Comcast kicked off its first ever X1 Music Week on Monday, offering free access to subscription-based music service Pandora Premium from Oct 8-14 to X1 customers.

From Oct. 8 – 14, Xfinity X1 customers can enjoy a free week of streaming Pandora Premium on X1 on their TV with their voice remote. Pandora Premium is Pandora’s on-demand subscription option, which offers listeners the ability to search and play any song or album; create playlists — on their own or powered by Pandora; download music for offline listening; enjoy unlimited skips and replays, higher quality audio, and ad-free listening.

In addition to Pandora Premium, X1 customers will also have free access to music-themed online subscription video on demand services during the week of Oct. 8-14, including:

Stingray Qello, the world's largest collection of on demand full-length performances, concert films, and music documentaries featuring artists such as Beyoncé, Paul McCartney, John Legend, The Rolling Stones, and more

Stingray DJAZZ, a selection of jazz concerts, performances, rare documentaries, intimate portraits, behind-the-scene footage, and exclusive interviews

Stingray Classica, a catalog of premieres, productions, and documentaries dedicated to classical music, opera, and ballet

zone·tv’s Stephen’s Drum Shed, lessons from legendary drum teacher, Stephen Taylor whose unique teaching style can help drummers of all skill levels be their best

zone·tv’s Pro Guitar Lessons TV, professional guitar lessons from some of the top instructors as seen in Guitar World, Guitar Player and Bass Player magazines

X1 customers can say “Show me music,” into their voice remote to access all of the above services, along with more music and audio offerings currently available on the platform including iHeartRadio, NPR One, Music Choice, and Stingray Music Videos. Customers can also enjoy playlists curated by Comcast’s editorial team that highlight throwback hits and one-hit wonders; trending albums that can be listened to from start to finish; a collection of “The Greatest Albums of All Time (So Far);” full set lists from the most unforgettable MTV Unplugged performances; and collections of music by city featuring artists from New York to LA. 

Altice USA said it has agreed to license the full multiplatform offering of NBC Universal’s coverage of the Summer Olympics next month, representing about 6,755 hours of programming, live and on-demand.

Altice USA is a unit of Dutch telecom company Altice N.V., and purchased Cablevision Systems in June. Coupled with its December purchase of Suddenlink Communications, Altice USA has about 4.6 million customers in 20 states.

NBC Universal has committed to offering an unprecedented package of programming for the upcoming Summer Olympic Games in Rio de Janiero (Aug. 5-21), including coverage on its NBC broadcast channel, and cable networks NBC Sports Network, Golf Channel, Bravo, CNBC, MSNBC, USA Network, Telemundo, NBC Universo, and two linear sport-specific specialty channels. Subscribers also can access Olympic programming online at NBCOlympics.com and through the NBC Sports app.

Comcast has consistently touted the Rio Summer Olympics -- the first in the Eastern Time Zone since the 1996 Games in Atlanta -- as a showcase for its X1 platform and was a big part of the company's presentation at this year's INTX Show in Boston.  

“Altice USA is committed to providing our customers with high-quality and innovative products, service, and compelling content. The 2016 Rio Summer Olympics will be the biggest Games ever in one of the most spectacular cities, and we are excited to deliver to our Optimum and Suddenlink TV customers NBCUniversal’s unparalleled multiplatform coverage of this historic event,” said Altice USA EVP and chief content officer Michael Schreiber in a statement.

In another indication that Comcast is trying to accelerate the rollout of its IP-capable X1 platform, Comcast has lowered the “upgrade fee” for X1 in markets such as Philadelphia, New Jersey and Connecticut.

Though it's not clear that the policy is in place across Comcast's footprint yet, customers in those areas have mentioned on the DSL Reports message board that the upgrade fee, which comes into play when video subs on Comcast’s legacy video platform are moved over to X1, has been lowered to $19.99.

Depending on the market, the original one-time X1 upgrade fee ranged from $49.99 to $99, with Comcast noting then that the fees went toward the development and enhancement of X1 features. Customers on X1, a video service that features a cloud-based user interface and access to apps and other new elements such as in-home video streaming on PCs and tablets and acloud DVR, also require new boxes.

A Comcast customer who was alerted to the smaller upgrade fee for X1 noted on the DSL Reports message board that the price drop -- from $49.99 to $19.99 -- became effective on March 3, 2015, with Comcast citing “changes in business costs." 

Notably, Comcast now offers a self-install option for X1, which should help to reduce deployment costs because it removes truck rolls from the equation (Comcast began to test the X1 self-install kit last year).

Comcast didn’t comment on how it will shape and revise its policy for X1 upgrades in the weeks and months ahead, but this Web page about it still notes that subs who convert to the new platform are subject to a “one-time fee of up to $99 that is assessed, with limited exceptions that vary by market…”

Comcast has not announced how many of its 22.38 million video customers are on X1 today, but did say in October 2014 that it had deployed more than 5 million X1 boxes, and, even prior to that, said it was shipping about 20,000 X1 boxes per day. On that basis, back-of-the-napkin math suggests that Comcast has deployed more than 3.5 million more X1 boxes since late October, pushing its grand total toward 9 million.

Comcast initially rolled out X1 in Boston in May 2012, and now offers it in all systems.

Last fall, Neil Smit, president and CEO of Comcast Cable, reiterated that the current plan is to have the majority of Comcast’s customers on X1 within three years. “We’re right on track,” he said at the time. 

Comcast has highlighted another batch of updates and enhancements to its IP-capable X1 platform, led off by a Movie Bundles option that ties into the MSO’s electronic sell-through (EST) service for set-tops and mobile devices.

Launched this month and mentioned last year as an EST feature that was in-the-works, Movie Bundles groups multiple movies together that are offered for sale for one price. Film series such as Despicable Me, Jurassic Park, Harry Potter and The Hunger Games are some of the examples outlined in this blog post from Peter Nush, Comcast Cable’s executive director, product management.

“We know our customers often add all films in a series to their personal libraries, and this feature makes the process for finding and owning these favorite titles much simpler,” he wrote. 

Among other new features, Common Sense Media ratings are now always visible on the X1 guide, and no longer an element that needs to be set up manually through the X1 Preferences. Comcast launched Common Sense Media ratings on X1 last fall, adding information designed to help parents determine what content is appropriate for different age groups.

On the sports programming front, Comcast has also updated the “Last 9” view (which shows the last nine linear channels, VOD titles or DVR recordings a customer last viewed) to include the “sports subtitle” – a listing of the two teams that are playing each other, making it easier for customers to navigate back and forth between multiple games.

Update: X1 has also added Secondary Audio Programming (SAP) indicators on all the programs listed in the standard guide view as well as the "mini info" view. .

Those X1 enhancements follow last month’s batch, which included a “Browse By Sport” row that provides viewers with a quick look at upcoming live programming arranged by sport.

Comcast has deployed more than 5 million X1 boxes. The company might provide more updated X1 figures when it reports fourth quarter and full year 2014 results on Tuesday, Feb. 24.