Comcast has followed last year’s launch of the “Kids Zone” guide for X1 with the debut of a  Spanish-language version that also features age-appropriate TV shows and movies rated and monitored by Common Sense Media.

“Today we’re making Kids Zone a truly bicultural experience: now available in Spanish, Kids Zone meets the needs of today’s Hispanic families and gives children a fun place to browse and watch, in the language of their choice,” Javier Garcia, SVP and GM of multicultural services at Comcast, said in a blog post. “This also will be the first experience that provides parents access to Common Sense Media's age-based ratings and reviews in Spanish – directly on the TV - for some of the most-popular Latino kids TV programs including El Chavo Animado, Tayo, Nina’s World and Plaza Sésamo.”

He said the plan is to work with Common Sense Media to grow the catalog of in-language rated content over time. Kids Zone features family-friendly fare across live, VOD and DVR-recorded programs.

When it announced Q1 results late last month, Comcast estimated that nearly 35% of its 22.4 million video subs are now on X1, and that it added 1.1 million X1 subs to the mix in Q1, a 53% increase on net adds versus the year-ago quarter.

Comcast has rolled another batch of upgrades and enhancements for its cloud-based X1 platform, including two centered on search and discovery.

Following the debut of Kids Zone, a features that presents content that is rated and reviewed by Common Sense Media for age-appropriateness, Comcast has enhanced it with integrated search. That will let kids “search safely and independently within Kids Zone for their favorite TV series, movies and channels” using the remote, Peter Nush, vice president, product management at Comcast Cable, explained in this blog post.

X1 has also added Spanish to the voice control feature of a new remote that’s now in about 1.5 million Comcast subscriber homes. Comcast, which is distributing about 70,000 new voice remotes a week, said the device now works with commands in Spanish, noting that the feature still carries the beta label.

Comcast has also introduced an enhanced music video search function, while the Comcast Labs unit is kicking the tires on a new playlist editing tool that lets customers rename and reorder their selections.

Comcast has deployed X1 across its footprint, and about 25% of its video sub base is now on the platform. The MSO recently ratcheted up deployment to 40,000 X1 boxes per day, up from a previous level of 25,000. 

Restart Notification, a feature for Comcast’s X1 platform that lets viewers restart a program in progress from the beginning, has moved out of Comcast Labs beta environment to become a default setting for the MSO’s cloud-based video platform.

When the notification appears, viewers can press the “Info” button on their remotes to pull up more information about the show and select “Restart” from the action bar to start the program from the beginning, Peter Nush, VP of product management at Comcast Cable, explained in this blog post highlighting a handful of X1-related updates.

Other recent X1 additions and enhancements include:

-Kids Zone, an X1 feature announced at the INTX show in Chicago, has gone live via Comcast Labs. Kids Zone presents content that is rated and reviewed by Common Sense Media for age-appropriateness, spanning live TV, DVR recordings and nearly 8,500 kid’s movies and TV shows offered via Comcast’s VOD service. 

-Comcast Labs has also added a “Control Panel” to X1 that gives subscribers quick access to service information and frequently used settings without interrupting what they are currently watching. Currently, Control Panel supports elements such as the current time, weather, subscriber account info, X1 tips and tricks, and X1’s Start Power Saver.

-Customers now have the ability to opt-in and kick the tires on all Comcast Labs beta features for X1 through an “Enable All” setting. “Many customers have told us how much they like being able to try things out during the development phase, so this makes it easier for you to stay looped in,” Nush noted.

-Comcast has added the Video Description Icon to the X1’s grid guide for linear TV. The icon signals when a program feature a secondary Video Description Service (DVS) audio track that provides audio descriptions of a program’s key vision elements, a feature, Comcast said, that is of particular value to customers who have low vision or are vision impaired. Customers can turn on the DVS track through the X1’s Accessibility Settings.

Comcast hasn’t announced how many of its 22.3 million video customers are on X1, but chairman and CEO Brian Roberts noted on the company’s first quarter earnings call that about 25% of the operator’s triple-play subs now have the next-gen video service. That means Comcast has at least 2.49 million customers with X1, MoffettNathanson analyst Craig Moffett estimated in a recently issued research note. Based on the MSO's earlier estimation that it was shipping about 20,000 X1 boxes per day, Comcast should have more than 9 million X1 devices deployed. 

Hitting on a trend that has caught on in the over-the-top video world, Comcast has introduced a kids-friendly version of its X1 video platform.

The new enhancement, called Kids Zone, features content that is rated and reviewed by Common Sense Media for age-appropriateness. Kids Zone spans live TV, DVR recordings and nearly 8,500 kid’s movies and TV shows offered via Comcast’s VOD service.

The feature -- to be launched as a “permanent feature” of X1 in the next few months (Kids Zone will initially be offered through the Comcast Labs area of X1) -- also sorts movies and shows by what’s on live, what viewers have recently watched, and by network. Parents also have the option to select TV shows and movies by a preferred age range.

When Kids Zone is enabled, certain features of the platform - including channel up/channel down, ability to purchase or rent programming, and certain voice commands – will be disabled to ensure that kids don’t stumble across inappropriate channels or programming. 

“We created an experience that gives kids the chance to watch TV independently but also gives parents peace of mind because they know the programming their kids are watching is age-appropriate,”  Jennifer Metz, director of product management at Comcast Cable, said in a statement. “This is a first-of-its-kind for our industry and because of the flexibility and power of the X1 platform; it’s only going to keep getting better.” 

Comcast, citing Common Sense Media research study, said children spend approximately two hours per day with some sort of screen media, with about 50% of that time spent watching TV in the home. A survey conducted by Sprout, NBCUniversal’s network for tots, also found that 69% of parents seek TV settings that prevent their kids from accessing inappropriate content.

YouTube and Netflix are among the OTT providers that have introduced kid-friendly versions of their services.

On Monday (May 4), Comcast introduced Xfinity Share, an app that lets X1 subs send live video streams, recorded video, and digital photos to the TV as well as to other smartphones.