Charter Communications CEO Chris Winfrey told equity analysts Friday that the cable operator will make the fruit of its TVOS joint venture with Comcast, Xumo, its "go-to-market platform for new video sales."
The voice-enabled Xumo video operating system is rooted in Comcast's X1 platform. Earlier in July, the JV started rolling out 55- and 65-inch Xumo-powered smart TVs in retail locations including Meijer.
Charter said it will begin deploying its own Xumo streaming devices in "late 2023."
Also Read: Charter Second-Quarter Net Falls as 189,000 Subscribers Cut the Cord
Charter lost only 189,000 linear pay TV customers in the second quarter, a rate far below peers including Comcast, which bled 543,000 traditional pay TV souls over the same period.
“We’re losing the least amount of video customers of any of our peers and competitors,” Winfrey declared.
Still, with 14.1 million residential customers remaining in what he called a "devalued" linear pay TV market, Winfrey conceded that Charter is close to "indifference" in regards to chasing down more traditional TV subscribers in a cord-cutting era.
Also Read: Charter Set to Surpass Comcast as the Biggest Remaining Linear Pay TV Supplier in America
Xumo will allow Charter to continue to offer bundled video options in an app-based format, sans pay TV set-top and truck rolls, existing side-by-side with third-party services including Netflix and Disney Plus.
This will fit into a new more flexible video strategy for Charter and its Spectrum TV products, enabling the cable company to offer smaller, lower cost video options to customers.
Earlier in July, for example, Charter announced that it would end the practice of forcing base-tier pay TV customers to take pricey regional sports networks if they didn't want to pay for them.
