Comcast's $5 Streaming Box Is Actually $18 After Stupid Fees

Back in March, Comcast heavily hyped the looming launch of a new streaming TV box that a press release proclaimed would provide "real value" to consumers by offering streaming video services for just $5 a month. It was Comcast's attempt at trying to fend off the growing array of $7-$14 per month streaming services that have been popping up and causing Comcast customers to cut the cable TV cord. Comcast noted at the time the $5 offering would only be made available to the company's existing broadband subscribers:

"For just five dollars a month, we can offer these customers an affordable, flexible, and differentiated platform that includes thousands of free movies and shows for online streaming, an integrated guide for accessing their favorite apps and connected home devices, and the ease of navigating and managing all of it with our voice remote."

Of course this being Comcast, it turns out that "$5 a month" isn't actually $5 a month. Unmentioned by the original announcement was the fact that to actually partake in this new streaming service, you must rent Comcast's "XFi Gateway," which will run you an additional $13 per month. Comcast has long tried to convince its customers they must pay a rental fee for a router or modem, despite the fact that users can buy their own router and avoid that fee. Of course that's not possible if you want to experience the "real value" Comcast's new Flex streaming service purportedly provides:

"The $13-per-month rental fee for the xFi Gateway is a complete rip-off that Comcast (like other internet providers) pushes on its subscribers because people generally don't know there's an alternative. Instead of paying Comcast an additional $13 per month in perpetuity, you can instead buy a modem and router outright. By doing so, you'll likely make up the upfront costs after a year, maybe two if you go for higher-end options. Once it's paid off, you'll be saving the $156 per year that you're paying just to have a box sit in your house."

As such, Comcast's claim that this new service was available "at no additional cost as part of an Xfinity Internet-only subscription" would constitute false advertising. And Comcast's $5 rental box is actually closer to a $15 rented box that's not only loaded with a major hidden fee -- it doesn't include streaming services Comcast isn't keen on competing with. Most consumers would just be smart enough to buy a Roku or some other streaming device and enjoy a wide range of services, but Comcast hopes that enough of its customers don't know better to make it a financial winner for the giant.

This would all be slightly less obnoxious if Comcast hadn't spent much of 2016 using outright propaganda to thwart an FCC quest to crack open the cable industry's monopoly over cable boxes and other hardware. Under the plan, cable providers would have needed to provide their programming to third party hardware vendors without the need for a CableCARD, making it easier to pay for Comcast services using your Roku, Apple TV, or third party cable box. But because Comcast makes around $21 billion annually in rental fees, it engaged in some incredibly misleading tactics and claims to scuttle the effort.

As a result, Comcast's $5 streaming box is actually $18 and highly restrictive. And given the company just convinced the FCC to effectively neuter itself at lobbyist behest, there's no longer any meaningful rules in place governing misleading fees. As such consumers' only real recourse is to avoid services and behaviors like this wherever possible, a major reason the company lost another 238,000 TV subscribers last quarter alone. But that, of course, doesn't address Comcast's broadband monopoly and its use of usage caps to hamstring and punish those that flee Comcast's fee-laden walled garden.