 | |
| Company type | Joint venture |
|---|---|
| Industry | Streaming media |
| Founded | 2011; 14 years ago (2011) |
| Headquarters | Irvine, California, United States |
Area served | United States Canada Mexico Brazil Western Europe (select countries) |
Key people | Colin Petrie-Norris (CEO); Jiro Egawa(COO); Chris Hall(SVP, Product); Hirotaka Oku(SVP, Engineering) Stefan Van Engen (SVP, Programming & Partnerships); Fern Feistel (SVP, Marketing & Content Operations) |
| Products | Xumo TV, Xumo Stream Box and Xumo Play |
| Services | OTT Internet television Smart TV Operating System |
| Owner | Comcast (50%) Charter Communications (50%) |
| Parent | Xfinity (2020-2022) |
| Website | www |
Xumo, LLC (/ˈzuːmoʊ/ZOO-moh) is an Americaninternet television andconsumer electronics company. It is ajoint venture ofCharter Communications andComcast that operates thefree ad-supported streaming television (FAST) andadvertising video on demand (AVOD) serviceXumo Play. It developsdigital media players andsmart TVs. The Xumo Play platform's service operations are based in theOrange County suburb ofIrvine, California. As of October 2020, Xumo Play has 24 million monthly active users.[1]
It was initially a joint venture between Viant Technology andPanasonic;Time Inc. later acquired Viant's stake, and the service as a whole was acquired by Comcast in 2020, seeking to use it as a complement to its paid streaming servicePeacock. In 2022, Comcast announced that Xumo would become a joint venture with Charter; under the venture, Comcast also contributed its digital media player and smart TV businesses—which are based onXfinity's X1 software platform—to the company under the Xumo Stream Box and Xumo TV brands.
Xumo was founded in 2011 as ajoint venture between the Viant Technology subsidiary ofMeredith Corporation (then the parent company ofMyspace) andPanasonic.[2]
In 2015, onlyVizio and Panasonic offered the service. Other manufacturers added Xumo in 2016, includingLG Electronics andFunai. As of May 2016, 78 channels were offered, with a total of 100 planned. The primary target audience was described asmillennials who are not satisfied withmultichannel television offerings.[2]
In February 2016,Time Inc. acquired Viant.[3] The Vanderhook brothers began the company in 1999 as advertisementbanners.com, changing the name to Interactive Media Holdings in 2003 and Viant in 2015.[4]
By July 2018, the Android app was live and available for download on theGoogle Play Store. By June 2019, according to CEO Colin Petrie-Norris, Xumo was available in over 35 million American households via a multiscreen distribution network ofsmart TVs, mobile devices, the web, and streaming boxes. At the time, Xumo did not offer its service outside smart TV platforms, including Channel Plus onLG'sWebOS sets[3] sold by Viant on some channels.[2]
Xumo can learn what users watch, adding frequently viewed channels and programs to the top of lists.[2]
On February 25, 2020, Comcast announced it would purchase Xumo from the Panasonic/Viant joint venture for an undisclosed sum. The acquisition of the service—which would continue to operate as an independent business, albeit within Comcast'scable television division—stems mainly from Xumo's partnerships with smart TV manufacturers (including LG, Panasonic, and Vizio), which would allow Comcast to use Xumo's placement to market or showcaseXfinity and other Comcast services as well as use its technology to develop additional streaming platforms. The company added content from theNBCUniversal programming library and its various television networks, and added its channels as a complementary part ofPeacock, akin to Paramount's use ofPluto TV to offer content from its cable networks following the formerViacom's purchase of the competitor in 2019.[5][6][7]
On November 19, 2020, Xumo announced it would begin producing its own original content for the service, starting with Bold Soul Studios' movieWhite Elephant.[8]
In April 2022, Comcast announced that it would contribute Xumo to a newjoint venture withCharter Communications, which will also include retail sales of streaming devices and smart TVs powered by Comcast's X1 platform.[9] It was announced later in November that this joint venture would retain the Xumo name, with the streaming service slightly rebranded asXumo Play, and Comcast's Xfinity Flex and XClass TV rebranded as Xumo Stream Box and Xumo TV, respectively.[10][11]
In January 2023, Xumo announced plans to launch Xumo TV—a line ofsmart TVs fromElement Electronics—later that year.[12] It also launched Xumo TV models fromHisense andTCL Technology (marketed under thePioneer brand), which are exclusive toBest Buy.[13]
Xumo is structured similarly to the pay television model, offering its content as designated channels categorized by program content type into 12 channel tiers:
As of February 1, 2020, Xumo carries over 190 channels, packaging content acquired through various syndication and digital content deals. Current content partnerships for the service include the sister companyNBCUniversal,A&E Networks,Abrams Media,Advance Publications,CNET,Condé Nast,FBE,Sony Pictures,FilmRise,Fox Corporation,Fremantle,Jukin Media,Kabillion,Katz Networks,Meredith Corporation,NowThis,Paramount Skydance,PocketWatch,Refinery29,Stingray Group,This Old House Ventures,Time USA, LLC,Vin Di Bona Productions, andWarner Bros. Discovery.
Traditional television channels whose direct or curated feeds are offered on Xumo includeHistory,Fuse,USA Network (plus sister networkSyfy,E!,CNBC,MSNBC andSky News),NASA TV,MTV (plus sister networkShowtime,VH1 andNickelodeon),Discovery Channel,CNN (plus sister networkHLN,HBO andCartoon Network),Euronews,Bloomberg Television,Newsmax TV,Scripps News,Fox News (and sister networkFox Business),Home Shopping Network (HSN),QVC,Jewelry Television,Reelz,Shop LC,BeIN Sports Xtra, andStadium. AVOD services whose feeds are carried on Xumo includeNBC News Now,ABC News Live,CBS News 24/7 (plus sister networkCBS Sports HQ andET Live),Cheddar News,TYT Network (structured as a hybridSVOD/AVOD service, but offered by Xumo as an AVOD offering), Nosey,Dove Channel,Law & Crime,Fubo Sports Network, andPeople TV.
Xumo content can be streamed through several desktop, mobile and internet-connected TV platforms including:Android andAppleiOS/iPadOS devices,Chromecast,Android TV,Apple TV,Xfinity Xumo TV box (formerly Flex),Amazon Fire TV,Roku,Cox Contour Stream Player,LG Channel Plus and LG Channels set models, and Smart TV models manufactured byVizio, Panasonic,Sanyo,Philips,Magnavox,Samsung,Hisense andSharp Corporation. Outside the contiguous United States, Xumo and its supported apps are currently available on LG Smart TV models powering its Channel Plus and LG Channels platforms distributed inCanada (on Channel Plus platforms runningWebOS 3.5 or above),Mexico,Brazil,France,Germany,Spain,Italy and theUnited Kingdom (on LG smart TVs running WebOS 4.5 or above),[14] however offer was stopped in 2024.
