Comcast today announced it is launching a new streaming television app for XFINITY TV customers allowing access to more than 200 live channels and DVR recordings on-the-go at no extra charge.

XFINITY Stream works with phones, tablets, and laptops in or out of the home, and will replace the XFINITY TV app when released for iOS and Android devices on Feb. 28.

The app will expand the ability of Comcast customers to watch their television lineup and DVR recordings anywhere there is a broadband connection. Many cable companies do not allow customers to watch DVR-recorded shows on portable devices and only have a small selection of cable channels available for viewing outside of the home.

“With the XFINITY Stream app, we are giving customers access to the best content in and out of the home with a growing list of advanced features and capabilities that make the mobile experience nearly identical to the cable experience they enjoy at home,” said Matt Strauss, executive vice president and general manager of Comcast Cable’s video and entertainment services.

Among the improvements claimed by Comcast:

• availability of a Spanish language guide
• X1-like experience
• favorite channel filtering
• 50 Music Choice music channels
• Common Sense Media reviews and ratings
• 40,000 on demand movies and TV shows
• full access to your XFINITY DVR and its recordings
• ability to download “thousands” of shows for offline viewing

Customers who have already installed the latest version of the XFINITY TV app on their devices need not do anything. The app will transition through an app update on Feb 28.

Cord-cutting in Boston is getting more difficult if you are an NBC fan. Comcast, which owns NBC/Universal, has terminated its affiliation agreement with full-power Boston station WHDH and is moving NBC programming in Boston to a little-watched television station in New Hampshire currently affiliated with Telemundo.

Northeast Radio Watch reports major confusion in Boston over the network affiliation change that will relocate NBC’s programming for the most-viewed NBC affiliate in Massachusetts to a lower-powered station in another state.

The change takes place Jan. 1, 2017, and some Boston viewers are likely to have trouble getting a good over-the-air picture for NBC programming unless they subscribe to cable… which coincidentally is also provided primarily by Comcast.

Much of southeast Massachusetts will lose access to NBC shows, unless they subscribe to cable.

Sunbeam-owned WHDH-TV 7 has been Boston’s NBC affiliate since Jan. 2, 1995. For years, the relationship between Sunbeam and Comcast/NBCUniversal has been frosty because of station and affiliation disputes in other cities. On Dec. 15, 2015, Comcast informed WHDH management its NBC affiliation contract would not be renewed. Comcast then offered to buy what would certainly be a financially compromised WHDH for $200 million, prompting Sunbeam owner Ed Ansin to declare Comcast/NBC was “trying to steal our station.”

Comcast has decided on a suitable replacement to serve as Boston’s NBC affiliate – a small station 50 miles away in Merrimack, N.H., currently providing Spanish-speaking audiences with Telemundo programming.

WNEU-TV 34 runs an 80-kilowatt transmitter west of Manchester, N.H.,a pittance compared to the 1,000-kilowatt transmitter powering WHDH, located in suburban Boston.

“This has been NBC’s weak spot, and for all the talk about how Comcast will buy this or that other station, it’s going to war with the signals it has, not the signals it wants to have,” writes Scott Fybush, editor of Northeast Radio Watch. “That means WNEU, the Merrimack, N.H.-licensed signal that’s been carrying Telemundo, will be the only full-power home of NBC Boston, serving viewers in New Hampshire and (if they’re equipped with a decent antenna) parts of the Merrimack Valley.”

Even Comcast recognizes the political controversy that is likely to erupt as a substantial portion of Boston’s cord-cutting over-the-air audience loses access to NBC unless they sign up for Comcast Cable or another pay television provider. So NBC has also arranged to buy low-power station WBTS-LD 46, which also currently airs Telemundo programming for the benefit of Boston residents within Route 128. WBTS does not come close to providing a good signal throughout Boston either, and Fybush notes over-the-air viewers in Worcester or on the South Shore are going to be out of luck.

“NBC acknowledges you probably won’t be seeing them over the air for now,” Fybush notes.

Comcast has also given its new NBC affiliate prime positioning on the Comcast lineup. NBC programming in Boston will appear on cable channel 10, with the HD feed on channel 810, bumping NECN-HD to channel 840. NBC has also reached private agreements with satellite providers to put NBC Boston of channel 10 as well.

The change means cord-cutters will be seriously disadvantaged in Boston, struggling to get a decent digital picture from a station never considered a primary Boston signal. For WHDH, it strands the station without any major network affiliation. In an effort to stay viable, WHDH intends to rebrand as a news-focused station that will air multiple local newscasts during the primetime hours of 7-11:30pm, unless another network comes along with an offer.

On a morning conference call with Wall Street analysts, Comcast continues to misrepresent its vision of broadband usage caps and usage-based billing, claiming customer preferences echoed through Comcast’s performance in the marketplace will tell the company what is “best for consumers,” and guide Comcast how to realize the most value for shareholders.

Wall Street is very interested in usage caps and usage-based billing because cable operators can protect video revenue threatened by cord-cutting and boost revenue earned from customers who exceed their allowance.

Vijay Jayant, and analyst at Evercore ISI, quickly zeroed in on the potential loss of anticipated revenue from Comcast’s recent decision to boost its data cap from 300GB to 1TB, something Jiyant characterized as a “hurdle” for future usage-related charges.

