It was originally a joint venture between Viant Technology and Panasonic; Viant's stake was later acquired by Time Inc., and the service as a whole was acquired by Comcast in 2020—seeking to use it as a complement to its paid streaming service Peacock. 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 on Xfinity's X1 software platform—into the company under the Xumo Stream Box and Xumo TV brands.
In 2015, only Vizio and Panasonic offered the service. Other manufacturers added Xumo in 2016, including LG Electronics and Funai. As of May 2016, 78 channels were offered, with a total of 100 planned. The primary target audience was described as millennials who are not satisfied with multichannel 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, available for download at the Google Play Store. By June 2019, according to CEO Colin Petrie-Norris, Xumo was available in over 35 million American households via a multi-screen distribution network of smart TVs, mobile, web, and streaming boxes. At the time, Xumo did not offer its service outside of smart TV platforms, including Channel Plus on LG's WebOS sets[3] sold by Viant on some channels.[2]
Xumo has the capability to learn what users watch, adding frequently viewed channels and programs at 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's cable 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 showcase Xfinity and other Comcast services as well as use its technology to develop additional streaming platforms. The company added content from the NBCUniversal programming library and the company's various television networks, along with adding its channels as a complementary part of Peacock, akin to Paramount's utilization of Pluto TV to offer content from its cable networks following the former Viacom's purchase of the competitor of 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's movie White Elephant.[8]
In April 2022, Comcast announced that it would contribute Xumo to a new joint venture with Charter Communications, which will also include retail sales of streaming devices and smart TVs using 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 as Xumo Play, and Comcast's Xfinity Flex and XClass TV rebranded as Xumo Stream Box and Xumo TV, respectively.[10][11]
A Xumo Stream Box digital media player device, which will be distributed by Xfinity and Spectrum, along with retail stores
A Xumo TV manufactured by Hisense, demonstrating the "Entertainment OS" user interface to be utilized by Xumo-compatible devices
Programming
Xumo is structured similarly to the pay television model, offering its content as designated channels categorized by program content type into 12 channel tiers:
News – consisting of mainstream news and opinion channels, as well as partisan, commentary-based outlets reflecting progressive and conservative viewpoints.
TV & Movies – general entertainment and movie channels.
Sports – includes live and previously aired events, sporting news and analysis programs.
Kids & Family – channels aimed at children and family audiences.
Food, Drink and Travel – culinary and travel-oriented lifestyle channels.
Comedy – comedy-based channels, consisting of curated viral video and digital content services.
Entertainment – consisting of special-interest and viral video-based entertainment channels.
Lifestyle – lifestyle, travel and home shopping channels
Pop Culture – entertainment news, science, technology, sci-fi, curated video and geek culture-oriented channels.
Science & Tech – science, technology and educational documentary channels.
Music – consisting of music videos and video concerts.
