Charter CEO Says New Xumo Platform Will Be Company’s ‘Go-To’ Method of Selling Pay-TV Subscriptions
The mad scientists at Charter Communications and Comcast who are responsible for cooking up the new Xumo have been hard at work, according to Charter CEO Chris Winfrey. The joint-venture platform is still on target to launch later this year, the executive told analysts during his company’s conference call to discuss its quarterly earnings earlier this week.
Winfrey also had some surprisingly candid things to say about the pay-TV industry, in which Charter is a major player. He said that linear TV had been “devalued,” and that Charter was nearing a point of “indifference” in regards to chasing more pay-TV subscribers as cord-cutting continues to accelerate in the United States.
In fact, Xumo could well become the focal point of the company’s efforts to sell pay-TV subscriptions in the future. That will be just one of the service’s functions, as it will also serve as an aggregation platform that shows users all of the content available on each of the streaming platforms they subscribe to. Customers will be able to use Xumo to stream live TV and watch on-demand video as well.
“We’re excited for the upcoming release of the Xumo product, which I believe will be an industry-leading platform for customers to access all of their linear and DTC video content with unified search and discovery,” Winfrey said. “Together with our Spectrum TV app, the most viewed linear MVPD streaming service in the US, Xumo will be our go-to-market platform for new video sales.”
It might seem surprising that Charter is willing to stop aggressively pursuing pay-TV customers outside of the Xumo platform, but Winfrey says the company has been primarily signing up new users via other methods more reliably anyway.
“Xumo… really is an extension of what we’ve been doing already,” he explained. “Two-thirds of our video sales today are without a set-top box, meaning they’re going on to Roku, Apple TV, Samsung TV or other platforms.”
Winfrey has not been shy about sharing his excitement regarding Xumo, which will be highly customizable based on customer needs. Xumo’s OS will be powering TCL-branded smart TVs soon, and Xumo-branded TVs are making their way to retailers now as well.
Comcast and Charter are conducting field tests on the new Xumo platform now. Users can head to the current iteration of Xumo to watch nearly 300 free ad-supported TV (FAST) channels without needing a credit card or any other payment information.
Xumo Play
Xumo Play is a free video streaming service that includes on-demand access to several movies and TV shows. Xumo Play offers 290 free virtual channels, including those focused on reality TV, vintage TV, and game shows.