Comcast Customers Can Live Stream Or Send Videos To The TV Screen With Xfinity Share
By Melony Roy
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) --- Comcast is taking live-streaming from a smart phone up a level by releasing its own app that lets users send videos to an even bigger screen: the TV.
Comcast VP of communications Patti Loyack says "Some moments just demand a bigger screen, so think about folks huddling around a smart phone but now you can have that lean back experience and see it on the biggest screen you have in your home."
Xfinity Share allows Comcast users to share important life events such as weddings or birthday parties from their smart phones to a TV, allowing friends and family to be "there," even when they can't be physically present.
Loyack says Xfinity Share encompasses three key things, "The ability to live stream, the ability to share a video or photo from your camera roll, or the ability to record and share so if you don't want to live stream at that point in time you just want to record it and share it later you can do that as well," she says.
To stream Share to a TV, users must download the app, select "Stream Live" and indicate where they want the content sent either to the home TV, another DVR user, or to a mobile device.
"If a friend of family member is at home its a simple notification that pops in the right corner of the TV and you simply use the info button on the remote to join the call and then you're in that experience," Loyack says.
The Xfinity Share app is available now on iOS and Android, but it's currently limited to Comcast customers who are paying for the company's X1 Triple Play package.
Live- streaming apps Periscope and Meerkat have come under fire for piracy and copyright infringement but the Comcast product is much more targeted.
Loyak says "It's really that one to one experience. It's not like you're broadcasting to a mass audience."
Eventually, Share hopes to add some additional features like sharing to multiple people (up to five), the capacity to store videos in the Xfinity cloud and the ability to stop, pause, and rewind.
