Comcast isn’t worried about free Super Bowl streaming — here’s why

The free high-resolution stream of Super Bowl LIX could eat into Comcast’s share of the viewership for the most-watched event of the year — but the massive telecom conglomerate isn’t worried. 

Fox-owned Tubi announced the perk earlier this month: Anyone with an email address can sign up to watch the Eagles take on the Chiefs on Feb. 9, no credit card required. It’s the first time cord-cutters can watch the Big Game in 4K entirely for free.

Yet leaders at the cable giant maintain the move is not a threat to its business.

“Viewers are consuming more entertainment than ever and across a wide variety of platforms,” Comcast Senior Regional Vice President Dan Bonelli told Technical.ly. “We’re here to enable it all.”

Comcast’s own streaming service Peacock isn’t carrying the game, and the company acknowledged Tubi’s promo might pull away some of its clientele: “We know some customers prefer streaming their entertainment and/or don’t have a pay-TV subscription,” it said in a statement.

Across the US, cord-cutters began to outnumber pay-TV subscribers in 2023, per market research firm Insider Intelligence, and industry watchers expect the trend to intensify. The number of Comcast video subscribers declined nearly 12% last year, per Statista data.

But Comcast is also an internet service provider, one that had 29.4 million US households set up with its broadband service in the fourth quarter of 2024. And one of the most popular ways to stream TV shows is via broadband. 

The company believes at least some Super Bowl streamers will be leaning on its internet product, Xfinity, to support streaming bandwidth and its stream box, Xumo, to access the Tubi app. 

And despite the telecom companies’ ability to profit massively on the Super Bowl — especially by selling ad space — it’s really the NFL that pulls in the big bucks. Broadcasting companies are set to pay the league at least $125.5 billion through 2033 for rights to show the games. That’s close to Comcast’s entire market cap of roughly $129 billion. 

For example, ViacomCBS is spending $2.1 billion a year on an 11-year contract to show the Sunday afternoon games and broadcast the Super Bowl for three seasons.

Comcast has several other, more direct ways its customers can watch the game that pulled in 123.7 million viewers last year, audience measurement org Nielsen reported.

Comcast told Technical.ly that customers can watch and record the game through its TV service X1, the Xfinity Stream app and its newly launched $70 per-month sports and news video package.

“Whether customers prefer to stream all of their entertainment via Xfinity Internet or select from a variety of video packages,” VP Bonelli said, “Comcast has all of the options.”