Xumo, the streaming joint venture kicked off last year by U.S. cable giants Comcast and Charter Communications, is licensing its TVOS to China's Element Electronics to power smart TVs for the U.S. market.
Introduced at CES 2023 in Las Vegas this week, Element Xumo TVs will ship domestically sometime later in 2023, with as-yet announced price points and size configurations.
It's the first major Xumo announcement since Comcast and Charter branded their JV in early November, naming it after the 11-year-old Xumo FAST service that Comcast acquired three years ago for $100 million.
Xumo is based on OS technology developed for Comcast's X1 and Xfinity Flex pay TV platforms. Charter has pledged a $900 million multiyear financial commitment to back the Xumo JV, announced in April 2021 and intended to transition Comcast's pay TV UX into the broader global retail gateway OS market.
Notably, the Comcast press release announcing the Element deal said the new TV's will join a Xumo portfolio that includes XClass TVs. These are sets manufactured by Hisense under Comcast's XClass brand name, powered by Xumo and sold exclusively at Walmart. These sets, which have been unavailable recently, will be rebranded with the "Hisense Xumo TV" moniker later this year, according to sources familiar with Xumo's plans.
As for Element, it has a manufacturing facility in Winnsboro, S.C., and already ships TVs powered by the dominant TVOS that Xumo is trying to usurp, Roku.
“We look forward to building our brand partnership and providing consumers access to amazing technology and content at an incredible value," said Vlad Kazhdan, president of Element Electronics, in a statement.
“Element and Xumo share a common vision of delivering consumers premium, innovative entertainment experiences at a tremendous value,” added Xumo President Marcien Jenckes.
