Comcast has now confirmed it is the proud new owner of Xumo after acquiring the free streaming service. Besides the confirmation of the purchase, no additional details on the deal were provided.
Reports started to emerge in December suggesting that the two companies were in talks, although at the time it remained to be seen if the deal would go through. However, it seems those talks were likely to have been at a more advanced stage than many might have expected considering the deal has now been done and announced.
Comcast confirmed it has acquired Xumo in a press release on the company’s website. The announcement was rather short and did not provide much in the way of background information, other than stating that Xumo will continue to “operate as an independent business,” albeit one that’s now located “inside of Comcast Cable.”
What does the purchase mean for Xumo customers?
Right now, it remains unclear if the purchase will result in any changes for existing Xumo users. Comcast says the service will continue to act independently and therefore it is presumed existing users will be largely unaffected by the acquisition for now.
However, the timing here is unlikely to be a coincidence. Comcast is in the process of readying its new Peacock streaming service for release and one of the tiers is expected to be a free tier. It now seems highly likely that Xumo will play a role in padding out that free access tier to some degree. Whether that’s at launch is another question, but Comcast picking up a popular ad-support service such as Xumo is likely to be part of the company’s grander move into streaming.
For reference, the initial reports on Comcast buying Xumo were followed by more recent reports suggesting Fox is in talks to buy Tubi (another free service), and that Walmart might sell Vudu to NBCU.
In light of today’s development, the Vudu to NBCU deal could prove particularly interesting now, considering NBCU’s parent is Comcast.
Source: Comcast
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