Attention, couch potatoes: Get ready for some good old-fashioned binge viewing.
Comcast today announced plans for a “Watchathon” week — opening up its library of premium on-demand content to (almost) all Xfinity TV subscribers, even if they don’t subscribe to premium channels. That means you have a week to catch up on shows including Game of Thrones, Dexter, Weeds, the Newsroom and many others. The shows will stream via XfinityTV.com and the Xfinity apps for phones and tablets, in addition to cable boxes.
The Watchathon runs from March 25 through March 31. Here’s the full list of shows, via Comcast.
It’s a pretty sweet promotion, but it’s also a reminder of just how much Comcast still controls access to hit shows, even in this age of cord-cutting and Netflix and everything else. As Read Write puts it, “Comcast’s Awesome Watchathon Reminds You It’s Still the Boss.”
There’s also a catch for the real cheapskates — including me. It turns out that you’ll need to subscribe to an Xfinity package that receives video on demand to participate in the Watchathon week. The only package that doesn’t receive video on demand is the Limited Basic service, which my family subscribes to. We’ve been thinking about cutting the cord entirely (again) but honestly, this Watchathon is probably enough to make us upgrade.
Comcast, I wish I knew how to quit you.
