Comcast Makes Their Xfinity Flex 4K Streaming Device Free For Internet-Only Customers

In March, Comcast launched Xfinity Flex, a 4K streaming player and platform called Xfinity Flex — which leverages their X1 platform. The Flex brings together your streaming entertainment experience similar to a Roku, Fire TV, or Apple TV streaming player. At launch, the platform, which was available exclusively for Xfinity internet customers, included a wireless 4K HDR streaming media player with the Xfinity Voice Remote for $5 a month.

Starting today, Comcast will now include the Xfinity Flex for free for new and existing Xfinity Internet-Only customers. Additional boxes will still be $5 a month, but by making the first box free, the company is hoping to take on companies like Roku and Amazon in building a large audience of streamers. Right now, you will need to lease one of their xFi gateways ($10 a month) to get a free device, but it’s expected to expand to those who bring their own gateway in the next few weeks.

The Xfinity Flex box features an integrated guide and voice control, enabling customers to easily browse and access programming across apps like Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, HBO, and Showtime, rent and purchase movies and shows from the digital store, access their digital lockers across platforms by pairing their account with Movies Anywhere, or listen to music from Amazon Music, Pandora, iHeartRadio, and XITE.

Other Xfinity Flex features:

• A personalized guide with universal voice control, featuring a new home page with live, immersive tiles that help customers quickly get back into what they were watching
• A new grid guide that compiles available live programming across networks and apps, and a curated destination for everything new to the platform
• The ability to easily upgrade to Xfinity TV on X1 from the guide later this year, which offers hundreds of live channels, tens of thousands of on demand titles, and a cloud DVR

The price drop comes at an important time for Comcast and streaming, as NBCU just yesterday announced their streaming service Peacock is launching next April. The service will include NBC hits like The Office and Parks and Recreation, as well as reboots of Saved By The Bell and Battlestar Galactica.

While details around pricing wasn’t disclosed, the service is expected to be free to anyone who subscribes to a pay TV service, including vMVPDs. However, similar to Hulu though, the service will offer an ad-free tier for an additional fee — which has been previously reported at $10+. Now, by putting Flex in the hands of their millions of Internet customers — they can reach cord-cutters in a way they couldn’t before.