Comcast announced three major content initiatives at the 2008 CES. CEO Brian Roberts unveiled a plan to give consumers more than 1,000 HD choices in 2008, its strategy to begin adding additional HD movies, and announced “Project Infinity,” its vision to give consumers the ability to watch any movie, television show, user generated content or other video that a producer wants to make available On Demand.
“Project Infinity plans to give consumers the best and most content they will find On Demand anywhere – more HD, more sports, more movies, kids’ programs and network TV,” said Roberts. “Project Infinity builds on our commitment to bring more content to people across all platforms at home and on the go, and we’ll work with our partners, programmers and video producers to deliver on this vision.”
Project Infinity envisions ever-increasing customer choice that continues the evolution of time-shifted viewing that began with the huge success of Comcast On Demand. Comcast’s vision is to give customers exponentially more content choices – all available to consumers at the click of the remote without having to buy any additional equipment.
Project Infinity is a logical extension of Comcast’s television and online content strategy, which has fundamentally changed the way people watch video. As Comcast’s On Demand library has expanded to offer more than 10,000 selections each month, viewership has grown dramatically, surpassing six billion views since 2003. Comcast customers now are selecting On Demand 100 times per second, with 275 million views monthly.
Comcast will support its plan for Project Infinity using its existing fiber network and national IP backbone. The Company plans to create a system of library servers that will efficiently serve VOD content to consumers from several key locations across the country. This system would enable Comcast to offer exponentially more VOD content.
Comcast plans to expand its current HD lineup beyond the hundreds of HD choices available today, which is already more than any other provider offers. By the end of the year, Comcast will make available more than 1,000 HD movies and TV shows every month, as well as the most popular television networks in HD as they debut. HD content is the fastest-growing category in Comcast’s On Demand library.
