Students received an email from Boston University Housing April 8 which said students will no longer receive access to Xfinity streaming services via the Xfinity Stream app and the Xfinity On Campus website.
The service previously allowed students living on campus to access live streams of cable television broadcasts.
The discontinuation will take effect May 31, leaving students with a little more than a month to use the BU-provided version of the service.
In an email to The Daily Free Press, BU Spokesperson Colin Riley wrote students simply haven’t been using the service in the same numbers they once had.
“Over the past two years there has been a significant decline in student usage of Xfinity on Campus,” Riley wrote. “Streaming preferences have shifted toward personalized subscriptions and on-demand platforms that led the University to reassess the value of [maintaining] the Xfinity service relative to its usage and cost.”
Sophomore Jeffrey Odiase said his reaction to the news wasn’t very strong, as he watches less cable now than he did last year.
“I did use [Xfinity] a little bit in freshman year to watch some soccer games,” Odiase said. “But now I’m a bit more busy. I’ve stopped using it as much.”
Odiase said the discontinuation was “really random” and while he doesn’t use the site as much, students who relied more on Xfinity access may be more adversely affected.
Junior Maggie Hook said she used Xfinity to tune in to ESPN, usually to watch Formula 1 racing and football.
“I’m annoyed because I did use it commonly on the weekends, so now I have to pay for something or find another way,” Hook said.
Hook said she had noticed issues with the service in the weeks leading up to the email, and submitted help tickets to BU Information Technology, though much wasn’t done.
“We’re paying so much, where is it actually going?” she said.
For junior Avery Smith, the biggest downside of the discontinuation is losing their primary mode of watching BU sports.
“It’s the only way I’ve been able to figure out how to keep up with BU hockey instead of actually going to the games,” Smith said.
The end of subsidized Xfinity comes during the tail end of BU hockey playoffs and March Madness.
“Especially with all the exciting national championship appearances, Xfinity Stream is really the only way I can watch the hockey games,” Smith said.
Like Hook, Smith said the loss of the service is just an additional cost for students already balancing their budgets.
“I’m a college student, I can’t really afford to pay for cable TV,” they said. “So live-streaming sports is difficult.”
Sebastian Lourie, a junior and Resident Assistant in The Towers, said he previously used Xfinity to watch soccer with friends, though he recognizes it is not something many students know about.
“It’s not really something that’s even advertised by ResLife,” Lourie said. “So, it’s not something we really talk about with our residents. I’ve never seen anybody in The Towers lounge using Xfinity.”
However, junior Marilyn Mejia said she was “disappointed” in the discontinuation.
Mejia said that she frequently used Xfinity On Campus to watch “live TV that reminded [her]of home,” such as Spanish-language channels and sports.
“If they’re gonna shut it down, they should bring another sort of replacement for it,” Mejia said.
