Xfinity Adds 20 Free Channels for X1 Users as Comcast Expands FAST Offerings Across Platforms
Comcast is giving its customers a little extra free entertainment. This week, the cable and internet company announced that customers using its Xfinity X1 cable device now have access to 20 new free ad-supported TV (FAST) channels. The new additions include NBC News Now and 19 other Xumo-branded channels. The channels available focus on genres and topics like true crime, cooking, movies, reality TV, kids programming, travel, and more.
“The addition of FAST channels on our Xfinity entertainment platforms adds a new dynamic to our video offering,” Comcast VP Vito Forlenza said. “Our strategy is centered around value not tonnage, and we are focused on bringing FAST channels into the experience that are additive to the majority of our customers’ lineups.”
These new ad-supported channels can be found on Xfinity’s channel guide, making it easier than ever to watch uninterrupted shows and movies. The news comes just one month after Comcast launched its own live-streaming TV service for $20 a month known as NOW TV and three months after Comcast tested the FAST channels in the Xfinity Stream app.
X1 users can already find the FAST channels integrated in Xfinity’s guide right along all of the other channels they already pay for. While X1 users can browse the channel guide to find these additional channels, they can also use their voice remotes by saying “free streaming channels” in order to quickly access them.
Forlenza shared that adding FAST channels is another way to increase X1 users’ experience, which only helps differentiate Xfinity from other services. The Comcast exec added that this move wouldn’t be the last that customers saw of FAST channels.
“We plan to bring additional FAST channels to our lineup in the future,” she said, “and will continue leveraging the innate power of our global technology platform to make all this new programming easier for our customers to discover and enjoy.”
NOW TV
NOW TV is a live TV streaming service exclusively available to Xfinity Internet customers that comes with over 40 channels for $20/month. The “skinny bundle” is some of the more popular channels (like A&E, Discovery Channel, HGTV, TLC) at an easy-to-afford price and will appeal most to fans of NBC & lifestyle channels. It does not offer news, sports, or local channels, but you get access to NBC and some live sports through Peacock which NOW TV users get for free.