Comcast Cooks Up Summer VOD Promo

Looking to heat up its summer VOD numbers, Comcast has cooked up a promotion that, for the first time, will ask its customers to vote for the season’s hottest shows and movies based on what they watch.

That promotion, dubbed “The People’s Hot List,” runs from July 14 through July 23.

As described in this blog post, Comcast will start by posting a compilation of the 200 “must-see” titles, breaking them down into categories such as Teen Favorites, Sitcoms & Satires, Oscar Nominees, Epic Romances, Family Hits, and Guilty Pleasures.  Comcast will then ask customers to vote for their summer favorites each time they view a movie or TV show, and follow with the release of The People’s Hot List – the top 100 most-watched movies and TV shows – on July 25.

“The content will span the Xfinity On Demand library and include free, transactional and for purchase movies and TV shows, such as Teen Wolf, Ray Donovan, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, and Frozen,” wrote Andy Hunter, Comcast Cable’s VP, programming.

Comcast, which currently offers more than 55,000 on-demand “choices,” will back the promo on social media via Facebook and the #watchtovote Twitter hashtag.

The People’s Hot List follows a string of other VOD-related promotions from Comcast. Its “Watchathon Week” in April, designed in part to help customers catch up on TV series and drive viewership of the coming TV season, broke on-demand usage records, producing 61 million views and 50 million hours of TV bingeing.