Upfront On Demand

We’re not sure whether Comcast’s NY upfront event Fri was a seminal milestone on VOD’s road to mass mediahood. But it’s clear that Comcast is committed to VOD. All services developed in house will premiere immediately on VOD and move to high-speed Internet and mobile distribution. "If you want to launch new concepts, you must do it in a non-linear way," said Comcast programming czar Jeff Shell. "This is the model of the future, and we’re putting our money where our mouth is." Shell already has 6-12 VOD services on his drawing board, with "many more" ahead. That doesn’t include vp Matt Strauss’ "Select On Demand" assortment of content, now at 17 channels. Or the "barrage" of content additions VOD chief/video services svp Page Thompson promises to launch between May and Sept. Comcast expects monthly VOD views to grow from 140mln to 200mln by fall. Look for ABC and Fox to complete VOD deals with Comcast in the next 90-120 days, COO Steve Burke predicted.-CableWorld’s Simon Applebaum