The phenomenon of cord cutting — cancelling cable or satellite TV service in exchange for using so-called “over the top” subscription services such as Netflix for TV viewing — has become nothing less than a thorn in the side of pay-TV companies such as Comcast and AT&T.
For example, during its most-recent business quarter, Comcast, the nation’s largest cable company, said its Xfinity TV service lost 140,000 subscribers, or more than four times as many as the 34,000 cable subscribers that cut the cord in the same period a year ago.
Such situations have resulted in some strange bedfellows. Subscribers to Comcast’s X1 platform have been able to access their Netflix accounts via their Xfinity set-top boxes since 2016, and earlier this year, Comcast said it reached deal to bundle Netflix with certain TV-channel packages.
And Comcast isn’t stopping with Netflix, as it has said it will soon begin offering its subscribers the ability to access and watch Amazon Prime Video through their set-top boxes.
It will be the first time Amazon Prime Video will be available through one of the traditional pay-TV service providers. Neither Comcast, nor Amazon, gave any financial terms of the deal, and no date for Amazons availability was set aside from Comcast saying it would occur “later this year.”
Dana Strong, president of consumer services with Amazon, said in a statement that Prime Video would make “an excellent complement” to its X1 offerings. “We want to give customers easy access to all their favorite content in one place.”
In addition to Netflix, Amazon Prime Video will join YouTube and internet radio company Pandora on the X1 platform, and give a boost to Comcast’s efforts to try and stem the tide of cord cutting that has so far shown few signs of abating.
