Comcastic? No, It's All Gonna Be 'Xfinity'
If you hated the Xfinity name that Comcast picked for its TV Everywhere service, get ready to cringe even more (see Comcast Counts To ‘Xfinity’).
Comcast is rebranding all of its cable services as Xfinity, executives said on today’s Q4 2009 earnings call (see Comcast To Launch Xfinity Rebranding Campaign).
The journey to Xfinity will begin next week in 11 markets – Boston; Philadelphia; Baltimore; Washington, D.C.; Chicago; Portland, Ore.; Seattle; Hartford, Conn.; Augusta, Ga.; Chattanooga, Tenn.; and parts of the San Francisco Bay area — and will be expanded in the next few months to almost half of its footprint. By the end of 2010, Xfinity will be the Comcast brand name in the majority of its markets.
Here’s Steve Burke, Comcast’s chief operating officer, to explain the change: “This is a major rebranding effort for Comcast Cable. Xfinity gives the customer more choices, more convenience, more control over their entertainment, information, and communication choices, in more innovative ways and we’re really excited to introduce the Xfinity brand to our customers.”
Xfinity is clearly intended to connote “affinity” as well as “infinity,” and is a riff on Comcast’s Project Infinity, the video-on-demand initiative to deliver 100,000 or more titles to customers (see Comcast Preps For VOD ‘Infinity’). The MSO originally filed for trademark protection on Xfinity in December 2008, after surely consulting with a pricey naming firm.
As I’ve said previously, the four-syllable name doesn’t exactly trip off the tongue. I suppose it’s memorable, which is key. The “X” is supposed to be cool and au courant (X-Men, Simon Cowell’s forthcoming talent show The X Factor).
But the name immediately made pundits think of the goofy catchphrase from Toy Story’s Buzz Lightyear (“To Xfinity and beyond!”), or the luxury auto brand Infiniti. There’s also an unfortunately negative “ex” implication. As in, “ex-Comcast subscriber”: The MSO lost 623,000 video subs in 2009.
Or is this move Xciting! Xcellent! Xtra awesome! Xceptional? Add your Xtemporaneous thoughts below.
wesley commented:
You got it wrong in your article. The name only works with a small case x. It's xfinity, not Xfinity. The emphasis is on the finity not the x.
xxxooo
Wesley commented:
What do you call a totalled Infiniti? An Xfinity.
Jonathan commented:
XSilly. Excuse me while, as a marketer, I start giggling.
Now, if they'd just come out and remove the temporary cable drop stretching across a driveway and loops of it laying across walkways that has been there for a month and is an XSafety XHazard. That would be XWonderful.
cindy commented:
i worked for comcast 15 years before moving out of state. GREAT COMPANY!!! If any company can pull the name change thing off it will be COMCAST!!! Good Luck Comcast!!
Marabelle commented:
You will pay XTRA for XTRA channels/content you will never watch.
Ed commented:
Great for adult VOD branding
Xfinity
XXfinity
XXXfinity
chickenplucker commented:
Xfinity is waaaaay better than U-Verse, which is really one of the worst.
Todd Spangler commented:
Good point, Bill. I do recall people turning up their noses at "FiOS." Maybe some still do!
Bill commented:
Give it time - initial reactions to new names tends to skew negative (iPad?). Nobody had any idea what FiOS or U-Verse or Optimum was when introduced from the "parent" company. (or Lexus, Infinity, Acura, or Verizon)
cswalsh commented:
Xfinity = vague and "sucktastic". Will make me miss "Comcastic", which at least connected the service to the check I wrote every month.
Moose commented:
Xfinity - I like it.