Comcast and Fandango try selling movie tickets through X1
Ask your voice remote to "get tickets" and it will, on certain trailers.
The latest wrinkle for Comcast's X1 platform is an ability to kick-start the movie ticket purchasing process from your voice remote. A link with (NBCUniversal-owned) Fandango means that after pulling up the Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom trailer on your TV, if you say "get tickets" or hit the info button it can pull up show times at local theaters, although actually buying them requires completing the process on Fandango's mobile app or website.
Comcast VP Nancy Spears said in a statement that "Xfinity X1 enables us to continually explore one-of-a-kind experiences that complement the TV viewing experience, allowing viewers to interact with content where and when it is convenient for them. We're launching this experience starting with Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom in conjunction with the film's trailer and look forward to further enhancing additional movie titles with this functionality throughout the year." Even if it's limited just to corporate partners, the list of eligible movies could grow if Comcast manages to pull off a purchase of Fox's assets, and for Fandango it follows a similar integration with Instagram.
Whether or not that happens, the interactive element could be the start of a trend as the cable company tries to find more ways to increase revenue from the customers who still have pay-TV at home. While we're usually heading to YouTube for our trailer viewing, the boxes already have a YouTube app (and Netflix of course) trying to keep viewers in the ecosystem as much as possible. For the new Jurassic Park flick, it's pulling together a curated selection of videos accessible by saying the title into your voice remote that has the previous films plus clips and trailers.
