Arts-themed streaming service Marquee TV has launched on Comcast’s X1 platform, the company announced Monday.

The $8.99 per month service offers thousands of streaming titles featuring opera, ballet and other arts-themed productions from around the world, including the Royal Shakespeare Company’s Richard II starring David Tennant (Doctor Who); The Bolshoi Ballet’s Swan Lake, and the Royal Ballet’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.

Marquee TV is also available on the web, iOS, Android, Roku, Apple TV and Amazon Fire TV.

“Watching performances on-demand is a distinct experience from heading to the theater and is opening up cultural content to a new arts-curious generation,” said Simon Walker, co-founder and CEO of Marquee TV. “Marquee TV’s availability on top tier platforms allows us to offer our customers access to premier multi-genre performing arts content that is not available anywhere else.”

Comcast has launched a new mobile app for its X1 for Business platform that will give bars, restaurants, gyms, retail outlets and other commercial locations the ability to control up to 16 TVs at once from a single smart phone.

Of course, it’s not surprising that Comcast is launching this new product feature as football season kicks off.

“With football continuing to reign as Americans’ favorite spectator sport, professional and college football fans will soon be gathering at bars and restaurants across the country to watch this year’s live match-ups,” Comcast says in a press release touting the new app.

With the app, business customers and their employees can use voice technology to search and find TV shows, movies and sports match-ups by tapping the microphone icon and saying things like “football game.”

They can also tap into X1 sports features and get up-to-the-minute sports updates with team and player profiles, statistics and real-time, game-specific data.

Comcast made X1 available to business customers in May.

“Businesses across the country can now offer their customers the same award-winning video experience that millions of people experience every day in their living room,” said, Christian Nascimento, VP of product and premise services for Comcast Business. “X1 for Business is a game-changer – whether it’s a bar or restaurant integrating sports stats into the viewing experience, a hotel or gym giving customers an easier way to find what they want to watch or a small business helping their guests pass the time in the lobby or waiting room.”

A federal judge in Florida has refused to dismiss an OTT company’s complaint that Comcast’s X1 video service infringes on a patent covering interactive programming guides.

Fort Myers, Florida-based WhereverTV Broadcasting Corp. filed suit against Comcast in August, alleging violation of U.S. Patent No. 8656431, titled “Global Interactive Application and Device.” Legal news site Law 360 reported the court’s decision this week not to toss the case.

The case, which is still in the early innings, will now move onto the discovery phase. 

“We disagree with, but respect, the court’s ruling," a Comcast rep told MCN. "It has no impact on our ability to continue offering our innovative X1 platform and streaming services to our customers, and we look forward to winning the case on the merits.”

WhereverTV is a virtual MVPD operator offering live-streamed bundles of second-tier programming networks, starting at $14.99 for a month-to-month plan.

In its lawsuit, WhereverTV accuses Comcast and a trio of subsidiary corporations of infringing on patent ‘431 through the interactive program guide in the X1 video operating system. Specifically, the suit says features that allow the X1 program guide to be controlled via multiple devices including televisions, computers or smartphones violate the patent.

Notably, WhereverTV filed its complaint in the Middle District of Florida, a court reputed to be particularly friendly to IP litigators.

“The district is highly ranked in some very important categories for plaintiffs who want to get a trial resolution as soon as possible as well as a high success rate,” said Stephen Leahu, an attorney at Brinks Gilson & Lione, told IPWatchDog last summer when the suit was filed.

Comcast is also engaged in a much broader battle with TiVo, which covers a range of X1 features and technologies, and spans multiple legal jurisdictions.

Comcast cut its video-subscriber losses in the second quarter compared with a year ago in the typically tough financial period, but also saw customer growth slow in other categories.

Comcast lost 69,000 video subs in the second quarter, significantly narrowing the 144,000 it lost in the year-ago quarter. Comcast, ending the period with 22.3 million video customers, said that marked the best Q2 result in nine years.

The top U.S. cable provider added 180,000 high-speed Internet customers, down from 203,000 adds a year earlier, giving it a total of 22.54 million. It also marks the first time Comcast broadband subs have eclipsed video subs. 

About 69% of residential customers receive speeds of 50Mbps or greater, the MSO said. 

Comcast also tacked on 49,000 digital voice customers, down from 137,000 added in Q2 2014. It ended Q2 2015 with 11.31 million voice subs.

Overall customer relationships increased by 31,000 in Q2, a 56,000 improvement from the second quarter of 2014, Comcast said, noting that total revenue per sub rose 4.5%.

Comcast said improved customer service have produced lower churn across all product categories.

On the video front, Comcast said it continues to accelerate  the rollout of its IP-capable X1 platform, noting that nearly one-third of its triple-play customers now have it. Comcast has also been selling X1 to double-play subs. X1 net adds accelerated and accounted for about 50% of connects, Comcast said. 

Consolidated revenue climbed 11.3%, to $18.7 billion, while consolidated operating cash flow rose 8%, to $6.3 billion. Comcast posted Q2 earnings of 84 cents per share, up 10.5% from the 76 cents reported in the year-ago quarter.

A bright spot,  once again, was business services, which saw revenues surge 20.4%, to $1.2 billion. Comcast estimates that it now has a penetration rate of 25% of small businesses in its footprint, and  less than 10% of mid-sized businesses, which are being primarily served by the MSO's fiber-fed Metro Ethernet platform. Comcast said business services has been the second-largest contributor to cable revenue growth for 17 of the last 18 quarters. 

Ad revenue dropped 0.9%, to $582 million. Excluding political ads, core advertising revenue increased 2.5%

Overall cable revenues climbed 6.3%, to $11.7 billion in Q2, with 69% of customers taking at at least two products, and 37% getting three. Video revenues grew 3.7%, to $5.4 billion, and high-speed Internet revenues rose 10.0%, to $3.1 billion. Voice revenues declined 2.1%, to $903 million. 

NBCUniversal revenues jumped 20.2%, to $7.2 billion in Q2, and operating cash flow rose 19.4%, to $1.7 billion, driven by solid results at the unit's Filmed Entertainment and Theme Parks divisions. 

More to come after the company's earnings call with analysts this morning.