Colin Petrie-Norris, the chief executive and founder of Xumo (now a Comcast-Charter joint venture), has left the company.
First reported by The Desk, a source with knowledge of the situation confirmed to StreamTV Insider that Petrie-Norris chose to leave the company, with Wednesday his official last day.
Petrie-Norris founded Xumo over a decade ago in 2013 in the nascent days of free linear ad-supported streaming and served as CEO before its reported $100 million acquisition by Comcast in 2020, after which he spent time as SVP of Consumer Entertainment for Xfinity. Once the Xumo joint venture between Comcast and Charter formed in 2022, Petrie-Norris has led efforts, including as chief revenue and platform officer.
Petrie-Norris also shared his exit on LinkedIn.
“It’s been a magical nearly 12 years for me since the start, and in having a little to do with this whole #FAST / Free TV thing. I think it’s pretty unique and special to have started a business that got sold 3 times: Once to Panasonic (JV), again to Comcast and then again to Charter Communications,” wrote Petrie-Norris in a post.
The executive added, “Most of all, it’s the people that make it special, the Xumo team that made it all happen – the ones I am most grateful for. The battles, the wins, the ups and downs, the business partners who saw something valuable in this idea and took a leap of faith to work with us when we were very small and continue to be excited about the business now it’s getting a little bigger. Thanks so much to all…”
Xumo counts three arms of business including: the Xumo Play FAST service, B2B technology and content unit Xumo Enterprise (which has helped power free streaming experiences on the likes of Google TV and TCL), and a platform business that has developed streaming devices like the Xumo Stream Box and Xumo-branded smart TVs built by OEM partner Element.
With Petrie-Norris leaving the company, Xumo has promoted industry veteran and current Xumo executive Jiro Egawa to SVP of Platform Growth and Monetization, according to the source. Egawa will report directly to Xumo President Marcien Jenckes and oversee the Xumo Play and Xumo Enterprise businesses, as well as the same aspects of Xumo devices that Petrie-Norris did - namely platform growth and monetization. Consumer-facing aspects of the device unit, such as retail strategy and marketing, will continue to be led by Stephanie Cassi. Egawa has long served as Xumo’s chief operating officer, joining the company in 2014 from Panasonic, which had acquired Xumo as a joint venture ahead of Comcast.