• by Wayne Friedman , Staff Writer, August 22, 2014

What it’s worth for cable companies to try to pull in millennials into the pay TV universe? Worth is relative.

Future consumers are always a concern for any consumer marketing company.  Take Comcast.

Comcast is reaching out to those millennials at college universities through a new IPTV service, Xfinity on Campus, where they can access 80 live channels and video-on-demand programming on any of their desktop/laptop devices. Tablet and smartphone are coming, as well as connections to a TV set, no less.

Cable operators and other pay TV providers are continually worried about cord-cutting -- or increasingly “cord-nevers” for many millennials. So the marketing effort will be big in convincing many to sign on to a monthly plan. Pricing will be important in convincing colleges and students.

Is it Comcast’s belief that the value from Xfinity content will translate to those young college students after their school days? Some 13% of millennials have no pay TV. And the way pay-TV monthly prices are growing -- you might believe that number will only climb.

Comcast isn’t the only company in the hunt. Philo (formerly Tivli) , which has Mark Cuban and HBO as backers, has about 30 live channels delivered from a school’s primary pay-TV provider and has deals with Harvard University, Yale University and Stanford University.

One might believe those that can afford to attend some of these colleges can also afford some nominal fees when it comes to pay TV connections.

But that may not pull in the bulk of the millennial population.

Wonder where else pay TV providers could get those future pay TV consumers? Perhaps those not going to a brick-and-mortar college. Internet-delivered college and post-high school technical degrees are increasingly in vogue -- especially as the pricing for college continues to climb.

Even then, millennials are a savvy lot when it comes to making a value equation about entertainment content and leisure dollars available.

For them, opening up one’s laptop means there's always seemsstuff to do and be entertained by -- and it's not connected with the traditional pay TV universe.