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Mediacom begins offering Xumo Stream box to broadband customers

The Xumo Stream Box is the next-generation, streaming-focused set-top box offered by Comcast and Charter's Xumo joint venture. (Courtesy photo)
The Xumo Stream Box is the next-generation, streaming-focused set-top box offered by Comcast and Charter’s Xumo joint venture. (Courtesy photo)

Mediacom has started offering a new streaming device to customers of its Xtream-branded broadband Internet service.

The Xumo Stream box is available at no additional monthly cost to customers with eligible Xtream broadband packages, the company said in a statement on Monday.



“Xumo Stream Box is an incredibly versatile and consumer-friendly technology that seamlessly integrates our market leading broadband speeds with a world-class streaming experience,” Tapa Dandnaik, the Senior Vice President of Operations at Mediacom, said in a statement. “We are thrilled to be among the first companies to bring this cutting-edge device to market.”

The Xumo Stream Box is developed by Xumo, the streaming-focused joint venture launched by Charter Communications and Comcast Corporation two years ago. It offers access to top-level streaming services like Netflix, Prime Video, Disney Plus, Hulu, Paramount Plus and Peacock along with streaming cable replacements like Sling TV and YouTube TV and free platforms YouTube, Tubi and Pluto TV.

The device is targeted to former pay TV customers who continue receiving Internet service through their cable provider and who want a streaming device to complement their broadband plan. Comcast and Charter began offering the Xumo Stream Box to their Xfinity Internet and Spectrum Internet customers last year, and Cox Cable has signed on to offer the box to their Internet-only customers as well.

At an industry event last year, Xumo CEO Marcien Jenckes revealed the partnership with Mediacom, saying the company wanted to “be in business with a lot” of small and rural-area broadband operators.

In other words, Xumo is hoping to be the streaming TV platform of choice for broadband companies to offer their customers who want a bundled experience with service-level support. In that respect, Xumo Stream is competing with TiVo Broadband, a comparable product operated by TiVo parent Xperi that is targeted at those same Internet service providers.

Of course, like all broadband Internet subscribers, Mediacom’s Xtreme customers don’t have to pick the Xumo Stream box as their streaming platform of choice: Devices and smart TVs running Roku, Apple TV, Amazon’s Fire TV and Android TV (Google TV) will also work with their service.

But former cable customers who are already familiar with how their interactive cable TV boxes worked are likely to find the Xumo Stream box to be a natural replacement: It includes a voice-powered remote control with numeric buttons and power-volume-channel controls for their TVs, sound bars and other devices — just as they would find on a universal remote for a cable box.

Taking a Xumo Stream box with the purchase of broadband service might come with additional benefits in the future, such as discounts on streaming service. When Comcast introduced their Flex box some years ago, it offered free access to co-owned Peacock. Flex was retired in favor of the Xumo Stream Box, and free access to Peacock was relegated to certain tiers of Xfinity Internet and redeemable through Xfinity Rewards.

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About the Author:

Matthew Keys

Matthew Keys is a nationally-recognized, award-winning journalist who has covered the business of media, technology, radio and television for more than 11 years. He is the publisher of The Desk and contributes to Know Techie, Digital Content Next and StreamTV Insider. He previously worked for Thomson Reuters, the Walt Disney Company, McNaughton Newspapers and Tribune Broadcasting.
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