ComCast has a new deal for customers it's calling "Internet Plus," and despite the package being bare bones, it offers three attractive things on the go. The new deal comes with local TV channels, Broadband Internet and HBO. There are no other bells and whistles here, which is great for customers who are only interested in having HBO and much of nothing else like unwanted sports channels.
The deal will cost consumers $40 per month for the first 12 months. Furthermore, subscribers will get access to 300,000 mobile hotspots and access to HBO on the Go via Xfinity apps. After the 12 months is up, the price will increase to $70 per month for another 12 month, so this $40 price-tag is just a way to lure in new customers to take advantage of the new package.
HBO is quite reluctant in selling consumers its content directly or without some form of cable channel package as a wrapper, so it is great to see things changing for the better where that is concerned.
This move by HBO and ComCast could be in response to earlier reports by Bloomberg that claims Netflix is on the verge of surpassing HBO in U.S. subscriber numbers. The report claims Netflix is expected to have around 30 million subscribers by the end of the third quarter, while HBO will only have 28.7 million customers.
"Consumers are probably going to come to see Netflix as being more valuable than other networks," said Tony Wible, an analyst at Janney Capital Markets in Philadelphia. The monthly price "makes it very difficult for others to be in the business."
The big question that needs answering is this - Is this move true unbundling? Not quite, because the subscriber is still tied to a contract that last 12 months. However, thanks to the streaming TV portion, the ComCast package is becoming more similar to the free-form streaming options now available in Europe. There are no big changes here, but we may be witnessing the first steps to a complete streaming package without the unneeded baggage.