“Well we have one terabyte. We moved it up from 300 gigabyte to one terabyte in 14% of our markets where we have usage-based pricing,” responded Neil Smit, Comcast Cable’s president and CEO. “We think we’re going to continue to adjust and look at it as the market evolves and as usage evolves. We have different pricing models, some based on speed, some based on usage, and we’re going to be flexible and kind of let the market tell us which way is best for consumers and how we add the most value. We continue to add speeds. We’ve upped speeds 17 times in 15 years. We’ve built out the fastest Wi-Fi. So we’re going to continue to invest in the network to stay ahead of things.”

Smit’s response was incomplete, however.

Smit

Comcast’s usage and speed-based pricing models are hardly “flexible” and do not co-exist in the same markets. Customers are compelled to obey Comcast’s usage cap, face overlimit fees up to $200 a month, or pay an additional $50 a month to buy back their old unlimited use service. In Comcast markets without usage caps, the cable company only sells speed-based internet tiers with no enforced caps.

Comcast has consciously avoided allowing customers to choose between speed-based or usage-based tiers, because years of experience among other cable operators quickly proved customers intensely dislike usage caps of any kind. In fact, the largest percentage of complaints filed with the FCC about Comcast are about its compulsory usage cap trial and the fees associated with it.

One reason for that hostility may be that Comcast’s broadband prices do not drop as a result of the introduction of usage caps in a service area. The customer effectively receives a lower value broadband product as a result of its arbitrary usage limit, and the potential exposure to overlimit fees or a very expensive “insurance” plan to avoid the cap altogether. Earlier trials offered some customers a small discount if they kept usage under 5GB a month, a difficult prospect for most and in any case not much of a revenue threat for Comcast.

If Comcast was seriously interested in what its customers think about its usage cap trial, it need only review the FCC’s complaint database. According to a Freedom of Information Law request from The Wall Street Journal, nearly 8,000 complaints received by the FCC in the second half of 2015 were about data caps, and most of those were directed at Comcast.

Comcast’s claim it will let the marketplace decide only delivers a distorted view about usage caps, because many Comcast customers have only one other competitive choice, and there is a significant chance that provider caps customer’s broadband usage as well. AT&T, for example, caps its customers at a level even stingier than Comcast. Those caps have not been enforced with overlimit fees on customer bills (except for AT&T’s DSL customers), although AT&T suggests it is getting serious about collecting future overlimit fees. If Comcast gains new customers leaving AT&T to avoid smaller caps, Comcast executives seem to believe they can claim consumers have ’embraced’ Comcast’s usage billing. But we know that is about as credible as an election in North Korea.

Time Warner Cable has been one of the few honest players about usage billing, giving customers the option of keeping unlimited or switching to a capped plan for a discount. More than 99% of customers have chosen to stay with unlimited and only a few thousand have chosen to limit their usage for a small discount. An honest market test from Comcast would extend a similar option to customers. Keep unlimited or voluntarily limit usage for a small discount. Given this kind of test, we expect the overwhelming majority of customers would keep unlimited at all costs. Doing so would hurt shareholder value, however.

The only value Comcast is concerned with is how much more money they can charge customers for broadband service. In America’s broadband duopoly, where speed-based broadband pricing is already outrageously high, usage caps and usage billing are nothing more than a greedy cash grab. When money is at stake, reputation comes in a distant second at Comcast, as the company continues to prove its poor reputation with American consumers is well-deserved.

Comzilla

Comcast just felt for itself what can happen if their customers don’t pay their bills. They threaten to cut them off.

With just one day remaining before Duck River Electric Membership Corporation claimed it would rip Comcast’s equipment and wiring off its utility poles for non-payment of pole attachment fees, Comcast showed up with a check.

“To avoid an interruption of service, Comcast has once again agreed to pay Duck River significantly more than what is owed under our current contract, despite Duck River’s refusal to negotiate reasonable terms,” Alex Horwitz, vice president of public relations at Comcast, told Times-Free Press reporters.

Duck River officials dispute that and say Comcast was behind (again) on its pole attachment fee payments and is the only utility company complaining about the price.

“Size-wise, they’re the Godzilla of telecommunications,” said Steve Oden, director of member services at the tiny electric co-op. “And we’re just a lowly electric co-op here in Middle Tennessee.”

Oden claimed he is treating Comcast exactly the same way they would treat their own customers.

“If you don’t pay your Comcast cable TV or internet bill, they’re going to do what?” The answer, Oden said, is they “cut you off.”

Comcast claimed in turn Duck River is using their position as a monopoly to gouge customers with high rates.

“Unfortunately, the utility has been unwilling to compromise and has billed Comcast for arbitrary pole rates that are nearly three times the national average,” said Horwitz.

Had Comcast not come up with a payment, Duck River was prepared to start removing Comcast’s wiring and equipment from its poles, and cut power to Comcast’s equipment, which would have killed service for about 7,000 Comcast customers.

The two are now talking (again) about securing a long-term contract that will stabilize pole attachment rates and keep Duck River’s local power co-op from having to make collection calls in the future.