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LEAK: Comcast's Mobile Store Is Actually Quite Promising
Posted by Mark Wilson at 6:10 AM on September 4, 2008
Earlier today, we published the article Comcast's Video Download Store Is Wholly Unremarkable about Comcast's expansion of Fancast, a place to download movies a la Amazon Unbox. Then a reliable tipster filled us in on where Fancast is going—specifically, in the mobile market. And we have to say, it's caught our attention.
Fancast is essentially Comcast's way to expand into other areas of the entertainment sector without building on their cable monopoly. So their coming mobile app (working on Sprint phones for certain) includes partnerships with various media companies that may surprise you as part of a large media portal conglomerate.
Sure, Fancast supports basic Comcast services. You can watch an unspecified amount of live programming on your phone streamed at what we've been told is near perfect quality (on a small screen).
You can schedule recordings to your DVR and, maybe in later releases of the software, even stream these recordings to your phone a la Sling Box.
You can rate movies and buy tickets on Fandango.
And if other deals work out, you'll also be able to schedule recordings to your TiVo and add movies to your Netflix queue.
Apparently the software is more than ready to go. Comcast is just finishing negotiations with various partners. So whenever those negotiations finish, that's when you'll get Fancast mobile.
Comments (AU Comments · US Comments)
There are currently no AU comments for this post.
Ken_Darrow
Posted 6:34 AM 4/9/08
Support Comcast? LOL
Ken_Darrow
nutbastard
Posted 6:28 AM 4/9/08
Comcast's Mobile store is called "Leak"?
ambiguous title, methinks.
nutbastard
cotr
Posted 6:25 AM 4/9/08
hopefully the cancer from my phone will kill me before comcast gets into my phonetubes.
cotr
Late_Night
Posted 6:21 AM 4/9/08
Hmm Comcast and Sprint...it'll be hell on earth.
Late_Night
1.21Gigawatts
Posted 6:19 AM 4/9/08
@Enochrewt: Exactomundo! I steer clear of anything comcast, and I'm starting to look for other ISP's that aren't cable based companies that offer the same speed service.
1.21Gigawatts
Enochrewt
Posted 6:18 AM 4/9/08
It's still Comcast, and they've lost their priviledge of doing business with me.
Enochrewt
Underpants Gnome
Posted 6:13 AM 4/9/08
If this rolls out as fast as the Tivo service they promised me, we should expect to see it in about 6 households by 2017.
Underpants Gnome
mildretard
Posted 7:14 AM 4/9/08
@Enochrewt: I would love to say the same. Unfortunately if I were to cancel my internets with them, I would no longer be able to steal their cable. How is that for an ethical gordian knot? Fortunately I had Satan to help me cut through it.
Whoa, that was a weird comment. 420 came a little early to the ol' oficina today.
mildretard
DoMiNaTi0n
Posted 7:23 AM 4/9/08
Comcast is now one step closer to implementing a Swastika as their new logo
DoMiNaTi0n
cobaltage
Posted 7:53 AM 4/9/08
Oh, and about 249GB of torrented video content per month.
cobaltage
cobaltage
Posted 7:52 AM 4/9/08
Seems like we'll be able to do the same thing with a smart phone, a fast connection, an older generation Tivo, and a Slingbox.
cobaltage
FiveLiters
Posted 7:42 AM 4/9/08
@nutbastard: Not really...just think,when you unlock one of their phones,instead of "jailbreaking",it's "springing a leak"!
My day job beckons,I must go now.
FiveLiters
philbert
Posted 11:04 AM 4/9/08
@cobaltage: LOL, i wondered when someone was going to spring the data cap debacle.
philbert
katenoel
Posted 10:13 AM 5/9/08
At Fancast we've been working on a number of great new features that are all about convergence and creating a seamless entertainment experience. At some point in the future this will include a mobile component, however there are no releases planned in the short term. Recent posts suggesting that we are "ready-to-go" with a Fancast mobile application are false. Right now we are providing a great content experience on the site and helping people find and consume entertainment content wherever it lives, whenever they want to.
katenoel