Comcast's Netflix Killer Isn't One Yet. But It Could Be.

Comcast's new Netflix killer can't be a Netflix killer, because most of the people in the U.S. can't use it. Streampix, the Web video service it is launching this week, will only be available to Comcast's 22 million cable TV subscribers. But if Comcast wants to, it can change that overnight, as The Wall Street Journal's Sam Schechner reported yesterday. The cable giant's new content deals allow it to sell its stuff nationally, to anyone with an Internet connection, if it wants to. Comcast insists publicly that it has no interest in doing that. Privately, its executives say the same thing. They say they can't figure out how to market and support a $5-a-month digital subscription service to noncustomers and still make money. What if they added more content and sold it for $8 a month, like Netflix does? "That still wouldn't work for us," one of them told me yesterday. "We can't figure out how it works for Netflix, either." So if things don't change, then Streampix will work primarily as an anti-churn tool for Comcast — a carrot they'll dangle to keep current subscribers happy. And it may also keep a few of them from from signing up for Netflix, or renewing the subscription they already have. Which means it will join the growing number of Netflix killers that aren't really Netflix killers, because they don't have the same breadth of content, or are only available to a certain number of customers.

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