Netflix’s Unexpected Partnership Will Make Your Day

Netflix has just extended its reign by making a deal with cable company Comcast. The Netflix app will now be available on Comcast's cable boxes, Recode reports. This means that cable subscribers using Comcast's X1 platform can get to their Netflix accounts more easily on their TV. Both companies said that the service will become available later this year — so more Netflix binges are in store just in time for Gilmore Girls. Netflix already has its apps on Apple TV, Roku, Google Chromecast, and on smaller cable-company set-top boxes, so this partnership with a major cable company makes sense. Still, it's a surprising one. In the past, Netflix and Comcast have been more enemies than partners. Netflix has called out Comcast for unfair deals, which led to FCC investigations, and Comcast charged customers extra for online data usage as recently as January (essentially punishing frequent movie streamers, as that's a big data-upping culprit). Back in 2010, Comcast tried to join forces with Blockbuster (remember them?) to create an unsuccessful venture called DVDs by Mail. This was essentially the same concept as Netflix at the time. Now, it seems, both have settled the score. The deal could help bring Netflix more subscribers, and make Comcast more competitive against cord-cutting options like the Roku. Whether this deal will actually last remains to be seen, but at least you can rest happy knowing that more and easier ways to stream are in your future.