With Vimeo commonly seen as a more niche service, YouTube currently dominates the streaming video platform arena.
Now, major US cable and media company Comcast looks likely to enter the fray in what could be a game-changing move for anyone working in video production.
Watchable
The company is about to launch a service called “Watchable”, which will be aimed squarely at rivalling YouTube as well as other companies such as Facebook that are rumoured to be starting a video platform as well.
According to Business Insider, the name of the video platform is still subject to change, but with several big-name publishing partners already on board, the service looks sure to be rolled out in one way or another.
Partners
Comcast recently invested $200 million in Vox Media via NBCUniversal, which it already owns. Other partners for the new service include some major-name players.
Vox and BuzzFeed are apparently on board and will be providing content, and other reports suggest that The Onion, Vice, NBC Sports, Mic, AwesomenessTV and Refinery29 will also be taking part in what Comcast is calling “a widespread digital-video platform.
Content
Comcast says that the hook-ups are deals that will last “a few years” and see partners provide unlicensed, original videos to users of Watchable. The content will be available to stream on demand, according to Business Insider.
Bundled and customised video content will be available to Xfinity X1 set-top box owners, with a further rollout of the service to iOS and Android users at some point in the future.
The X1 boxes are a key part of the move as by 2017, Comcast will reportedly replace its normal cable boxes with the new set-tops, creating a huge potential user base for Watchable in the process.
Ad revenue
Comcast is already a major player in the digital video market, and the new move is aimed at consolidating market share in the face of competition from emerging video platforms.
The good news for non-Comcast customers is that the content will apparently be available through native posting on Facebook.
