Comcast to Launch ‘Watchable’ – a Video Competitor to Google and Facebook

This whole digital video thing isn’t going away anytime soon, and so with that in mind some big name companies are investing company resources to compete in the space. 

Comcast announced today they’re working on a digital video platform temporarily named ‘Watchable’ to rival that of major players Facebook and Google. The technology company will be partnering with companies like Vox, BuzzFeed and other big names in online media to act as their video platform service. 

As publishers ourselves, there’s a certain appeal about partnering with someone who can help distribute video content. Something about uploading a video to YouTube feels like an imbalanced relationship where the content host actually becomes the true content owner. We’re not sure about the specifics of Comcast’s new service, but it feels a bit more like a mutual partnership where publishers will use the service as a tool to help keep their content slightly more guarded from mass unlicensed distribution but while still partnering with a brand that holds major reach. 

According to Business Insider, Comcast would work to offer customers the ability to stream these videos from both mobile and TV top devices, giving publishers a wider audience, virtually everyone subscribed to Comcast. 

The most interesting part of this arrangement is certainly the potential for online publishers to get in front of the television viewing crowd. BuzzFeed has hinted at potentially becoming a “network” of sorts when it comes to video content. And this sort of partnership offers the ability to scale this effort quickly.