Large ISPs like Comcast and Verizon are often stuck between a rock and a hard place when it comes to adapting to the cord cutting revolution. They want to offer innovative, high value streaming video services -- but they don't want users downgrading from their traditional, expensive cable TV services or they'll lose money. As a result they'll often offer products designed to seem innovative, yet fail to offer all that much value once you've added up all of the caveats and hidden additional fees and surcharges.
The end result is often services that offer users many more restrictions that traditional cable TV, but don't actually save users all that much money.
Comcast's new Instant TV service appears to be no exception. The service was launched last month, but is currently only available to Comcast broadband subscribers. Instant TV starts at just $20 per month, and to Comcast's credit, unlike some other industry "skinny bundles," rolls many traditional fees into the actual price of the service.
But after that, reviews this week suggest that's where things start to fall apart. Comcast's licensing restricts viewing outside of the home, the service offers half the cloud storage as competing services, resulting in a monthly price that's higher than competing offers. The company's channel packages are also specifically designed to force you to pay as much money as possible, notes Jared Newman at Techhive.
Other news outlets like the Philadelphia Inquirer share a luke-warm enthusiasm for Comcast's offering, noting that once you've factored in Comcast's expensive broadband and gateway surcharges you're still paying an awful lot of money despite getting a bare-bones TV experience.
Again, Comcast's not advertising the service very much -- and saddling the offering with caveats -- because it doesn't want existing cable TV customers to downgrade. Comcast's hope appears to be that Instant TV might just stop existing users from cutting the cord entirely, but given it doesn't compare very well with the rising tide of streaming services already on the market, it's not entirely clear it will accomplish that goal, either.