Comcast to include Netflix in cable bundles

Mike Blake | Reuters

Comic con fans gather at the Netflix booth at Comic Con International in San Diego, California, July 19, 2017.

Comcast will begin offering Netflix subscriptions within its cable bundles this month, the companies announced Friday.

This is the first time that Netflix has been included in a major U.S. television provider bundle. Comcast and other providers have long fought against the cord-cutting effect of Netflix and other streaming services.

Comcast said that it would offer multiple Xfinity packages with a Netflix subscription embedded. The company began offering Netflix on the company’s X1 platform in 2016. X1 is an all-in-one platform for Comcast customers that combines live TV, streaming, on demand, DVR and online programming.

“Netflix offers one of the most popular on demand services and is an important supplement to the content offering and value proposition of the X1 platform,” Sam Schwartz, chief business development officer at Comcast Cable, said in a statement.

The Netflix subscription will run through Comcast and will be included in the customers’ monthly cable bill.

The new offerings come as Disney ramps up its streaming offerings with plans to launch an over-the-top streaming service in 2019. Earlier this week Disney launched ESPN+, a direct-to-consumer streaming service for sports.

Disclosure: Comcast is the owner of NBCUniversal, parent company of CNBC and CNBC.com.

— Reuters contributed to this report.