Skip to content
Link copied to clipboard

Comcast's Watchable to expand streaming offerings with short videos

Comcast's online streaming service Watchable.com is something like a free cable service for millennials, but without big-time sports or traditional TV shows.

Comcast's online streaming service Watchable.com is something like a free cable service for millennials, but without big-time sports or traditional TV shows.

Now, the Philadelphia cable giant is expanding Watchable with exclusive short video clips, lasting four to seven minutes.

With them, Comcast hopes to compete for eyeballs with Facebook, YouTube, and Snapchat videos and tap into a new class of video-content creators.

"There is an emerging class of content that we have not been part of," said Jamie Gillingham, Comcast's vice president of strategic development.

Among the biggest of those content creators are Defy, Buzzfeed, and Vice. Comcast has contracted for exclusive content from creators that include Cut, Refinery29, CollegeHumor, and Studio71.

Watchable, launched about a year ago, targets adults between 25 and 33 years old who Comcast has determined would be the "sweet spot" for the streaming service, Gillingham said.

It has had about 50 content partners and 50,000 nonexclusive videos. Comcast says Watchable's mobile traffic has been growing 40 percent a month this year. It has not disclosed the number of viewers, only the percentage growth.

Comcast plans to add three exclusive series with multiple shows to Watchable.com, and an additional six series in the coming months.

One new show, from Refinery29, follows a comedian and rapper in New York as they "live the high life on a low budget." A second is aimed at Latinos. The third irreverently follows "the ups and downs (mostly downs) of a young woman who learns the true meaning of 'failing forward.' "

bfernandez@phillynews.com

215-854-5897

@bobfernandez1