Cable Company Comcast To Sell Cable-Less Cable

New service Stream is the telecommunications giant’s first cord-cutting option.

Comcast

With pressure from Netflix, Hulu, and the like mounting, cable companies and content providers are rushing to unbundle services and hit the streaming web as hard as possible. HBO Now, Showtime, Sling TV, and Sony are all attempting to meet the growing demands of cord-cutters — people who want to stream what they want, when and where they want it without being married to a cable box. On Monday, that field became even more crowded with the announcement of Comcast's Stream, a new service set to deliver broadcast networks, plus HBO, online only for $15 a month.

However, Stream is only a cord-cutting service in that viewers don't have to own a TV — the service is only available to Comcast broadband customers, which means that the $15 Stream fee comes on top of your Comcast-delivered internet access. Comcast is taking its channels to the internet — but only if it's the company getting you online.

Comcast is the first broadband provider to offer this service, and it's likely to be followed by the others soon. The cord-cutting market, while still tiny compared to traditional TV and on-demand models like Netflix, is becoming the site of an arms race, as companies scramble not to be left behind if the market does shift away from the status quo. The entrance of Comcast — by far the largest company to enter cord-cutting business — is likely to accelerate that process.

Comcast will begin testing Stream in Boston this summer before rolling out to Chicago and Seattle later this year. By 2016, the service will expand to all of Comcast's markets.