizon FiOS, *AT&T* U-Verse and Comcast Xfinity.

Starz was also the first premium cable provider to participate in Comcast’s on-demand trials in 2009, making more than 300 movies and a number of original series available to the 5,000 subscribers in the trial.

The service, long in the works but announced today, is rolling out first for Xfinity HD Triple Play customers in Denver and Nashville. It will only work on the iPad to start, with the Motorola (NYSE: MMI) Xoom up next.

The AnyPlay device works as a bridge between the wireless router and the devices, with an updated Xfinity TV app as the player.

Here’s how Mark Hess, SVP of Video Product Development, describes it on the Xfinity blog:

AnyPlay delivers the lineup to the Wi-Fi router on the home network. The router then distributes the secure video signal to the iPad or Xoom over your home’s wireless network.

There’s no extra charge — for now — but the fine print says shipping and handling of the self-installation kit might cost $9.95.

Some more fine print: Xfinity subs can register up to 10 devices — but can only use one at a time for live TV.

Like I said, not live video Valhalla.

BBC Worldwide has taken a great leap forward in getting U.S. carriage for its BBC World News channel by striking a deal with Comcast (NSDQ: CMCSA), the largest U.S. cable operator.

Comcast’s Xfinity TV is adding the channel in six major markets, including Philadelphia, Boston and Chicago, with plans to offer it in nearly 15 million U.S. homes by 2012′s end.

BBC Worldwide (the BBC’s commercial and overseas wing) has been building up its content and ad sales operation for BBC.com/news over the last couple of years, but had still been seeking significant TV traction beside its own BBC America channel. NPR executive editor Dick Meyer is leaving to run and expand the BBC’s U.S. news coverage as the 2012 presidential election nears; previously Meyer was at CBS (NYSE: CBS) News.

Al Jazeera English, which is now a firm fixture on many TVs outside the Arab world, has still not yet made the leap in the States.

It is available in a handful of U.S. city cable networks in New York; Washington DC; Burlington, VT; Toledo, OH; and Bristol, RI. But, as online head Mohamed Nanabhay told paidContent in 2009, most of the new carriage is coming from new online platforms like Boxee, Roku, Livestation, Al Jazeera, YouTube (NSDQ: GOOG) and Pulse, as well as through Creative Commons re-use.

The latest are Google TV and the Chrome browser. While the app for the former offers text stories, on-demand video and a notification ticker, with live streams coming later, the browser extension includes the live channel as well as a Chrome-esque on-demand video carousel.

While large-scale cable traction continues to be elusive, the coming connected TV boom could mean an even bigger opportunity for Al Jazeera to get to U.S. televisions.

Nanabhay (via Broadband TV News): “We are constantly looking for new ways to deliver our content and interact with our audiences. Our online philosophy has always been to make our world-class content available to audiences on the platforms they choose.”

The intro price for the Xfinity tier: $105 a month for 12 months if subscribers get Comcast’s Triple Play. Markets launched today include San Francisco, Seattle, Portland, Denver, Chicago, Miami, Washington, D.C., Comcast’s HQ city Philadelphia, and the majority of Boston. Unfortunately for those who upload media, the highest upload rate is 10 Mbps.

The service fulfills a promise Comcast (NSDQ: CMCSA) Chairman and CEO Brian Roberts made when he introduced “Project Infinity” at the 2008 CES, demonstrating the potential of tru2wy and Docsis 3.0 once it could be implemented. One example from the stage: downloading Batman Begins complete with an exclusive trailer of the next Batman sequel in four minutes with what was then called “Wideband.”

At the time, Roberts insisted what he was showing was “here, now, in the next 12 months.” Not quite. More like 40 months in a way that matters to a large enough number of Comcast customers. Speeds have been bumping up but this is the most dramatic home offer from the largest U.S cable operator. Full details in the corporate blog post by Cathy Avgiris, SVP/GM, Communications and Data Services.

Comcast plans to offer nearly 3,000 hours of video on demand via iOS and eventually Android-based tablets.

The update released Tuesday works as promised on the iPad, adding on-demand streaming over Wi-Fi to the channel guide-DVR management app Comcast released in November. It can be a little confusing at first since the instinct is to pick “on demand” when the option the user needs is “play now” but it’s fairly straightforward after that.

The featured TV choices are all from HBO, Showtime and TNT, including the Jan. 29 episode of Big Love . The number of episodes varies — five episodes of The Closer, two of Leverage, 12 from Boardwalk Empire. Featured movies are from Encore, MoviePlex, and HBO — some with gold keys signaling a premium network.Other networks at launch: Turner’s TBS and Cartoon Network, BBC America, Starz, and Cinemax. No NBC Universal (NYSE: GE) networks.

Authentication lives up to promises. I set this up several months ago in a Comcast household, anticipating this moment, and once it checked the account, repeat uses were seamless. (To be clear, I’m hundreds of miles away from that household now, testing the out-of-home access in a non-Comcast area.) Viewing isn’t instant on, taking 30-45 seconds to load on a home Wi-Fi connection. The quality for the few minutes I could spend on The Closer and Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (I couldn’t resist) was good with no buffering issues, although the opening scenes of the movie were almost too dark to see at times. Fast forwarding worked fine, as did the 30-second back button — again, not instant, but quick.

It’s no Netflix (NSDQ: NFLX) when it comes to movie depth — or Hulu for next-day access to current TV — but it extends the value of a cable subscription, which is what Comcast set out to do.

It’s also an achievement in another area: speed to market. No, it’s not as fast as a startup might move but it’s a heck of a lot more nimble than the usual cable company pace.

The app’s debut comes less than a month after Comcast took Xfinity out of beta.

Although its starting with the iPad, Comcast promises to rollout the Xfinity app across other Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) mobile devices, as well as on Google’s Android system, the Blackberry and other smartphones, tablets, laptops and PCs.

The announcement wasn’t too specific about which programming partners would be available with this launch. Still, Comcast says that its Xfinity services already include “150,000 online entertainment choices” through Xfinity TV video portal (fka Fancast).

Despite all the recent talk of cutting the cable cord — and it does seem like mostly talk at this point — Comcast CEO Brian Roberts told analysts recently that he was sure the set-top box wasn’t about to disappear anytime soon. “The world’s changing and evolving, but the most exciting products we’re working on has the set-top box as a part of that, Roberts said during the company’s Q3 earnings call. “Perhaps set-top boxes will be less needed over time, but we’re not near the moment when it will go away.”
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