Comcast has introduced some new features and improvements for X1 that will help customers find content faster and help them pair remote controls to set-tops that run the MSO's IP-capable platform, which features a cloud-based guide.  

On the content end, Comcast has updated music video pages with two gallery rows featuring “More Like This,” which suggests new content the viewer might like, and “Artists,” which lists all artists featured in a just-watched video, according to this blog post by Peter Nush, Comcast Cable’s vice president, product management.

Comcast, Nush added, has also enhanced X1’s Recommendations feature to expand the number of suggested programs a customer can see. For example, clicking the “OK” button while on the “Show Me Another” tile will refresh the viewer’s recommendations and present new programs based on titles that have been previously watched.

Nush also reiterated that Kids Zone, a kid-friendly version of X1 introduced in May that features content that is rated and reviewed by Common Sense Media is “officially moving out of Comcast Labs.”

X1 has also added on-screen instructions showing how customers can pair their remote controls to the system, accessible by pressing the Setup button for three seconds, then pressing the Xfinity button. Those instructions complement paper-based instructions that come with all X1 remotes, including the new voice-enabled XR11 model.

Comcast hasn’t said 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, meaning there are at least 2.49 million subs on X1. Last fall, Comcast said it had shipped 5 million X1 boxes. Based on the MSO's earlier estimation that it was shipping about 20,000 X1 boxes per day, Comcast should be approaching 10 million X1 devices deployed. 

Ben Weinberger, a co-founder and the former CEO of Digitalsmiths, has been named senior vice president and chief product officer of Sling TV, Dish Network’s new OTT TV service for cord-cutters that launched nationwide on February 9.

Weinberger reports to Sling TV CEO Roger Lynch and, in the new role, will oversee Sling TV’s product development and product management.

Weinberger’s move to Sling TV comes after TiVo acquired Digitalsmiths, a maker of video discovery and recommendations services, last year for about $135 million. Fellow Digitalsmiths co-founder Matt Berry is currently COO of the TiVo-owned unit.

Sling TV noted that Weinberger and Lynch previously worked together when the Sling TV CEO served on the board of Digitalsmiths. Dish is also one of Digitalsmiths’s customers, but it has not announced any third-party video recommendation partners for the Sling TV service. 

“Since Sling TV’s arrival four months ago, we have added more than 40 domestic channels and thousands of hours of on-demand titles,” Lynch said in a statement. “This influx of programming makes it increasingly important that our content discovery process connects consumers quickly and seamlessly to the sports, shows and movies they love. Ben’s background makes him the ideal fit to lead our effort in creating a world class next-generation TV experience.”

“In joining Sling TV, I’ve gained the opportunity to lead a talented team whose entrepreneurial spirit will continue to redefine television,” Weinberger, who also serves on the board or advisory boards of  Librestream, MediaShift, T3Media, and Southern Illinois University Alumni Association and Council for Entrepreneurial Development. “Sling TV is the future of television, and we are rapidly growing an organization that will shape how consumers view video entertainment for generations to come.”

Weinberger graduated with honors from Southern Illinois University.

HereIsTV.com, an advertising-based daily TV show and movie recommendation service, launched this week with integration agreements in place with Comcast, Dish Network and DirecTV that enable registered users to set DVR recordings directly from the startup’s Web-based application.

HereIsTV, led by former Dish exec Bruce Eisen, doesn’t rely on algorithms to make its daily, curated TV show recommendations but instead relies on a panel of people.

“These are humans who have their own particular tastes…who share what they think our [users] would find interesting,” said Eisen. However, the service does include premiere and finale episodes in its selections “pretty much by default,” he said.

HereIsTV delivers its picks to registered users via an emailed newsletter that builds in all of the service’s functionality, including the ability to set DVR recordings with a couple of clicks or finger-taps, without requiring them to jump to the company’s Web site. HereIsTV also runs a Facebook page and a Twitter feed (@HereIsTV). The company also offers HereIsVOD, a weekly newsletter-based guide to video-on-demand movies.

In addition to traditional TV, HereIsTV also features content from Netflix, Amazon, Hulu, Crackle and AOL, and comes equipped with a “Watch Now” function that lets users start to watch content from those providers without navigating away from the HereIsTV website.

“It’s all self-contained. It’s designed to be efficient,” Eisen said.

While HereIsTV is making its official launch this week, it’s been seeding its subscriber base. Eisen wouldn’t say precisely how many people are signed up other than that the number is in the “tens of thousands.”

Registered HereIsTV users have the option to set DVR recordings directly from its newsletter and Website, which is also optimized to run on browsers in iOS and Android smartphones and tablets, so long as they are customers with Comcast, DirecTV and Dish and have access to their pay-TV login credentials.

Eisen, the former VP of online content development & strategy at Dish, said he’s working on agreements that will expand HereIsTV's scope of MVPD partners.

His pitch? “We serve a great purpose to everyone in the ecosystem.” For MVPDs, he said, the service can help to drive TV viewing and reduce churn, while users get a curated view of some cool shows that are on TV that they might not know about.   The ad-facing aspect of the service can also give programmers a way to promote their content.

The ads go beyond a standard display because it allows networks to tell a story a story to their potential audience and allow those viewers to take immediate action, Eisen said, noting that talks with programmers are underway.

HereIsTV is launching with ad package with Random Media, a multiplatform content company.  

"As a distributor of content across multiple platforms, we use HereIsTV and HereIsVOD to communicate with a very desirable demographic,” said Random Media CEO and founder Eric Doctorow, in a statement. “Not having the name recognition of the major studio films, we have found that the more that people know about our films, the greater the viewing of our films. The HereIsTV platform allows us to provide that expanded information to a key user base.”

While HereIsTV would love to integrate itself into set-tops (a domain currently sought by video search specialists such as ThinkAnalytics, Digitalsmiths and Jinni, among others), Eisen acknowledges that travelling that path is “hugely more complicated.”

The two-year-old company, based in Pacific Palisades, Calif., has about 10 employees.