Comcast's set-top box integrates Netflix and now it's integrating YouTube

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Comcast integrated Netflix into its X1 set-top box last year. But Comcast doesn't plan to help YouTube market its Unplugged service. It's a mini YouTube service built by Comcast.

The world's largest video website is teaming up with the largest pay-TV service provider in the United States: Comcast plans to integrate YouTube into its X1 set-top box.

This is the second big move Comcast has taken to add Internet video content to the traditional TV shows it sells. Comcast integrated Netflix into its X1 set-top box last year.

Integrating YouTube is similar to integrating Netflix. X1 set-top box users will be able to access all YouTube videos through a dedicated app on the set-top box, and Comcast will also recommend selected videos on the YouTube site to users. Users can access the new content through voice commands.

According to Comcast, the company currently has 22.5 million video users, of which nearly 50% have purchased the latest set-top boxes. When X1 set-top box users follow "Top Chef", they can also see cooking videos posted on YouTube by food video site Tastemake or other YouTube program producers in the recommendation column.

In the big picture, it's 2017, and you can watch content from different sources on any device. It's no longer meaningful to divide content into TV programs or online videos based on source. Therefore, the practice of classifying content, while good, is outdated. Comcast and YouTube have solved this problem for you.

From a small perspective, this cooperation has not yet involved the transfer of money. YouTube and its partners will retain advertising revenue generated from videos viewed by Comcast users. According to people familiar with the matter, Comcast may eventually allow its users to subscribe directly to the YouTube Red service on the X1 set-top box, and it may be able to collect a commission on recommendations.

But Comcast doesn't plan to help YouTube market its Unplugged service. The so-called Unplugged service refers to the traditional TV program packages of major TV networks such as CBS, Fox, NBC and ABC. YouTube plans to launch this service in the near future. Also, if you watch YouTube videos on an X1 set-top box, you may not see ads promoting YouTube's new service. So in a sense, Comcast may end up shooting itself in the foot, doing a lot of help to its own TV service competitors.

Playing online videos on real TVs has been a dream of YouTube and Google for years. For example, Google launched the first generation of Google TV in 2010. In fact, it took the TV industry much longer to see the Internet's huge power in content publishing than it took other industries such as the music industry and the newspaper industry to see this power. The music industry and the newspaper industry recognized the power of the Internet long ago and then reached a cooperation deal with Google.

Remember "Watchable"? It's a mini YouTube service built by Comcast. The service is mainly about integrating videos that users may watch on YouTube and elsewhere and providing it to X1 set-top box users. Strangely enough, the service is still in operation.

Editor: yvette