Comcast Signs On as Movies Anywhere’s First Pay-TV Partner
Comcast’s Xfinity Digital Store has joined digital movie-collection service Movies Anywhere, with the cable giant becoming the Disney-led service’s seventh digital retail partner.
Movies Anywhere partners for the October 2017 launch were Amazon Prime Video, Google Play, Apple’s iTunes and Walmart’s Vudu. FandangoNow, Fandango’s FandangoNow on-demand video service came aboard in March, and Microsoft Movies and TV joined in August.
Comcast is the first pay-TV provider to join Movies Anywhere. Comcast’s Xfinity TV customers are now able to synchronize their accounts with Movies Anywhere, combine eligible movie purchases from the Xfinity Digital Store with those from other Movies Anywhere digital retailers, and access them on Xfinity X1, the Xfinity Stream app and other Xfinity TV platforms.
One year after its debut, Movies Anywhere, which is owned and run by Disney in partnership with four other studios, had signed up nearly 6 million registered users who had added more than 150 million purchased movies to their collections.
For a limited time, Xfinity consumers who sync for the first time with one of the other participating Movies Anywhere digital retailers will receive a free digital copy of “Happy Feet,” a 2006 computer-animated musical family film with a domestic box office gross of nearly $200 million. Those who sync for the first time with two digital retailers also receive digital copies of “The Martian” and “The Fate of the Furious.”
“Comcast is one of the country’s leading pay TV providers with a customer base that, like ours, consists of people who are passionate about the movies they love,” said Karin Gilford, general manager of Movies Anywhere. “We are thrilled to now include Comcast’s Xfinity TV customers among those who can benefit from Movies Anywhere’s ability to bring their favorite movies together in one place that can be accessed across a multitude of devices using the Movies Anywhere app and across Xfinity TV platforms.”
“Xfinity X1 is the only platform that provides customers with seamless, integrated access to all of their entertainment choices within one user interface, whether that content is live, on demand, streamed, recorded, rented or owned,” said Daniel Spinosa, VP of entertainment services at Comcast Cable. “And by joining Movies Anywhere, Xfinity TV customers can now easily link their accounts across participating digital retailers and watch their consolidated digital library on X1, or anywhere in the country via the Xfinity Stream app and portal.”
With the addition of Comcast to the Movies Anywhere lineup, Movies Anywhere collections owned by the cable company’s customers will be accessible for the first time directly on the TV through Xfinity On Demand, and on devices via the Xfinity Stream app and web portal. All Movies Anywheres users are also able to access their collections via the Movies Anywhere app and web portal on an array of additional platforms.
One of the top digital retailers for new releases, the Xfinity Digital Store offers Xfinity TV customers the ability to easily purchase and access thousands of movies, many featuring enhanced extras via X1 and across devices via the Xfinity Stream app and web portal.
Movies Anywhere is backed by five Hollywood studios — Sony Pictures Entertainment, Twentieth Century Fox Film, Universal Pictures (including Focus Features, DreamWorks and Illumination Entertainment), The Walt Disney Studios (including Disney, Pixar, Marvel Studios and Lucasfilm) and Warner Bros. Paramount Pictures and Lionsgate are not part of the service, which also does not feature television programming.
Consumer spending on digital purchases of movies, TV shows and other filmed content rose 18% in the third quarter of this year compared with the same quarter in 2017, a significant uptick from the single-digit gains posted in prior years, according to DEG: The Digital Entertainment Group.
Thomas K. Arnold is editorial director of Media Play News.
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