Comcast’s Xumo reports massive user growth in 2020

Xumo, an ad-supported streaming service acquired earlier this year by Comcast, has reported massive growth in its user base since the beginning of the year.

The company said that since January it's experienced 2.5x growth and expanded its monthly active user total to more than 24 million. Total hours streamed on Xumo more than doubled over that same time period.

Xumo CEO Colin Petrie-Norris attributed the growth to a combination of the pandemic along with more content and new distribution partners. He also said Xumo’s on-demand catalog has been deeply integrated with Xfinity X1 and Flex, leading to a nearly 40% increase in viewing sessions on those platforms.

“For Comcast to decide this is a space worth investing in is real validation,” Petrie-Norris told Variety. “If anything we have been busier than we’ve ever been.”

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Xumo’s growth helps the free, ad-supported streaming service keep pace with its peers. Pluto TV, which was acquired by ViacomCBS in 2019, now has 26.5 million monthly active users and expects to have 30 million by the end of 2020. Tubi, which earlier this year was acquired by Fox, said last month that it now has 33 million monthly active users. Roku, which operates an ad-supported streaming service with the Roku Channel, ended the most recent quarter with 43 million active accounts.

Comcast acquired Xumo for a reported $100 million and operates it as an independent business inside of Comcast Cable.

“The talented team at Xumo has created a successful, growing, and best-in-class set of streaming capabilities. We are excited for this team to join Comcast and look forward to supporting them as they continue to innovate and develop their offerings,” said Comcast in a news release.