Branding, Supply Details Scarce for Comcast-Charter Streaming Platform Venture

The 50-50 Charter Communications-Comcast joint venture to develop a national streaming platform on branded 4K streaming devices and smart TVs lacks a brand name. The venture, announced Wednesday, will give consumers a “world-class user experience and navigation designed to simplify the search experience, all the top apps, a voice remote and more choice in the streaming marketplace,” a Charter spokesperson emailed Wednesday. The companies “have nothing to share regarding the brand of the JV at this time,” he said. The closing of the joint venture is subject to customary closing conditions, the companies said.

The initiative will give app developers, retailers and hardware makers a "new platform to develop upon and bring new products to market at scale and reach customers throughout the U.S.,” the Charter spokesperson said. Comcast will license its Flex streaming platform and hardware to the joint venture, contribute the retail business for XClass TVs that are currently sold through Walmart, plus the Xumo streaming service it acquired in 2020. Charter will make an initial contribution of $900 million, funded over multiple years, the companies said.

Comcast announced Hisense-built TVs with its XClass TV operating system last fall (see 2110190046), saying initial shipments would sell at Walmart, in stores and online. A 50-inch 50A6GX XClass TV was shown Wednesday on Walmart.com for $295, down from $348, in a rollback offer.

Wednesday’s joint venture announcement said XClass TVs will be sold through national retail partners and “potentially direct from Comcast and Charter to provide more customer choice.” Responding to our question whether the virtual MVPD would offer the TVs as hardware rentals similar to the cable box model, the Charter spokesperson said the companies “are not providing any addition details regarding device manufacturing and supply at this time.”

Xumo will continue to operate as a free global streaming service available through the joint venture’s products and third-party devices. Roku didn’t respond Wednesday to questions on the venture, including whether its platform will continue to offer the Xumo service. Comcast will continue to offer the Flex streaming platform as a streaming device and service to its customers, while Charter will offer the 4K streaming TV devices and voice remotes beginning in 2023, they said.

Parks Associates Research Director Paul Erickson emailed that consumers are interested in knowing how and where they can watch content, and broadband providers are “in a good position to help” simplify access to content. Consumers also want one bill for their services, Erickson said, and increasingly, consumers are getting their over-the-top video service as part of a broadband package. Parks expects to see more broadband providers turn to OTT services as revenue-add bundling opportunities, while providing consumers a “great unified experience, including with the billing.”