By Phillip Swann
The TV Answer Man –@tvanswerman
TV Answer Man, I keep seeing commercials for something called Now TV from Xfinity. Do you know what that is and is it worth getting? $20 seems like a lot for a streaming thing, right? Do you need special equipment? — Dania, Bowie, Maryland.
Dania, if you live in an Xfinity/Comcast market, you can’t help seeing those Now TV commercials. They are everywhere! But what is Now TV? It’s Comcast/Xfinity’s new $20 a month streaming service. Now TV includes a Peacock Premium sub and 40 live basic cable channels, including AMC and A&E, and 20 ad-supported channels. The service, which does not include any local or sports channels, is only available to Xfinity Broadband customers. Now TV, which does not require any equipment or contracts, includes a 20-hour DVR and three concurrent streams.
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Now TV is available on the Xfinity Stream app. Supported devices include Xfinity Flex, Fire TV, iOS and Android-powered devices, and via casting through Apple AirPlay and Google Chromecast. The 40 basic cable channels on Now TV include:
A&E, Afro, AMC, Animal Planet, BBC America, BBC News, Comedy.TV, Cooking, Crime + Investigation, Discovery, Discovery Life, Food Network, FYI, Great American Family, Great American Living, Get TV, Game Show Network, Hallmark Channel, Hallmark Drama, Hallmark Movies & Mysteries, HGTV, The HISTORY Channel, Investigation Discovery, IFC, Justice Central, Lifetime, Lifetime Movie Network, Magnolia Network, Military History, MotorTrend Network, OWN, Pursuit, Recipe.TV, Science Channel, Sony Movies, Sundance TV, TLC, Travel Channel, Vice, WEtv and Weather Channel.
The 20 ad-supported channels include:
NBC News NOW, Sky News and the following genre-based channels from Xumo Play: Action Movies, Black Cinema, Bollywood & Indian Cinema, Comedy Movies, Comedy TV, Crime TV, Documentaries, Drama & Action TV, Family Movies, Food TV, Movies, Game Shows, Her Movies, Horror & Thriller, Kids TV, Reality TV, Sci-Fi & Fantasy Movies, Travel & Lifestyle TV and Westerns.
The Peacock Premium subscription normally costs $5.99 a month but is included free with your $20 sub.
Is Now TV worth $20 a month? If you love lifestyle channels, and Peacock, the answer is yes. You get a lot of live basic cable programming for a decent price.
But if you want local channels and sports, the answer would be no.
Have a question about new TV technologies? Send it to The TV Answer Man at swann@tvanswerman.com Please include your first name and hometown in your message.
— Phillip Swann
@tvanswerman
