Comcast Announces Streampix But Doesn’t Own Matching Domain Name

Apparently Comcast has Netflix in its sight, as the company announced it will be launching a new streaming video service to compete with Netflix. Unfortunately for Comcast, it appears that they do not own the matching domain name, which I believe will be problematic, especially in the short term.

According to the Media Decoder blog on the New York Times website,

Called Streampix, the service will give Comcast’s 22.3 million Xfinity cable subscribers access to 75,000 television shows and movies via cellphones, tablets and laptops.

The service is the result of a handful of licensing agreements Comcast has struck with media companies like Disney, Sony Pictures, Warner Brothers and its own NBCUniversal.

As you are undoubtedly aware, Netflix is a huge advertiser, spending a ton of money on banner advertising as well as direct mail and other marketing campaigns. Netflix has established itself as the leading popular video service, and the company makes it very easy for consumers to access videos online at Netflix.com as well as by mail, when you add movies to your queue on Netflix.com.

Whois records show that Streampix.com was registered back in 2003, and it’s currently owned by a Canadian company called Norpix. The company’s “flagship product,” which “has become the ultimate Digital Video Recording software” is known as Streampix. Judging by the domain name’s expiration date of 2019, it doesn’t appear that the company has plans to relinquish this name any time soon.

Undoubtedly, if consumers are intrigued by a new service provider called Streampix, they will visit Streampix.com. Luckily for Comcast, the domain name does not appear resolve at the moment. However, NorPix does appear to have a trademark  in Canada for StreamPix, granted it’s for digital recording software and not streaming videos, and it is in Canada.

**Update**

I received an email from the CEO of Norpix, Luc Nocente, who commented:

I was shocked and surprised at the actions taken by Comcast regarding the name Streampix.  Norpix has a  trademark protection on the word Streampix in Canada and the US since around 1999.  We do a great percentage of our business in the US market and this is a blatant violation of our rights.  I intend to take legal actions against Comcast.  We feel this is going to create confusion and damage our business in the US market.

Elliot Silver
Elliot Silver
About The Author: Elliot Silver is an Internet entrepreneur and publisher of DomainInvesting.com. Elliot is also the founder and President of Top Notch Domains, LLC, a company that has closed eight figures in deals. Please read the DomainInvesting.com Terms of Use page for additional information about the publisher, website comment policy, disclosures, and conflicts of interest. Reach out to Elliot: Twitter | Facebook | LinkedIn

10 COMMENTS

  1. Elliot, they already registered MyStreampix.com. Just another example how mainstream doesn’t give a damn about proper branding. FAIL.

  2. They trademarked this 6 months ago, so people do not do anything stupid, and register this term.

    Abdu, don’t be so sloppy in passing judgement, the current owner seems very vested in his term, and if he bluffed the negotiation, and played hardball, the company had no choice but to move onto a new name…

  3. @Ron
    I was referring to the fact that if you brand your product/service around a domain that is already taken, then it’s better to just look for another brand name. My 2 cents.

  4. It’s because they don’t care.

    In case anyone hasn’t noticed, this a pretty regular occurance. Many different master brands create a satellite brands and don’t care to own the most closely associated (whatever).com. And every time they this happens, domainers say “Ah ha! Look! Mars Corp launched their new Zookie candy bar and they do not own Zookie.com!!!! HOW COULD THEY MAKE SUCH A HUGE MISTAKE CONGRATS TO WHOEVER OWNS ZOOKIE.COM YOU WIN TEH GAME HAHAHA!!!!”

    The reason is, they don’t care.
    Domainers care, but domainers are domainers, not marketers, not brand strategists. If they were, they’d know that centrifugation- not disintegration- is the goal of any brand and if domainers were any of those things, the domain aftermarket would be a lot more efficient than it is today.

    Would 301’ing Zookie.com be nice if you’re launching Zookie, the candy bar?. Probably. Is it worth $500,000 or $250,000 or whatever Davey Domainer is asking, relative to the marketing considerations for a flogging candy product? Perhaps sometimes, but usually not.

    • @ asdf

      I guess we’ll see what happens in the months ahead. Lots of companies don’t think they need the exact match .com, but many are proven otherwise. See Square.com and Hipster.com for two very recent examples.

  5. I love comcast internet… I dislike cable television (lack of choices, 500 channels and NOTHING I like is ever on – I’m a picky person)… so, I cancelled my cable tv, kept the net have 2 Rokus and I have custom channels where i have my own programmed entertainment (Hulu +, Amazon Prime, Netflix, et al). When Cable TV will allow us to “pick your own” channels and shows, MAYBE I will come back..I know some may not agree with my solution and I respect this view… but I was DVR’ing everything anyway so waiting an extra day for Hulu is no big deal..just thought I would throw this out there for some to ponder…

  6. There are so many ways to stream and Netflix is definitely one of them. Streampix from what I read is only available to customers that have their triple play package. That doesn’t seem fair to all their other customers. The Blockbuster@home service I have through my provider DISH definitely beats what Comcast is trying to offer. Not only is it available to all their customers, it is free for 3 months. After the three months I pay only $10 a month and I get DVD’s, streaming, and so much more. A co-worker at DISH even told me I could now use the streaming on my iPad. This will be awesome when I am traveling. I am sure there are some companies that Comcast will be able to compete with as far as streaming, but DISH has them beat.

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