Does Cox Offer Streaming TV?
Cox Communications is one of the biggest cable TV and internet service providers within the United States, having a service reach that spans 18 states. Also, with advancements in technology, more and more people are now dropping their cable TV subscriptions and going for streaming services such as Sling TV, Hulu Live TV, and YouTube TV among others. But does Cox provide any streaming TV services just like all these services mentioned above? Let me begin by breaking up the given equation:
Cox Starter TV Pack
However, Cox does provide a streaming TV package that closely resembles a skinny bundle, and it’s called Starter TV Pack. This includes:
- More than 30 well-known live-streaming stations
- On-Demand – over 4,000 DESA titles available
- Watch the Cox TV application on smartphones, tablets, and computers.
The Starter TV Pack channel offering includes the ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX, PBS, and other major networks, among them. Other cables included are HGTV, Food Network, TBS, TNT, CNN, Nickelodeon, and Disney Channel. Other cable services could include regional sports which cover local professional, college, and high school games.
This skinny live TV offering provides a nice taste of watching live television without a long-term commitment or the expensive equipment required of cable cards. At about $25 per month, it is also cheap depending on your location.
A disadvantage is that channel choices are significantly fewer than with other higher-tier tiers and hometown regional sports networks might not necessarily be provided depending on the location. But for those who have decided to cut the cord but still want some live TV on the cheap, it gets the major networks.
Contour Stream Player
Two packages by Cox are worth mentioning here namely the Starter TV Pack and Contour Stream Player. This is a 4K streaming device that gives you access to the Cox Contour TV app, which includes:
- The number of live TV channels varies depending on the Cox TV package, and it is incredibly high, with hundreds of channels possible.
- Largest Library of On Demand titles, 30,000 are available at your fingertips anytime.
- Prime Video to download episodes to a cloud DVR and watch them at the convenience of the user.
Thus, if you remain loyal to a Cox cable TV package and go for a full package, then the Contour Stream Player can wholly substitute the cable box. And it’s a good streaming TV service that trades physical set-top boxes for an app-based setup. But it lets you view live and On Demand TV shows from any location.
The negative side is that you still have to have an eligible Cox TV subscription and the channels you can watch will depend on the package that you select. But it is slightly less flexible than many more standalone streaming TV apps. However, for those Cox subscribers who would love to ditch cable box fees, there is the Contour Stream Player which is going for a price of $5 per month.
Ties With Other Streaming Service Providers
Besides the already mentioned Starter TV Pack and Contour Stream Player, Cox also offered collaborations with some well-known streaming platforms. For instance, some Cox Internet + TV packages let you replace a portion of traditional cable programming with a streaming service such as HBO Max or Cinemax.
Such partnerships can provide Cox customers a little bit more flexibility in streaming options within their package deal, cable. Though not an OTT cord replacer, it lets Cox internet consumers shave off TV costs while being able to get access to the best streaming channels.
Cox also offers its internet subscribers free access to over 200,000 WiFi hotspots across the country – this feature supports mobile viewing of streaming TV content. Although traditional cable is still the primary method through which Cox provides television content, they are transitioning to streaming via specific packages and deals.
Does Cox Have any Ambition to have a Full Freenet TV Service?
Up to the present, Cox has not set a firm plan to launch a full-blown multi-channel streaming television provider that would rival Hulu + Live TV or YouTube TV. They are currently more like supplements to cable for the viewers who still have it, rather than replacements for the latter.
However, streaming is an area of interest for Cox’s future expansion, as the company has been aware of this market for the past few years. A Cox Communications EVP said in recent remarks that the cable operator is studying the possibility of offering a download-based video offering. As 5G and other next-gen wireless systems are developed, it appears that a streaming TV platform could easily exist over Cox’s Internet arm.
Until there is an actual streaming TV service out there, Cox seems content for now to just improve the streaming compatibility of current cable customers. Products such as Contour Stream Player and the relatively customizable channel bundles indicate the companies’ focus on streaming innovation while promoting their original cable offerings.
However, with virtual pay-TV providers constituting more than 11% of cable subscribers, the market appears set to fully wait for Cox to release a comprehensive OTT offering. The knowledge of streaming could become more of a necessity if an operator doesn’t want to be locked into a contract and provide a comparatively cheaper streaming solution for consuming video content in the future.
The Bottom Line
Despite this, Cox has not yet developed its own proprietary streaming TV service to directly compete with the burgeoning “virtual MSO” market but the MSO has been gradually incorporating OTT elements into its traditional cable package. Other programs like Starter TV Pack, Contour Stream Player, and the partnerships with streaming channels are indicative of how Cox has acknowledged the shifting viewer interest in streaming TV services.
These days, it seems that as over-the-top streaming grows to be unmanageable for cable companies to ignore, so Cox seems purposefully transitioning into streaming while still getting as much as it can from its robust cable TV subscribers. Many have long predicted this moment, where a changeover into purely streaming territory seems unavoidable — even for one of the United States’ largest cable providers. Thus, streaming TV seekers must monitor Cox offers as cable preferences continue changing across the country.
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