Canada’s Rogers Communications has become the latest cable operator to license Comcast’s X1 video platform.
Rogers expects to launch a white-label version of the video service in early 2018, enabling such features as 4K content.
Rogers joins fellow Canadian cable operator Shaw Communications and privately held U.S. operator Cox Communications, both of which have begun deploying their own versions of X1.
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“We’ve seen growing desire of other operators to leverage the industry-leading innovations we’ve created at Comcast,” said Neil Smit, president and CEO Comcast Cable, in a statement. “Comcast is excited to bring the experiences of the award-winning X1 platform to Rogers’ customers in Canada.”
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“This partnership is great news for our customers,” added Alan Horn, chairman and interim CEO, Rogers Communications. “We’re bringing our customers a world-class IPTV service with the most advanced features available in the market today. On top of that, our customers will be future-proofed thanks to Comcast’s innovative and robust product roadmap.”
Comcast CFO Mike Cavanagh told investors earlier this month that X1 is currently in about 45 percent of its video homes. Executives for the cable company have also said that licensing revenue for white-label versions of X1 aren’t highly lucrative, at least not directly.
The benefit, Comcast said, is longer term; the broader reach of the platform would be able to, say, enable robust addressable advertising revenue.
Comcast has begun growing its video base again and credits X1 with yielding reductions for churn in 32 consecutive quarters.