Comcast has begun offering around 20 Xumo-powered, ad-supported streaming channels to its traditional video customers via the X1 platform, the company announced on Monday.
The move comes about a month after a Xumo executive affirmed Comcast would begin offering a sampling of its streaming channels to Xfinity TV subscribers within a matter of weeks, which was first reported by the trade publication StreamTV Insider in June.
“For Comcast, it is about bringing something that they believe the consumers need to make the video product better,” Xumo Chief Revenue Officer Colin Petrie-Norris said at an industry event last month.
The addition of the 20 Xumo-powered channels — which includes NBC News Now and 19 Xumo-branded streams — comes after Comcast integrated the same streaming channels into its Flex boxes, which runs a variant of the X1 platform software. Comcast also began distributing Xumo channels to subscribers of its new skinny video offering Now TV in June.
“Our strategy is centered around value not tonnage, and we are focused on bringing [free, ad-supported streaming, or FAST] channels into the experiences that are additive to the majority of our customers’ lineups,” Vito Forlenza, the vice president of entertainment apps at Comcast, said in a statement.
Comcast says the addition of the 20 Xumo-branded channels is “just the beginning of our plans to enhance our customers’ TV subscription via FAST,” noting that more streaming channels from Xumo will be offered in the future.
The same free streaming channels are also available within the Xumo Play app, which is available on most popular smartphones, tablets and streaming TV platforms like Roku, Amazon Fire TV and Apple TV.
