Comcast is going Hollywood, looks to sell digital movies by the end of the year

By Ryan Waniata November 15, 2013

comcast going hollywood looks sell digital movies end year xfinity on demand — Image used with permission by copyright holder

Comcast will soon become the first of the cable giants to offer digital movies and TV shows for sale. Reports from Reuters and The Wall Street Journal cite sources at the country’s biggest cable provider who said the company will begin offering titles for streaming and download via its set-top boxes and the Xfinity website as early as the end of this year.

While Comcast spokespeople are remaining mum so far, the implications are that the new service will begin with a limited selection of a few hundred titles including new releases, older movies, and select TV content. Sources said the company is currently in negotiations with major studios to secure licensing for new titles. The content will reportedly be accessible through various sources including streaming and downloading to tablets and smartphones, but no plans have yet been made to add the content to the Ultraviolet cloud so far.

Though nothing has been set to ink, the move seems like a no brainer for both sides of the equation. Digital sales would allow Comcast to leverage its affiliation with NBCUniversal to secure content and create another revenue source to peddle to its legions of subscribers. On the other end, the company’s 20 million users would bring another pipeline of revenue to Hollywood studios, still looking to replace the golden goose of their dwindling DVD and Blu-Ray sales.

The news comes as the latest in a slew of new moves by Comcast to help generate profits and keep its subscriber based locked in, including a recent rebranding of its Xfinity Go application that allows users to access live TV and On-demand programming from anywhere over a WiFi network. The Wall Street Journal reports that Dish Network is also looking to make a move into digital sales, and if the past is any indication of what’s to come, we’ll likely see other major cable providers such as Verizon’s Fios, Charter, and Time Warner following suit as well.

Editors' Recommendations

Former Digital Trends Contributor

Ryan Waniata is a multi-year veteran of the digital media industry, a lover of all things tech, audio, and TV, and a…

Audio / Video

You have until June 9 to save $500 off an 85-inch Samsung The Frame TV

A painting being displayed on a Samsung The Frame QLED.

Looking for great TV deals? You still have time to save $500 on the Samsung 85-inch The Frame QLED TV when you head over to Samsung. It usually costs $4,300, but right now the popular and stylish TV is down to $3,800, making it more affordable than before. If you’re keen to invest in a large TV but love to save money too, this is a good opportunity. Here’s what you need to know about the TV before you decide to buy.

Why you should buy the Samsung 85-inch The Frame QLED TV
One of the best QLED TVs around, the Samsung 85-inch The Frame QLED TV is a delight in so many ways. At its core, it’s a fantastic QLED TV with 100% Color Volume with Quantum Dot technology saturating the screen with a billion colors. QLED adds a layer of quantum dots to a TV’s LED backlight with these dots, once exposed to light, emitting their own light with a high level of efficiency to provide great picture quality.

Audio / Video

It’s your last chance to get up to $1,900 off a Samsung OLED TV

The Samsung S90C in a living room environment.

There’s still a little time left to snap up one of the best TV deals available today, with Samsung still selling the 83-inch S90C OLED TV for $3,500 instead of $5,400. The $1,900 discount is a pretty vast one and one that you certainly don’t want to skip. If you’re looking for a great new TV for your large living space, you’re going to love this deal. Let’s take a look at how great the Samsung S90C OLED TV is.

Why you should buy the Samsung 83-inch S90C OLED TV
Samsung makes some of the best TVs around and we’re huge fans of the Samsung 83-inch S90C OLED TV. It has an OLED panel so you get self-lit pixels which can light up independently of each other. That means that you can enjoy the deepest blacks and the brightest colors all on the same scene, ensuring you never miss a detail. The Samsung 83-inch S90C OLED TV uses a Neural Quantum Processor with 4K upscaling so its AI-powered processor can transform whatever you’re watching. There’s also HDR OLED which uses AI deep learning to analyze each scene, detecting areas that need to brighter, darker, or simply richer in color.

Audio / Video

This Sonos Bluetooth speaker has a discount in time for beach weather

Sonos Roam SL in black on a rainy rock outdoors.

A day out at the beach. Cooking outside using a discounted grill or smoker. Pool party madness. What do they all three have in common? A lot of fun, but also a great chance to get any sound equipment ruined by a sudden downpour or a splash of inevitable water. That's why there are models of waterproof Bluetooth speakers, of which the Sonos Roam SL is one. And the good news is that you can get yours at a discounted rate before summer officially gets here. Right now, the Sonos Roam SL is just $127, which is $33 down from its typical price of $160. To get yours, all you need to do is tap the button below. Consider also reading below, as we examine the speaker and see why it is considered an easy pick up.

Why you should buy the Sonos Roam SL
The Sonos Roam SL is an easy-to-use, compact speaker for wherever you roam. Connect to it easily over Wi-Fi at home or Bluetooth on the go, giving you easy options to control the sound in a way that makes sense for you and your location. If you're at home and connected to your Wi-Fi system and have other Sonos speakers, you can even get the Sonos multi-room experience, which syncs everything in a nice way. So, you can keep the Sonos Roam SL out on the patio (where it might get rained upon) and keep the best Sonos speakers indoors and have a really cool, worry-free party experience that not many others will be able to replicate.