The self-proclaimed “aggregator of aggregators” is aggregating once again.
Comcast announced Wednesday the launch of Xfinity StreamStore, a digital destination for its Xfinity TV and internet customers to manage, purchase and download popular streaming apps and channels, rent or buy movie and TV shows, and add Comcast video services, such as the bundled StreamSaver offering.
The StreamStore is a new hub integrated on Xfinity’s entertainment devices and is also available on the web here.
The digital hub will include around 450 streaming apps and channels in all, with a number of them allowing users to consolidate billing onto their monthly Comcast statement. (According to Variety, those services include Netflix, Peacock, Paramount+, Disney+, Hulu, ESPN+, Apple TV+, HBO Max, Starz, Discovery+ and MGM+, as well as around 100 smaller niche SVODs).
It also houses around 200,000 movies and TV shows to rent or buy.
In addition, StreamStore will exist within the bowels of Xfinity.com, allowing Xfinity customers to not only manage their home internet, mobile and TV services, but also tack on Comcast video offerings including NOW TV, NOW TV Latino and StreamSaver. Launched about a year ago, StreamSaver bundles the ad-supported iterations of Netflix and Peacock with Apple TV+ for just $15 a month.
In its Wednesday announcement, Comcast said there will be new StreamSaver bundle configurations arriving “later this year.”
“Xfinity StreamStore is taking the complexity out of finding the content you love and putting the power back in the hands of our customers. It’s an important advancement in harnessing tech to make the complicated easy and entertainment smarter, simpler, and more connected,” said Jon Gieselman, chief growth officer, connectivity and platforms for Comcast, in a statement.
Comcast has come a long way since April 2018, when it decided to stop worrying about streaming and start integrating popular apps into what was then its flagship video system, Xfinity X1.
X1 has taken a back seat as Comcast is now marketing its Xumo joint streaming venture with Charter Communications. One of the center pieces of that initiative is the Xumo Stream Box, a skinny IP set-top that runs on the Comcast Entertainment Operating System and is compatible with a wide variety of streaming apps.
For its part, Charter, too, has made access to popular streaming apps and the Xumo Stream Box a central focus of its flagship video offering, Spectrum Stream. And Charter said it also is working on a streaming storefront, a hub where its customers can shop for popular apps.