Xumo Will Now Provide the Streaming Platform for TCL Smart TVs in Major Move for Comcast, Charter Joint Venture
When it was announced over a year ago that cable companies Comcast and Charter would be coming together to launch a joint-venture streaming platform, details were scarce. However, information has been filled in over the past 13 months, and this week, the next major piece came into place.
In an interview with Fierce Video, it was revealed that Xumo — the name of the joint venture — would be powering the streaming platform for new TCL smart TVs. Xumo’s chief revenue officer Colin Petrie-Norris said that Xumo will support smart TV maker TCL with its free ad-supported streaming TV (FAST) platform, bringing 55 channels to TCL TVs in “a new and improved way.”
This partnership will be part of a larger planned refresh coming to TCL TVs; Petrie-Norris also teased some additional features coming to the Xumo platform once the TCL update happens.
“TCL is really an exciting partner for us,” he said. “This is a really big refresh strategy for them.”
What exactly the refresh will entail is still up in the air, but Petrie-Norris will answer more questions at the StreamTV Show in Denver on June 13.
Xumo has slowly but surely been coming to fruition over the past year. While details about Xumo’s streaming solutions have been scarce outside of its FAST service Xumo Play, bits and pieces of exactly what Xumo will offer have come to light.
Personalization and flexibility seem to be the main tenets of Xumo’s development ideology. The Xumo streaming platform promises to be tailored for use on smart TVs, but modeled in a way that younger viewers who are more accustomed to streaming video on their phones would also understand.
“Personalization matters more than ever,” Petrie-Norris explained. “That problem, I think, actually is also more important than people realize: how you get people to things that they want and need to watch. A personalized approach, curation, and being able to use great metadata — I think that’s where we excel.”
Charter CEO Chris Winfrey aired similar comments when he spoke about Xumo this spring.
“What Xumo gives us the ability to do is a fully integrated app and live video experience for customers all in a single place with the very best that Comcast has to offer together with our Spectrum TV app to the extent somebody wants to take video,” the CEO said. “And to provide utility to customers whether they want to take traditional live video or not, and we can be more agnostic on that. I think Xumo is really good for consumers. It’s what I want.”
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.