Comcast pursues college market with TV via computer

Big cable companies are about to find out if young "cord-nevers" can be wooed.

Having tried it as an experiment for several months, Comcast is expected to announce Thursday the official launch and expansion of a service that allows students at seven colleges to watch live TV and video on-demand on their computers and mobile devices via campus Wi-Fi networks.

Available only to students who live in university housing on campus, the service won't mean any extra fees, Comcast says. Dorms are equipped with cable outlets, since universities typically buy cable or satellite TV connections in bulk. Now, students can ditch their TVs and watch on computers and mobile devices. They'll need the school password to log on.

Equipped with about 80 channels, the Xfinity On Campus service will be available at Drexel University, Lasell College, Bridgewater College, Emerson College, the University of Delaware, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the University of New Hampshire. Comcast plans to expand to additional schools in the future.

Philadelphia-based Comcast's strategy marks an effort by the nation's largest U.S. cable provider to entice young customers to cable at a time when the industry is plagued by cord-cutters. The mass defections to Netflix and other streaming services — not to mention those who never even try cable — are a chief industry concern. The on-campus product is meant to circumvent the issue by hooking viewers at an early age.

"It's a great way to expose our products and services to the next generation of customers," says Marcien Jenckes, executive vice president of consumer services for Comcast Cable. "This is the future of TV."

Comcast's new venture follows a path trod by start-up Philo, founded in 2011 by Harvard students Nicholas Krasney and Tuan Ho to have cable piped through laptops. Cox Communications launched a similar trial last year at Tulane University.

While Millennials are often portrayed as too cool for appointment TV, the pay-TV industry is banking on live sports, on-demand video and quality shows from premier networks such as HBO to attract and retain viewers. The number of Americans streaming TV is projected to grow from 106 million to 145 million by 2017, Comcast says.