On Demand Summit: Comcast VOD 'Watchathon Week' to Return in 2014

New York - Xfinity Wathathon Week, Comcast's cross-platform promotion that blew away video-on-demand (VOD) usage records in March, won't be a one-and-done event.

"We'll do Watchathon every year. It's going to become an annual event," Comcast vice president of video services Maggie McLean Suniewick said here Wednesday at the Multichannel News/Broadcasting & Cable On Demand Summit during a keynote interview with Multichannel News editor-in-chief Mark Robichaux. In addition to the annual Watchathon, Comcast is also working on other Watchathon-like promotions that will focus on specific themes and libraries, such as children's programming, she said

Comcast has not announced when Wathathon Week will return in 2014, but its inaugural VOD binge-fest ran from March 25-31 and offered more than 3,500 episodes from 30 TV networks to Xfinity TV subscribers for no extra charge, including full seasons of current shows from premium channels HBO, Showtime and Starz. The aim was to attract more customers to Comcast's set-top VOD and TV Everywhere services while giving them a chance to catch up on TV series in the hopes that viewers would tune into the linear channels and boost network viewership when new TV seasons got underway.

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