Comcast is creating an app that will allow customers to bypass the cable box and get Xfinity services directly on their television sets or streaming media gadgets. It will be available next year, and will serve live TV, on demand video, and record for the DVR. By being able to return the cable boxes, customers will be able to save $10 a month from the equipment fee that they are no longer paying. Comcast hopes that they will be able to expand their new Xfinity TV Partner Program beyond Samsung and Roku. While the app is similar to others already out there, that have been downloaded about 23 million times, their new app would more closely mirror the experience that you get from your cable box. Other companies, such as Time Warner Cable, have similar apps. Comcast has done something similar to what they are doing now, when they made a deal with Xbox, however this deal only lasted a little over a year. 
The FCC previously voted in February to start a public discussion about changing current set-up requirements, with the Chairman Tom Wheeler wanting to give customers the option to choose between renting a set-top box from their cable company or getting another kind of compatible device on their own. The hope is to create a robust marketplace for video services that would allow customers who subscribe to multiple service to buy a gadget that is able to play all of them. The FCC is criticizing Comcast's new app,as it would only allow customer to search through Comcast content. Comcast has responded to the FCC's proposal rule change on boxes that it would, "create substantial costs ... take years to develop," and would ultimately be unnecessary in light of the success that app-based models have seen in the marketplace. Click here to read the original article.
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