Comments on: Comcast Getting it Right with WebRTC: Opts for Video Streaming over Video Chatting

By: Tsahi Levent-Levi

Tsahi Levent-Levi — Mon, 28 Jul 2014 18:51:07 +0000

In reply to Michael Graves. Interesting. Thanks for sharing Michael.

By: Michael Graves

Michael Graves — Mon, 28 Jul 2014 15:07:19 +0000

It’s worth noting that Comcast has partnered with the Jitsi Project and is funding some specific developments issues connected to Jitsi Video Bridge.

By: Tsahi Levent-Levi

Tsahi Levent-Levi — Thu, 15 May 2014 15:27:47 +0000

In reply to Eric Krapf.

Eric,

Good questions – thanks.

For Comcast, this isn’t about bandwidth, but rather about user experience and fighting the OTT battle (think Netflix, Fire TV, Apple TV and a future Android TV). This is why they went to all the effort of investing in their X1 Platform and in beefing it up. It isn’t about increasing ROI but about reducing churn and owning the customer.

Remember that WebRTC is a technology. And that it was designed for the web. Comcast’s X1 is cloud and HTML based, making it a web device. Using WebRTC there was a straightforward decision, with two possible reasons:
1. Because the investment and rest is lower than other technical options
2. Because it enables in the future to have other browser based webapps use it. Think getting Tawk.com or Peer5’s P2P streaming right on your TV, served from your X1

By: Eric Krapf

Eric Krapf — Thu, 15 May 2014 14:24:19 +0000

Hi Tsahi:
This is really interesting and compelling.. You’d have to imagine Comcast and others are working on an interface that lets non-technical users like the grandparents here simply tune into their grandkid’s “channel” on the program guide–with access authentication-protected, and with DVR’ed content for when nothing’s live-streaming. It’s even better than going to the kid’s game in person, because you can FF past all the other stupid kids you don’t care about.

My question though is how does Comcast play this? It’s lots of high-value, high-bandwidth content for their network, so it should generate more revenue; but in a post-Net Neutrality world, can they really squeeze that kind of money out of a broad customer base?

I do have to ask about WebRTC here–why would it have to be WebRTC at all? Isn’t a use case like this sort of inherently a closed system where it doesn’t matter whether you’re using standards-based technology or not?