2018 FreePass Latino Keeps the Hispanic Heritage Celebration Going

Hispanic Heritage Month (September 15 – October 15) ended but Comcast wants to keep the celebration going through its biggest Latino binge watching event of the year.

For a full two weeks, Comcast’s Xfinity X1 customers can binge-watch more than 1,000 hours of entertainment for free. They can watch entire seasons of popular TV shows such as HBO Latino’s Sr. Ávila, take in blockbuster hits including Marvel’s The Amazing Spiderman and Evil Dead on CineSony, or explore acclaimed films from Latin America such as Cuatro Estaciones en la Habana. The Xfinity Latino Channel, a permanent Latino collection on X1 and a complete entertainment experience for Latinos are some examples of how Comcast continues to show its commitment to multilingual Hispanic families. The Comcast California Blog Team sat down with the leader and content curator behind FreePass Latino to learn more.

Mildred (Millie) Zdziebkowski, Sr. Director of Multicultural Experience at Comcast, who is of Nicaraguan descent, is the woman behind Comcast’s editorial experience, carefully selecting its Latino lineup.

“The 2018 FreePass Latino event will take place from October 15-28, providing a window of time where Xfinity TV customers get free access to hundreds of titles, in English and Spanish, across devices. This is content that is part of our upgraded Latino package,” said Zdziebkowski. “FreePass Latino not only offers a great way for our customers to catch up on the best of Latino television, but also gives them a guilt-free option to discover new shows and movies, or just re-watch some of their all-time favorites.”

Accessible at home or on-the-go, the bicultural entertainment options available during Xfinity FreePass Latino also include:

• Blockbuster films from Latin America and the U.S. the U.S. premiere of Macho starring Miguel Rodarte, and ViendoMovies’ Amor de Mis Amores from acclaimed Mexican filmmaker Manolo Caro.
• Hit TV series such as FUSE’s Hip-Hop Houdini, season 4 of El Rey Network’s Lucha Underground, plus the internationally popular competition reality show Desafio Super Humanos XV, as well as dozens of telenovelas from Latin America such as Univision’s Nuestra Belleza Latina.
• Complete telenovelas such as Nuestra Tele’s all-time favorite La Hija del Mariachi and Hilo de Sangre Azul, Caracol’s La Ronca de Oro, Pasiones’ Elif and Univision’s La Piloto (Season 2), among others.
• Music specials from Music Choice including J. Balvin’s Colombian Pride, appearances by Bad Bunny and IZAAK on their show PRIMED, and an extensive music list from all genres.
• On-the-go entertainment with Xfinity’s fast and easy-to-use Xfinity Stream app available on mobile devices and computers.

According to Zdziebkowski , FreePass Latino, an initiative that originated four years ago, has become a great way to discover new trends among the Latino audience.

“Our audience keeps evolving, and learning their preferences keeps us on our toes. We have to continue to improve their experience every year,” said Zdziebkowski .

FreePass Latino is a team effort between Zdziebkowski ’s team and the content creators. Every year, she, along with the networks, identify the right amount of content, the right genres and make sure there is something for every member of the family.

“We have great content for kids, action movies and telenovelas. We make sure the content is balanced and easy to find,” Zdziebkowski added.

Speaking of easy to find, the X1 voice remote is the only bilingual remote on the market. And it understands English and Spanish simultaneously. Unlike a cell phone, which can only be set to one language at a time, Comcast knows that many of its Spanish-speaking customers live in households where both English and Spanish are often spoken in the same breath. The solution for this was to develop technology that can query English and Spanish simultaneously.

Today, Comcast processes more than 6 million Spanish-language voice commands each month, and that number is steadily rising as more customers use the Spanish language features of X1.

While FreePass Latino provides free access to premium content for a period of time, other Xfinity Latino content is available all year long on a permanent collection that consumers get access to even when they are not subscribed to the premium package.

According to Zdziebkowski , the Xfinity Latino channel is customized for the Latino audience with their passion points in mind: movies, TV shows, soccer, Latin music and more.

For more information about the 2018 FreePass Latino and the Xfinity Latino channel visit here.