Remember Comcast's Streampix service? Launched in February 2012, it was created to help Comcast compete against streaming video services such as Netflix.

But it never caught on—and thus regulators examining the Comcast/Time Warner Cable merger should reject claims that Comcast has an incentive to discriminate against online video distributors [OVDs] like Netflix, Comcast told the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) this week.

The tidbit was buried in Comcast's 324-page filing with the FCC and was pointed out yesterday by Karl Bode of DSLReports. Comcast still offers Streampix as a $5-per-month add-on to its Xfinity TV service but has given up on making it a standalone offering. The Streampix mobile app is still available on Apple and Android devices but will eventually be "decommissioned." The filing says:

Commenters try to make this a transaction-specific issue with claims that Comcast has a greater incentive than TWC to foreclose OVDs due to Comcast’s Streampix offering and its more rapid migration to an all-IP network. But Streampix is not designed as an out-of-footprint, over-the-top video service, much as commenters would like to pretend otherwise. It is a branded VOD offering, available on Comcast’s set-top boxes; its unique claim is simply that in assembling the service, Comcast set out to acquire full online rights as well, and highlighted the over-the-top access of the network. And though Comcast sought to create excitement around Streampix by offering the online version through a unique online site and app, and offered Streampix to a small number of Xfinity broadband-only customers in one region, these attracted minimal interest: both the site and the app are being decommissioned, and the standalone offer was discontinued. Going forward, Streampix will simply be part of the Xfinity TV app and website like other VOD offerings.

Bode reports hearing from users in recent months that "Comcast appeared to be giving up on the offering—with the Streampix catalog getting increasingly sparse and promotion of the not-quite-Netflix clone becoming less common."

Comcast said this week that creating a nationwide streaming service both inside and outside Comcast's cable territory would be too difficult. Challenges include taking customers away from Netflix and other services, especially outside Comcast territory, and "the difficulty of obtaining national programming rights."