Netflix’s cable box deal with Comcast won’t exempt it from data caps

(credit: Steven Depolo)

Netflix and Comcast will be available on the same cable box later this year, but Netflix video will still count against Comcast data caps.

Netflix’s deal to get its online video on Comcast’s X1 set-top boxes alongside traditional cable TV channels was reported earlier this month by Recode, with the companies saying they “have much work to do before the service will be available to consumers later this year.” The deal raised questions about whether Netflix would be exempt from Comcast data caps, but it has already been decided. A Comcast spokesperson answered “yes” when asked if Netflix will continue counting against data caps after being integrated into Comcast cable boxes.

“All data that flows over the public Internet (which includes Netflix) counts toward a customer’s monthly data usage,” Comcast told Ars today.