If you happen to be a Comcast Infinity customer who also owns a Roku streaming device, you’ll be happy to hear that the two companies have recently made an agreement that will allow both HBO and Showtime subscribers to download and run the HBO Go and Showtime Anytime apps from the channel store on their Roku players. Roku updated its blog post with a confirmation of the deal on Tuesday.
Before this new conformity between Comcast and Roku, the cable access company had allowed its subscribers to use their mobile devices (i.e. smartphones and tablets) to access HBO Go, but not any TV-connected devices. Verizon Fios, ATT U-verse and DirecTV were just some of the many major TV providers who were already supported on the Roku when the agreement was ultimately reached.
Apparently, The HBO Go app has been available on the Roku streaming device since 2011. However, in order for users to actually be able to run the app, it had to be authenticated with the channel’s coinciding TV provider. Until now, Comcast had denied that authentication ability to its customers.
Recently Comcast has been looking into merging with Time Warner Cable, a TV provider who is already supported by Roku. This fact along with Roku’s complaint to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) may have led to the cable company’s decision to join the growing list of TV providers whose are already supported on the streaming media player.
Sony PS3s, Amazon Fire TVs and Samsung smart TVs are still on Comcast’s “blocked” list, although the cable company claims they are in the process of conducting product and platform evaluations for those particular streaming devices. They will likely be forming a similar deal with the cable company in the near future.
A spokesperson for Roku stated that company is glad to be able to bring the long-awaited feature to Comcast Xfinity TV customers.
Tags:
Source URLS:
1.) http://www.highdefdigest.com/news/show/Roku/Comcast/XFINITY/Cable/HBO_Go/showtime-anytime/Game_of_Thrones/homeland/shameless/true-detective/comcast-customers-can-now-stream-hbo-go-showtime-anytime-on-roku-devices/20105
2.) https://gigaom.com/2014/12/16/comcast-customers-can-finally-watch-hbo-go-on-their-rokus/
3.) http://arstechnica.com/business/2014/12/comcast-to-stop-blocking-hbo-go-and-showtime-on-roku-streaming-devices/
