Charter and Comcast Announce Their New Streaming Venture: Xumo

Acquired in 2010 as a free, ad-supported platform by Comcast, we now see some solid evolution for the much anticipated joint streaming venture between Comcast and Charter. Blake & Wang entertainment attorney, Brandon Blake, has all the details of the new deal.

Xumo Rises (Again)

Launching as Xumo, the entity will also co-opt Flex, the 4K streaming device Comcast licensed last year, and remarket it as the Xumo Stream Box. Their existing XClass TV will now run as Xumo TV. The Xumo brand, of course, has been in existence since 2010, when Comcast first acquired it as a FAST streaming service. This will now be rebranded as Xumo Play.

This addition of a streaming device focused gadget to the lineup builds on the announcement last April of the upcoming joint venture, and is set to make it to market by 2023. In addition to Charter and Comcast’s retail channels, it will also be sold through Walmart stores. According to the latest press release, the intention is to bring an “entire entertainment ecosystem inclusive of streaming devices, content, and a platform for partners to reach audiences at scale,” to the table. In short, they’d like you to buy the full deal- streaming devices and the platform as well as the content.

While Charter and Comcast remain direct rivals in the broadband and pay-TV markets, both are notably lacking in a truly heavy-hitting streaming service to keep the modern customer hooked in to their brands. Despite some solid performance from Flex to date, as well as Peacock of course, they’ve failed to get the kind of brand attention other streaming services have. It is interesting to see them recycle the Xumo name for this, however.

A New Roku?

While Peacock has been a solid performer in the market, if not exactly an industry leader, it’s interesting to see them pushing into the 4k streaming devices and Smart TV industry. Of course, we’ve seen some fantastic results from Roku with exactly this strategy in recent years. Instead of trying to perform on the levels of Netflix or Disney+, Roku has steadily built itself into a strong contender through smart integration of its own FAST services with Smart TVs, their streaming app, and their Roku devices.

It has worked powerfully for the Roku brand, as they’ve silently built up a strong enough following to even tackle some big names on issues like content rights and even customer devices and privacy- as we saw with the Roku vs YouTube deadlock late last year. The key question, of course, is if the Roku magic can be replicated for a separate service, especially one aping their formula so closely.

For now, Flex and XClass TV will utilize Comcast’s global tech platform, until the branded devices are released. The existing Xumo FAST service already offers a substantial number of on-demand and linear channels from a variety of suppliers and networks, and will remain available (under the Xumo Play banner) for other streaming platforms.

For Roku, most of the strong traction they gained in this market was by being the first player in the pool. Will Comcast and Charter’s new venture manage to bring them some of the same magic? We will have to wait and see, but it certainly seems that they’re hoping so.