If you are a Comcast customer, and you’ve always wanted to watch YouTube on your TV without having to hook up your computer, now you’re in luck. Comcast plans to launch YouTube on their Xfinity X1 cable boxes later this year, which will make it literally adjacent to TV programming on the app. Comcast is the largest cable provider in the country.
Using X1 as you would normally, you’ll now be able to browse YouTube with the simple X1 voice commands you’ve seen in every ad for the service, such as “show me keyboard cat videos on YouTube”, for example.
“The YouTube integration on X1 will provide users the ability to seamlessly navigate and access YouTube content alongside their cable service,” Robert Kyncl, YouTube’s chief business officer, said in a statement.
It doesn’t appear that there will be any money involved in this deal between Comcast and Google, although it could be part of a wider distribution deal down the line. YouTube’s “YouTube Red” service, which costs $9.99 a month, is not initially part of the deal. Comcast recently added Netflix to their X1 system, and also has deals with Facebook, Pandora and Instagram.
YouTube has been available on many other devices, such as Roku, Chromecast, TiVo, and Apple TV among others, and has been on services like Google Fiber in America.
So if you want to find your favorite YouTube Poop videos in the same place you could find episodes of “The Big Bang Theory” or “Chicago Fire”, then this deal is certainly going to make you happy.
[Variety]
